Tuesday, June 2, 2015

2015 NBA Draft Collective Rankings: June 2nd

June is finally here, but the NBA Finals have yet to begin after a very long layover.  It's the perfect time to see where the players rank again this month.  You can see how the rankings shook down last month here. These rankings consist of averaging the rankings of my three favorite NBA draft big boards (DraftExpress.comNBADraft.net, and ESPN's Chad Ford).

Keep in mind, these are top rankings, not a mock draft.  The NBA Draft Lottery gave Minnesota the top spot, followed by the Lakers and Sixers, but we're not interested in what each team will do individually.  From a purely academic standpoint, we're hoping to rank the best players in the long term.  If one might perform a "re-draft" 8 years from now, it will be fun to look back to see how close these pre-draft boards had been.

Player Pos. School Class Average Std Dev.
Karl-Anthony Towns C Kentucky Fr. 1 0
Jahlil Okafor C Duke Fr. 2 0
D'Angelo Russell PG Ohio State Fr. 3 1
Emmanuel Mudiay PG Guangdong 1996 4 1
Justise Winslow SG/SF Duke Fr. 6 1
Mario Hezonja SG/SF FC Barcelona 1995 6 1
Kristaps Porzingis PF Cajasol Sevilla 1995 7 3
Willie Cauley-Stein C Kentucky Jr. 9 3
Stanley Johnson SF Arizona Fr. 9 1
Myles Turner C Texas Fr. 11 2
Devin Booker SG Kentucky Fr. 12 1
Trey Lyles PF Kentucky Fr. 13 6
Cameron Payne PG Murray St. So. 14 6
Frank Kaminsky C Wisconsin Sr. 14 5
Sam Dekker SF Wisconsin Jr. 15 1
Bobby Portis PF Arkansas So. 16 2
Jerian Grant PG Notre Dame Sr. 16 1
Kelly Oubre SF Kansas Fr. 18 1
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson SF Arizona So. 20 6
Kevon Looney PF UCLA Fr. 20 2
Tyus Jones PG Duke Fr. 21 8
Montrezl Harrell PF Louisville Jr. 23 1
Delon Wright PG/SG Utah Sr. 23 6
Justin Anderson SF Virginia Jr. 24 4
RJ Hunter SG Georgia St. Jr. 25 4
Chris McCullough PF Syracuse Fr. 28 6
Christian Wood PF UNLV So. 28 6
Jarell Martin PF LSU So. 29 2
Rashad Vaughn SG UNLV Fr. 31 11

Looks a lot like last month, but there are a couple of "Hot" names where guys are moving up the boards quickly.  There's also a name which has cooled quite a bit as of late.

Who's Hot: Devin Booker and Cameron Payne.  Each of these players have moved up four spots from last month.  Both are getting much more love from NBADraft.net and Chad Ford than they were getting before.  Jonathan Givony hasn't changed these guys as much on the Draft Express board, but they have moved up a bit there as well.  

Who's Not: Kelly Oubre.  Kelly has dropped eight spots on average, but all the boards have dropped him a similar amount.  For a kid with all the talent in the world, there just seems to be something missing.  My guess is that scouts may question his work ethic and instincts to play a winning brand of basketball.  He could be a "pendulum swing" type of pick for someone willing to play the risk/reward game with their draft pick.  

It will be fun to see how the mock drafts change over the next few weeks, but these big board rankings shouldn't change as much.  We'll see.