The 2015 NBA Draft is a few days away and that means we’re only a few days away from someone possibly hugging Adam Silver when he walks on the stage or even a player flashing the inside of his suit with his college jersey on the inside. The NBA Draft is an event that starts the next NBA season, in theory it’s the first big occasion after the NBA Finals. It’s the first chance everyone in the NBA world gets to think towards next season with a new talented piece to the selected rosters.
It’s our chance to see some of the top prospects from all around the world come to sit with their families and representation to celebrate the great accomplishment of getting drafted into the NBA. As always, the list has players that many people expect to go in the first 20 picks or so. None of these guys are expected to drop farther than 25 on our mock draft.
Following from ESPN’s Andy Katz.
The NBA is expected to invite at least 20 players to the draft Thursday in Brooklyn, with as many as three from national champion Duke, two from national runner-up Wisconsin and four representing 38-1 Kentucky, multiple sources with knowledge of the list said.
Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones will be in attendance, sources said. So, too, will Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, as well as Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker.
Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell, expected to be picked in the top four, as well as 7-foot-1 Latvian Kristaps Porzingis also will be in attendance, sources said.
Emmanuel Mudiay, who is from Dallas, signed at SMU but instead chose to play professionally in China, is also a lottery lock and a candidate to be picked among the top five. He joins Arizona’s Stanley Johnson, Texas’ Myles Turner, Murray State’s Cameron Payne and Kansas’ Kelly Oubre as invitees, sources said.
The rest of the invites, according to multiple sources, are expected to be Arizona’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Arkansas’ Bobby Portis, Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter and Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant.
Only four more days until we can finally see if Karl-Anthony Towns heads to the Minnesota Timberwolves, we’ll know what the New York Knicks and a few other teams do with their picks and finally, we can see if there will be any big draft day deals that could possibly change the landscape of the NBA next year.
The 2015 NBA Draft will take place on Thursday June 25th on ESPN at 8pm.
