NBA Draft 2018: 5 first round prospects on the rise

The week of the NBA Draft is full of lies and misinformation. This piece cuts through the noise and clues you in on five players moving up NBA Draft boards.

As the NBA Draft grows nearer, it’s safe to assume we’ll start to hear more and more reports linking various prospects with NBA franchises that supposedly love or hate them. With a day to go, draft boards are actually starting to stabilize. Inevitably, that still leaves room for some prospects to make late charges to increase their draft stock.

Typically speaking, late-risers fall into one of two categories. Some prospects fall through the cracks because they don’t get a ton of exposure early in the pre-draft process. They might be international players, guys recovering from injuries or just someone whose agent kept them away from workouts for a variety of reasons. Sometimes keeping some mystery around a prospect helps him rise up draft boards late.

The other sort of player is someone who just starts to blow teams away with their workouts. Sometimes this is a product of legitimate skill development. A big man might really improve his jumper after working on it tirelessly for several weeks.

Read More: 2018 NBA Draft Tracker

On the other hand, this can also be a simple product of a prospect’s good luck. Sometimes guys just happen to get hot at the right time. Playing your best basketball for the two weeks immediately preceding the NBA Draft is a great way to get selected higher than you actually should.

Without further delay, here are five players who stand a good chance of going higher than most fans expect on draft night. Some teams will be entirely justified in taking these guys above their projections. Other teams will undoubtedly be making a serious mistake by increasing a prospect’s stock so late in the process.