NBA Mock Draft 2017, Week 20: The Sweet Sixteen edition
By Chris Stone
New order, new destinations. This is our latest mock 2017 NBA Draft.
The NBA draft dominoes started to fall this week as more players began to declare their intentions. The biggest surprise came Tuesday when Texas A&M’s Robert Williams announced his plans to return to school for his sophomore season. Williams was a projected lottery pick who would have been the best rim protector in the class. His decision to stay will have significant ramifications for himself, the Aggies and the 2017 NBA Draft.
As usual the draft order has been determined using FiveThirtyEight’s season-long projections and no changes have been made to the lottery.
Here’s a look at our latest mock 2017 NBA Draft.
Markelle Fultz
PG, Washington
With his team missing out on the NCAA Tournament, Markelle Fultz has already declared his intention to enter the NBA Draft. The 18-year old is the clear favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick. He averaged 26.0 points, 6.6 assists and 6.4 rebounds in his lone college season.
Fultz is an incredibly creative ball-handler who can split double teams out of pick-and-roll, attack in isolation and create for himself from every spot on the floor. He’s comfortable scoring at all three levels and already shoots it well off the dribble. Fultz also made 41.6 percent of his 3-point attempts this season despite a poor performance from the foul line. That number will almost certainly slip in the NBA, but it’s hard to imagine it dropping to bad levels. His passing is also more creative than many give him credit for.
Defensively, Fultz has some problems that relate to attentiveness and consistent effort. His size (6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan) should allow him to hide on poor perimeter players if it comes to it, but he has the skills to be good if stays engaged. Fultz blocked quite a few shots and created a good number of steals for the Huskies despite the lacking effort.