It is finally NBA Draft day. And here is our official prediction. Who will the Orlando Magic take and how will the NBA Draft go? Let’s Mock Draft!
The NBA Draft is finally here.
All the hand-wringing, anticipation, hope, fear, rumors, frustration and Woj Bombs will collide at 7 p.m. for roughly four or five hours in the NBA’s version of the futures market. The favored buzz words — length, athleticism, upside — will have their last utterances for the next year.
This annual tradition is both silly and exhilarating. Like the trade deadline, this is a point in the year when every team is thinking about how to improve their roster and they see a deadline to make it happen. Add in the time pressures of the Draft and the ticking clock and things get . . . weird.
This year’s Draft has already been pretty weird. The Boston Celtics traded the No. 1 overall pick. The New York Knicks are thinking of trading franchise player Kristaps Porzingis. The Charlotte Hornets acquired Dwight Howard. The Los Angeles Lakers dumped Timofey Mozgov, but had to give up D’Angelo Russell to do so.
And that has not even gotten into the rumors surrounding Paul George, Jimmy Butler, DeAndre Jordan, Andre Drummond and LaMarcus Aldridge.
With all that going on, it is understandable why Orlando Magic fans are a little frustrated the Magic are not leaking their activity. Things have gone very quiet from Orlando’s camp. No one seems to know what they are going to do. It is hard to predict.
Believe me, the last few days leading into the Draft have been agonizing. I know who I want the Magic to pick, but it is unclear which direction they lean. I have gone between several different players the last few days.
But now is the time to make decisions. The 2017 NBA Draft is tonight. It is time to make decisions and put pen to paper. It is time to run my final mock draft.
I have participated in several live mock drafts in the last few weeks. It has taught me a lot about how this Draft will go and the options ahead of the Magic. They will have the opportunity to trade up and there are a few players I like in the late lottery.
But much of the focus is rightly on the sixth overall pick and the potential held within it. The Magic have a chance to draft a really good player. And they will likely have a decision between several potentially really good players. The Magic are in a good spot.
Who will they pick? It is time for me to take my best guess.