With the third pick in last nights draft Washington Wizards selected shooting guard Bradley Beal out of Florida. He earned a runaway endorsement from Beltway Sports contributors. We’re all very excited that he is on the team now. Here is the first look at Beal in a Wizards uniform:
What a perfect fit. Beal has a good chance to be my favorite Wizard ever. This team has a chance to be competent. You’d be surprised how exciting that idea is to Wizards fans.
So with the draft less than a few hours away I wanted to just put out my opinions on all of the top draft prospects out there in this year’s NBA draft. Obviously there are a wide range of opinions on all of these guys and really these opinions can’t be evaluated for probably another ten years but at the very least it will be cool to look back on how I thought all of these guys would turn out:
With the draft 20 days away, I figured I would put out my first mock draft of the year. I made this mock draft using ESPN.com’s draft machine. I based this mock draft on team needs and what each player brings to the table, as well as potential for each player. Here it is-
| 1 | Anthony Davis 6’10″ PF, Kentucky- HORNETS |
| 2 | Thomas Robinson 6’9″ PF, Kansas- BOBCATS |
| 3 | Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 6’7″ SF, Kentucky- WIZARDS |
| 4 | Bradley Beal 6’5″ SG, Florida- CAVALIERS |
| 5 | Harrison Barnes 6’8″ SF, North Carolina- KINGS |
The most anxiety inducing ten minutes of the NBA season is now over, the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets have won the top choice in the draft and will be selecting Kentucky’s Anthony Davis in June. Color me shocked, conspiracies abound. Anyway, here is Chad Ford’s new updated Mock Draft. The Wizards had the second best odds in the draft but fell to the third spot. Honestly, this is almost insignificant and might end up being a good thing for the team. Allow me to venture through tonight’s implications:
Even though the Wizards are finishing the season strong and are now on a 3 game winning streak (the highest in the Eastern conference), it seems as if it may not matter as the teams chasing them continue to win as well. After the Cavaliers victory over the Knicks on Friday night, the Hornets are now the only team that can catch the Wiz for that 2nd lottery spot. This means therefore that the Wizards will automatically have either the 2nd or 3rd best spot in the lottery and their pick will be somewhere between 1-6. The last 3 games will decide if the worst spot they can get is 5th. Here are how the standings read now:
The NBA draft isn’t until June 28th and I am well aware of that but after watching all of this NCAA tournament action I am fired up at seeing all of the talent that the Wizards will have to choose from in this upcoming draft. While it is too early to tell which players will stay and which will go, I am going to assume that all of these players will declare for the NBA draft before the April 29th deadline as they are almost sure-fire top ten picks. As for the Wizards selection is a little complicated because of the way the NBA does it with the lottery but right now we have the 2nd worst record in the league and only have a realistic possibility of having the 2nd or 3rd worst records in the league by seasons end (either us or the Hornets). That being said it is almost a guarantee that we will have a pick somewhere between 1 and 6. I think the Wizards selection will come down to these 7 players that I am about to outline for you, who they select will depend on who is available and what pick they end up getting. I am going to rank the players and divide them into tiers of players I think they are pretty equal with so you will know who I think the Wizards should pick.
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