Sports Business Classroom

On June 22, the NBA will hold its annual draft, pulling from an impressive domestic and global talent pool. As prospects continue to play, how do they rank as potential draft prospects? Six Sports Business Classroom alumni (Elias Eldridge, Ron Gutterman, Gabriel Mendez, Aaron Pearlstein, Max Rosenberg and Jordan Silbert) have mocked both rounds, plus two bonus picks, based on the player evaluation, intel and heated (but friendly) debate. After several players pulled out of the draft to return to school, version 5.0 of the SBC Mock Draft is ready two weeks before the big day. While Mock 1.0 and Mock 2.0 were ranked on an average of each SBC scout’s individual selections, Mock 3.0 was a collaborative effort to build out the best draft board through the top 60 (though only 58 will be made on draft night with the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers forfeiting their second-round selections). Mock 4.0 added intel gathering from private and public sources. Mock 5.0 accounted for players pulling their names from the pool. Additionally, an AI-generated (pre-lottery) first-round mock was also generated as a control.