2016 NBA Mock Draft: Prospects Facing Major Fall Down Draft Boards

Fifteen NBA teams are currently in full offseason mode. They’re planning their free-agency strategies, booking rooms for the draft combine and, heck, sometimes even looking for the decision-makers who will be handling all that fun stuff.

The draft process in particular takes on a more interesting tack this season. College players are now able to enter their names in the draft an unlimited amount of times and can choose to return to school any time between now and 10 days after May’s combine—provided they don’t hire representation. That means the player pool is going to be bigger than ever.

That, for all of us, means hours and hours of extra research. Luckily, I am the type of person who is 100 percent willing to spend my Saturday nights watching Synergy film rather than, like, talking to other humans in a social setting. 

With that in mind, here’s a look at the latest outlook for June’s draft.

Mock Draft

Big Board

Top-Five Analysis

1. Philadelphia 76ers: SF/PF Ben Simmons, LSU

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The debate about who should go No. 1 is silly. The answer has been Simmons since jump street and remains Simmons. Brandon Ingram closed the gap with a stellar freshman season at Duke, but this shouldn’t be a debate.

Simmons has the potential of a transformational superstar. He’s an elite athlete who fills up the stat sheet unlike many players we’ve ever seen at the collegiate level. While his decision to attend LSU proved ill-fated and his jumper is borderline nonexistent, Simmons was as advertised. If he can even become an average shooter at the next level, Simmons is going to be an All-Star Weekend mainstay.

This is exactly the type of player the Sixers spent the last three years punting victories for. Finishing second in the lottery would be a fine consolation, but Simmons should re-establish himself as the true prize of this class in the coming months.

2. Los Angeles Lakers: SF Brandon Ingram, Duke

Of the two, the Lakers would likely prefer Simmons. He not only has a higher upside overall, but he projects as a better long-term defender. The Lakers already drafted offense-first players in D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle the last couple of years, so adding Simmons’ versatility would be ideal.

Ingram is still quite the find at No. 2. He in some ways projects as a Kevin Durant lite. Listed at 6’9″ by DraftExpress and with the frame of a man built of bendy straws, the 196-pound Ingram needs to work on his strength, his biggest weakness. (See what I did there?) He’s going to get beat around a bit early in his career—even as the game gets smaller and smaller. 

When you get past the slight weaknesses, though, Ingram is a 20-point scorer in the making. He already has a …

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