This week on Bleav in Wizards, we mocked the entire first round. Whom did we select with the first pick?
On this week’s Bleav in Wizards podcast, we completed a mock draft of the first round in preparation for the 2022 NBA Draft. Dominique Nelson of the Wizards of Gallery Place podcast and our own Osman Baig joined me for the exercise.
We did not know who each other would pick and we randomly generated the draft order right before starting to record. Baig picked first, Nelson second, I went third, back to Baig fourth, and so on.
We opted for no trades for this exercise and strictly picked as if that team would be making that selection on draft night. It has been widely reported that Sacramento is likely to explore trading their 4th overall pick to either move down or acquire veteran talent in an attempt to be more competitive next season. Based on that, the 4th pick in our draft was made with the idea of who might be most ready to help them win right away.
Players like Dyson Daniels have been rumored to be rapidly moving up draft boards and that also showed up in our mock draft, as he went 8th to New Orleans. Daniels has been a popular name amongst Wizards fans so that took one potential option off the board for them. Bennedict Mathurin, another commonly suggested name, went one pick before Daniels. That left Baig, who picked for the Wizards at 10, with a tough choice.
He ultimately decided on Johnny Davis, the Big 10 Player of the Year out of Wisconsin. Once again, the idea of taking a total project didn’t seem representative of Tommy Sheppard’s thinking given the Wizards’ impending commitment to Bradley Beal.
With that preface out of the way, here’s our mock draft. Let us know what you think, who we missed on, and who are your sleepers outside of the first-round range.
- Orlando (Baig): Chet Holmgren, 7-0, Gonzaga, 20.14 years (all ages are their age on draft night)
- Oklahoma City (Nelson): Jabari Smith, 6-10, Auburn, 19.1 years
- Houston (Modderno): Paolo Banchero, 6-10, Duke, 19.6 years
- Sacramento (Baig): Keegan Murray, 6-8, Iowa, 21.84 years
- Detroit (Nelson): Jaden Ivey, 6-4, Purdue, 20.3 years
- Indiana (Modderno): Shaedon Sharpe, 6-5.25, Kentucky, 18.9 years
- Portland (Baig): Bennedict Mathurin, 6-6, Arizona, 19.9 years
- New Orleans (Nelson): Dyson Daniels, 6-7.5, G League Ignite, 19.2 years
- San Antonio (Modderno): Jeremy Sochan, 6-9, Baylor, 19 years
- Washington (Baig): Johnny Davis, 6-5.75, Wisconsin, 20.2 years
- New York (Nelson): Malaki Branham, 6-5.5, Ohio State, 19 years
- Oklahoma City (Modderno): Jalen Duren, 6-11, Memphis, 18.5 years
- Charlotte (Baig): Mark Williams, 7-2, Duke, 20.4 years
- Cleveland (Nelson): Ochai Agbaji, 6-5.75, Kansas, 22.1 years
- Charlotte (Modderno): A.J. Griffin, 6-6, Duke, 18.7 years
- Atlanta (Baig): Tari Eason, 6-8, LSU, 21 years
- Houston (Nelson): Ousmane Dieng, 6-10, New Zealand, 19 years
- Chicago (Modderno): E.J. Liddell, 6-7, Ohio State, 21.4 years
- Minnesota (Baig): TyTy Washington, 6-3.75, Kentucky, 20.5 years
- San Antonio (Nelson): Nikola Jovic, 6-11, Mega Bemax, 18.9 years
- Denver (Modderno): Jalen Williams, 6-5.75, Santa Clara, 21.1 years
- Memphis (Baig): Kennedy Chandler, 6-0.75, Tennessee, 19.7 years
- Brooklyn (Nelson): MarJon Beauchamp, 6-6.5, G League Ignite, 20.6 years
- Milwaukee (Modderno): Jake LaRavia, 6-8, Wake Forest, 20.6 years
- San Antonio (Baig): Walker Kessler, 7-1, Auburn, 20.8 years
- Dallas (Nelson): Kendall Brown, 6-7.5, Baylor, 19 years
- Miami (Modderno): Christian Braun, 6-7, Kansas, 21.1 years
- Golden State (Baig): David Roddy, 6-6, Colorado State, 21.2 years
- Memphis (Nelson): Wendell Moore Jr., 6-5.5, Duke, 20.7 years
- Oklahoma City (Modderno): Blake Wesley, 6-4.25, Notre Dame, 19.2 years