Mock Draft 1.0: First look at projecting the draft lottery

From early April to the middle of May the NBA Draft resides in a sort of limbo. With the NCAA Tournament concluded the tape on nearly all of the prospects is completed, and the next major step of the 2022 NBA Draft will be the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday, May 17th which sets into stone the order teams will be drafting in.

While there is very little new information trickling in, there is now time to take a breath and review the tape, profiles and context for all of the players in the NBA Draft. Early entrant players have now decided whether or not to toss their hats into the ring, and many could still return to school ahead of the June 1st cutoff date. For the most part, however, the field of players for this draft is known, especially at the lottery level.

The 2022 NBA Draft is less than two months away. How could we see the draft lottery play out in the first edition of our Mock Draft Monday?

Welcome to the first of our Mock Draft Mondays here at King James Gospel. From now until the night of the draft itself, June 23rd, we’ll post a series of mock drafts evaluating everything from the lottery to the entire two-round draft. Our 1.0 edition here looks quickly at the draft lottery, which is the first 14 picks. The order is based on each team’s lottery odds; the actual draft lottery will surely shake things up a bit.

That means the Houston Rockets will pick first here, a distinction that has ripple effects through the rest of the lottery. There are four players who could all go first overall depending on who wins the top pick. In this scenario, the Rockets take a player who has been in contention for the top slot for years.