Michigan Basketball: NBA mock draft, Wolverines edition
Three Michigan basketball players declared for the NBA draft and here’s where the experts believe they will land.
Charles Matthews and Jordan Poole are officially putting Michigan basketball in their rearview mirror; however, Ignas Brazdiekis had a decision to make and he has to make it quick.
Among the many new NBA and NCAA rules, players can now hire an agent and try to get a fair assessment as to where they might be taken in the draft. When undergraduates declare for the NBA draft, their name is provided to the Undergraduate Advisory Committee (UAC) who “will now provide written feedback to players and their coaches.
The feedback is gathered by sending NBA executives a series of emails with a list of names and requesting their team’s assessment of players’ draft stock. The player is then informed of the NBA executives’ responses, ranging from likely lottery pick to undrafted.”
The new rules also state if the player wants to go back to college, they have to remove their name from consideration by May 29th.
In addition to the new declaration rules, the draft itself is changing. Two years ago, the NBA approved changes to the draft which will be implemented this year.
The great writing staff at the NBA explained the new rules:
"Under the revamped format, the NBA Draft Lottery will ensure that the team with the worst record will receive no worse than the fifth pick. Under the pre-2019 system, the team with the worst record would pick no lower than fourth. The new system will level the odds at the top of the NBA Draft Lottery so that the teams with the three worst regular-season records will each have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery. In the pre-2019 structure, the top seed had a 25 percent of winning the lottery, the second seed had a 19.9 percent and the third seed had a 15.6 percent. The odds for the remaining participants in the 14-team lottery will be reduced gradually after the top three. For instance, the difference in lottery odds between the first three seeds (14 percent) and the fourth seed (12.5 percent) will be 1.5 percent. The difference between the fourth seed and the fifth seed (10.5 percent) will be 2 percent, and the difference between the fifth seed and the sixth seed (9 percent) will be 1.5 percent. After drawings are conducted for the first four picks of the NBA Draft, the other lottery teams will continue to pick in inverse order of their regular-season record."
While we all know Zion Williamson will be picked No.1, no team is guaranteed that pick which many speculate is the goal of the new rules; to prevent the tank for Zion mentality.
Since Zion didn’t play for Michigan, let’s see where the Wolverines will be taken.