Our 2014 NBA Mock Draft

 

via Sophie & cie on Flickr

Chris and I have thrown around the idea of writing a collaborative mock draft for a few years now.

At least from my perspective, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, as I’ve read thousands of mock drafts over the years in all different leagues, but my interest in creating my own NBA mock would always go from excitement to procrastination to frustration to regret to disappointment after the fact. In the few times I’ve actually sat down and tried to record some thoughts on draft picks or draft scenarios, the sheer ambition and time-sensitive nature of the project overwhelmed and I could never gain any traction. This year we decided to alternate picks. This back-and-forth mock draft allows us to not only split the league and the workload but to address some offseason issues for these franchises and describe their draft philosophies with context.

We decided to write about these picks and the teams making them from three perspectives: What I’d Do, What I Think They’d Do and what Crazy Trades I think are available. It’s no secret that we don’t have any team sources. We’re only claiming to be experts as in to say we watch too much basketball and love to talk/write about it.  

This exercise is meant to be a reflection of the draft itself and to give us an outlet to write about the off-seasons of these franchises. We’re working off the same information that’s out there for everyone but by attempting to approach it from different angles maybe we can make some sense in identifying these teams’ thought processes.

At first, we tried keeping our comments to draft capsules and maybe a paragraph per point of view, but soon found ourselves diverging more from that template. These write-ups will vary in length depending on the picks and angles we can approach them from, as Chris and I both have our own theories and scenarios we’re excited to write about. We’ve kept the collaboration to a minimum in our own ongoing drafting process, even when making trades, and have tried to approach picks/trades as rationally as possible and based on reported rumors before the draft.

It's also a way for us to get to know these players. 35-45 fresh faces will come out of this draft and only increase the already-stacked level of talent currently in the league. Being able to spend a little bit of time with each of these players and get to know their game before the draft happens will be fun.  

The amount of picks we post per day might vary in the week and a half leading up to the draft but we’re planning on releasing at least two per day with the lottery teams. Some pieces vary more in length so that might also determine our posting schedule but we realize that consistency is the key to this project and will have all content up by the draft next Thursday, June 26.

Again, I’ve been personally looking forward to working on a project of this magnitude for years now and I hope that what we lack in inside sourcing we can make up for in entertaining scenarios and a sound thought process. Hitting on a pick or trade prediction would be nice too, but almost hopeless. If Chad Ford or others with legitimate contacts can’t do it, then I doubt we can either. But we’re going to have some fun with these teams and leave them in a better place than when we started.

We thank you in advance for reading and encourage conversation in the comments section with your ideas on how to better these teams too. Or just harass Chris and myself on Twitter.

This is our 2014 NBA Mock Draft. The Cleveland Cavaliers (that's you, Chris) are on the clock...