NBA Draft Big Board 1.0: Three players in the top tier

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Bennedict Mathurin, Arizona Wildcats. Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images /

NBA Draft Big Board 1.0: Tier 3

7. Bennedict Mathurin, Wing, Arizona

NBA teams need wings who can hit outside shots and defend the opposing team’s best perimeter players. Those players stick around in the NBA and always have a job. If you can build on that, to bring some shot creation and interior scoring to the table, then you become the kind of player who elevates a team to greater heights. Bennedict Mathurin took a big step forward this season, improving as a scorer. If his defense , which slipped some this year as he took on a major offensive role, comes back as he settles into a lower rung on an NBA pecking order he could be a highly valuable and scaleable player.

8. A.J. Griffin, Wing/Forward, Duke

A.J. Griffin was once in play for the top pick in this draft, but then multiple significant lower-body injuries knocked him out of basketball for nearly two years and seem to have sapped some of his athleticism. Even so, Griffin was one of the best shooters in the country this season, and he still has the skill set of an offensive engine with scoring and ball-handling. If he can regain most of that athleticism then he could still be a focal-point star; if not he will be a knockdown shooter, giving him a high floor as a prospect.

9. Tari Eason, Forward, LSU

The first eight players on this Big Board are likely in every major draft pundit’s top 10 or so, but here is the first deviation from consensus as Tari Eason leaps up to ninth. The LSU forward did it all for the Tigers this season, scoring 16.9 points on strong efficiency while adding 3.1 “stocks” (steals and blocks) per game. He played a lot of smallball center in college but has enough skill to slide to the perimeter, and his relentless play on both ends of the court will translate to helping his teams win. He lacks polish, is foul-prone and doesn’t have a tight handle, but the first two will come with experience and the latter just means he can’t be a team’s No. 1 option. A team that takes him and plugs him into an established offensive hierarchy will get a major return on investment.

10. Dyson Daniels, Guard, G-League Ignire

We depart the hallways of the NCAA for the top G-League Ignite prospect in this class, 6’6″ guard Dyson Daniels. One year after Josh Giddey gave his draft class an elite “big” playmaker the 2022 group gets the same in Daniels. He can make advanced reads with the ball in his hands and manipulate defenders, and his tight handle allows him to navigate his way through a defense until he is ready to dime-up his teammate. Defensively he is long and knows exactly where to be. The issues are that he lacks any sort of outside shot and isn’t an elite athlete; that combination makes it very difficult to see him as a high-level scoring threat at the NBA level.