The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is rapidly approaching its final stages. Meanwhile, the NBA season is quickly nearing the playoffs and NBA Mock Draft season is upon us.
There are some projections that will not be surprises and likely will not experience change throughout this process. The name that comes most to mind is Cade Cunningham, who managed to solidify himself as the clear-cut No. 1 overall pick early in the NCAA men’s basketball season with Oklahoma State.
The G League Ignite team was a new development for prospects like Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga to participate in as an alternative to NCAA men’s basketball. It will be fascinating to see if NBA scouts weigh having less efficient seasons against professional competition in a much different perspective after more clearly seeing weaknesses compared to their collegiate counterparts.
Meanwhile, there were some players who put together truly impressive individual runs in NCAA March Madness and improved their draft stock. Perhaps none more than Butler’s Davion Mitchell will benefit from this due to playing in front of nationally televised audience and being a key element to his team’s continued success.
The NBA Draft Lottery typically has a few significant shake-ups in the selection order, especially after the recent rule changes. Overall, there could be plenty of changes to the outlook of some player’s projection depending on how the actual order ends up playing out.
Teams will still have an opportunity to improve and worsen their odds in the stretch-run of the NBA season, which could chance NBA Mock Draft projections. Some teams tend to commit to ‘tanking’ to close out the season by shutting down veteran contributors around this portion of the season while others try to compete for the playoffs.
Let’s take a look at NBA Analysis Network’s latest 2021 NBA Mock Draft projections based on the current lottery odds determining the selection order.
