2018 NBA Mock Draft: Knicks go big with Mo Bamba

We’re going with the “it only takes one team” theme this week, and the pairing of Simons and Brooklyn fits that idea.

To be fair, Simons is right around this range on most of the big sites’ boards, but I maintain some concerns about his future that squeeze him into the second round for me. That said, it’s tough to imagine a better environment for Simons to enter than that in Brooklyn. Bombing away and being gifted minutes, Simons would be able to learn the NBA game coming straight from high school while getting the green light to play the style he uses to punish conservative NBA defenses.

Not only are the most creative offensive teams green-lighting all their shooters across every position, they are mostly playing two ball-handlers together at all times. Simons’ spectacular potential on offense derives mostly from what could open up as a result of his pull-up jump shooting (think a smaller Damian Lillard). That’s much the same as what is so appealing about current Net D’Angelo Russell. Imagine them together.

Brooklyn can start to be really aggressive in the summer of 2019, when they will own their pick and Russell, Jeremy Lin and DeMarre Carroll will each be free agents. This year, they can take a chance with the future in mind with a pick like Simons.