Here is the lottery projection to begin the college basketball season:

1. Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA, SG
2. Nerlens Noel, Kentucky, C
3. Cody Zeller, Indiana, C
4. Rudy Gobert, International, PF/C
5. James McAdoo, North Carolina, PF
6. Isiah Austin, Baylor, C
7. Tony Mitchell, North Texas, PF
8. Alex Poythress, Kentucky, PF
9. B.J. Young, Arkansas, SG
10. Archie Goodwin, Kentucky, SG
11. C.J. Leslie, NC State, SF/PF
12. Mason Plumlee, Duke, PF
13. Alex Len, Maryland, C
14. Dario Saric, International, SF




Current Lottery Ball Standings:

Detroit Pistons 0-8 --
Washington Wizards 0-6 1
Cleveland Cavs 2-6 2
Toronto Raptors 2-6 2
Sacramento Kings 2-5 2.5
Orlando Magic 2-5 2.5
Portland Blazers 2-5 2.5

Alex Poythress BEASTING right now. Moving up the charts IMO.

Washington took Beal last year @ SG and the Cavs took Waiters @ SG,

If those two teams end up picking 1-2 they go Nerlens/Zeller IMO (or some other C who rises in the ranks) Maybe even Poythress.

The path looks clear for the Pistons to end up with Shabazz as long as they are picking in the top 3.

lol greear, nobody is passing up bazzy. he's the best prospect in the draft ainec

kinda strange to post pre-season rankings instead of current ones, but I guess you just wanna be able to compare the pre-season rankings to the final ones.

Alex Len has moved up on nearly everyone's board. For example, hes now #7 on draftexpress, #5 on Chad Ford's top 100, and #8 on nbadraft.net.

DE's Current Top 10

1 Shabazz Muhammad SG
19 years old, Freshman
6' 6" 223lbs.
UCLA

2 Nerlens Noel C
18 years old, Freshman
6' 11" 216lbs.
Kentucky

3 Cody Zeller C
20 years old, Sophomore
6' 11" 209lbs.
Indiana

4 Rudy Gobert PF/C
20 years old, International
7' 1" 235lbs.
Cholet

5 James McAdoo PF
19 years old, Sophomore
6' 9" 226lbs.
North Carolina

6 Isaiah Austin C
19 years old, Freshman
6' 11" 201lbs.
Baylor

7 Alex Len C
19 years old, Sophomore
7' 1" 225lbs.
Maryland

8 Tony Mitchell PF
20 years old, Sophomore
6' 8" 235lbs.
North Texas

9 Alex Poythress PF
Freshman
6' 8" 213lbs.
Kentucky

10 Archie Goodwin SG
18 years old, Freshman
6' 5" 195lbs.
Kentucky

I agree Len will move up if he continues to progress. Zeller and Austin were the only top tier bigs on most boards coming in to this year, so another one developing has room to fly up

id be surprised if the cavs take him

mcadoo may drop a bit as he continues to get exposed. archie goodwin looks like he'd be an OK late 1st rounder, seems insane to take him lotto though. i have nfi who rudy gorbert is either, so i'm leaving him off my rankings until i have further info.

1) Bazzy
2) Nerlens
3) lolCody
4) BJ Young
5) Austin
6) Tony Mitchell
7) Poythress
8) Gobert
9) Alex Len
10) Andre Roberson
11) Withey
12) Otto Porter
13) McAdoo
14) McCollum
15) CJ Leslie
16) Mason Plumlee

edit- seems Gobert is a 7'1 unpolished freak. we'll stick him 8th for now i guess

cavs FO is bad but not that bad. if he's as good as he's cracked up to be and nerlens doesn't start playing much better, he'll be snapped at #1 imo

I've read a lot of experts hating on the draft...I dunno I think it looks pretty good at the top. McAdoo is obv a fraud. Austin is a beast

Every year people say the current years draft sucks. People, in general, like to hate.

last draft was supposed to be epic but i was really disappointed when it finally shaped up and remain pessimistic still.

this draft looks pretty promising actually. lots of bigs with legit potential.

and +1 on wanting no part of mcadoo

this is dead on
this draft isn't really bad at all
neither was last year

nbadraft.net put an article out yesterday discussing players who have hurt/improved their draft stock so far this season: http://www.nbadraft.net/nba-draft-mock-tracker

My early big board:

1. Zeller
2. Shabazz
3. I Austin
4. Len
5. Noel
6. Poythress
7. T Mitchell
8. O Porter
9. Young
10. M Smart

Note: Gobert probably belongs on the list, but since I know nothing of him I excluded him(and all other foreigners). I'll learn more about him as we near draft time and will then include him on my rankings.

Gobert is a pretty big wildcard. 7'9" wingspan, what. French tho, could be the next Anjica. Appears to have some aggression in the few clips I've seen, just a whirl of crazy arms and legs

About Rudy Gobert

Jonathan Givony said of him in last year predraft european camp, he has never seen a player with his athletic abilities (7"2, 7"9 wingspan, and he can jump and run floor unlike many other big guys)

Obviously he needs 20 pounds of muscle to stand against nba players.

I watched some games of him in the french league, he's really raw offensively, but he shoot 80% from the floor. I think he can develop his game to more than lob pass and dunks under the rim.

Defensively, he's smart enough not to be a McGee like, he can do more than blocking shot.



Clearly he's a bit of a gamble, but my opinion is he can be one strong center in the league, and there's no way he'll be a bust like Thabeet.

Obviously nothing to compare with Ajinca, who was a soft big without any defensive abilities that was shooting bad ong jumper

If we look at the bad teams that might end with a pick between 4 to 7, and assuming nerlens, shabazz and cody are the top 3 picks, there's no way a team without a nice big man like the suns or magic or even the cavs if they trade varejao can pass on him.

Really hope the Suns can lockbox Mitchell or Poythress.

I think this draft is pretty bleh, but it could be OK if enough people boost their value between now and the draft. Last year's draft was supposed to be awesome until all of the top prospects disappointed. I got a feeling that we'll see somebody snag Withey late lotto w/o many great upside picks out there.

Marcus Smart is a good call, DX doesn't have him leaving until 2014 but he looks like a solid lotto pick this year.

DX is usually the most accurate pre-season rankings, and they are excellent as draft time nears. However, they are not great about quickly making adjustments during the season(particularly early on). I'm pretty sure that "2014 1st round" grade they have labeled Smart with was their pre-season grade and they haven't updated it yet. nbadraft.net or espn.com seem much better for early season changes, while DX takes a few days(or even weeks sometimes) to catch up.

gobert looks legit as fk. sign me up.

there are so many solid bigs in this draft.

nerlens, zeller, len, gobert, austin, adams.

i think most of this guys turn out solid making this draft look pretty good in like 5 yrs.

DE has gotten a little better at this, but agree it's slow

Where DE has really gotten ahead of everyone else is real in depth player analysis

no one has close to the amount of content on individual write-ups

There's no way I'd ever draft McAdoo over Poythress.

can't see zeller going #1. the trex is far too strong in him