SB Nation

The 2021 NBA Draft is behind us. That means it’s time to take our first look at the 2022 NBA Draft class. A year ago, Cade Cunningham was an obvious choice to eventually be the No. 1 overall pick when we did our early mock the day after the 2020 draft. The 2022 class is much more wide open at the top. The first 10 players on our board each have a legitimate chance to become the top pick with a strong season. While it currently seems unlikely this class will feature a prospect on the level of Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green, the 2022 class projects to have tremendous depth throughout the lottery. We like to do a big board for next year’s class the day after the draft every year. Sometimes it looks pretty good, like when we pegged Luka Doncic as the top player in 2018, Anthony Edwards at No. 1 in 2020, and Cunningham as the top pick in 2021. I’ve had some misses, too, with Emmanuel Mudiay, Skal Labissiere, Josh Jackson, and Cameron Reddish at No. 1 in previous years. You can find our day-after-the-draft early mocks for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 here.