I wish people would stop quoting NBAdraft.net as a reliable source. I do a lot on the NBA Draft and have known Aron Smith (who runs the site) for years, but in my opinion, it is ridiculous to have do a mock draft this early. If you recall they had Rodney #3 last year. NBADraft.net used to buy up the URLs of all the top players. One year they owned Carmelo Anthony.com, Darko Milicic.com. Amare Stoudemire.com, etc with the prospect of selling them to the players. If Carmelo Anthony is equal in every way to say Bleed Gopher, who do they rank higher Carmelo because they own the URL or Bleed Gopher, if they don't. I said something to Aron about this and they no longer buy up the URLs.
If you were to print out the early mock draft and look at it at the end of the year, it would not even look slightly the same. They had Willie Warren as a top five pick last year, B.J. Mullins the previous season. Neither player came close to being even a lottery pick and Warren was a second rounder this year.
I don't do a mock draft until all the players declare. My philosophy is to let the kids earn the hype. Several mock draft sites have incoming freshman like Harrison Barnes, Kyle Irving, Jared Sullinger and other dominating the lottery. Time will tell, but let the kids enjoy their college career. The minute Rodney was ranked #3, I can only imagine how many calls he got from friends, family, students and agents the minute that list came out. I love Rodney as a athlete and a kid, but he played 30 seconds in the NCAA Tournament. Let him earn his draft status.
