The Strickland staff got back together to mock draft again, only this time, they each took ownership of teams with trades allowed. How did each guy do? Well, we asked a panel of experts to weigh in.

Welcome back to The Strickland’s 2020 NBA Mock Draft! Last time, a group of our draft experts got together to assess the needs of each of the teams in the draft and create a consensus mock. This time, however, a number of Stricklandites had the teams in the draft doled out amongst them, and carte blanche (minus one veto) to make trades to their hearts’ desires. Below are the results, with the team “owners” hidden:

The Draft Board

The Trades

Rather than our drafters trying to justify themselves immediately, we asked a panel of experts to come in blind and offer their assessments of our mock draft: Jonathan Macri of Knicks Film School (and The Strickland!), Will Morris of Will Morris Hoops, and PD Web of Prospect Development Web. Below are their unfiltered takes on the Strickland Mock Draft 2.0:

Which teams jump out as winners and losers? Why?

Macri: My first reaction was that the Wolves didn’t get much for the first overall pick, but then again, it’s the first overall pick in this draft, so maybe it’s not that bad. The Cleveland/Orlando deal put me on my ass, though. Collin Sexton may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and yes, I suppose there’s a chance he’s simply not a player who’s going to help you win games, but my Lord is this selling low. Not to mention Cleveland’s also giving up the best player in the deal (albeit an expensive one) in Kevin Love. Between them and the fifth pick, I think you can pretty easily argue that Orlando is getting the three best assets in this trade.

Will: This isn’t too sexy, but Washington immediately strikes me as a major winner here. The Wizards are one of the most, if not the most wing-starved team in the NBA. They were also historically terrible on the defensive end. Devin Vassell is a wing who happens to be the best team defender in this class by a wide margin. Washington is in dire need of someone with his ground coverage abilities, communication and instincts as an off-ball roamer. If he stays on his current development trajectory and his self-creation skills continue to develop, this is a major steal. They also snagged Nate Hinton in the 2nd, another great team-defending wing with an outlier motor. 

PD: On the draft end, the Hawks jump out as a winner. It’s not that the PHX/ATL trade has a loser — PatWill fits great with the Suns — but to pursue two different timelines with one move is great for their really complex future. The flexibility of a wing to boost some early wins, a back-up point guard to be a functional NBA player and a Poku really helps more than a single player could at the 6 spot. The loser is Detroit: they made a great value trade to get three picks for one, but the board broke real shitty for them, with no high upside swing or instant impact starter available; they compounded that problem by taking two guards who might not be able to play together. It’s a rough play on a bad beat.

Any particular player-team fits you like here?

Macri: Hali on Dallas and Deni on San Antonio stand out pretty quickly (although I don’t think either player slips to within 5 or 6 spots of where they fell to).

Will: Flynn fills so many holes for this Sixers team. He provides much-needed pull-up shooting and self-creation from the backcourt. He’s also more than capable of playing off-ball next to their two stars. Another note: Riller + Shai = rim pressure/pace/body control galore. 

PD: I love almost every fit in the teens. Green to the Celtics is great. Bane to the Bucks. Hali to the Mavs. Riller to the Thunder. This draft has a turn of interesting parts in a Rube Goldberg sense, as long as there is the wider fit for use: the point guard who can’t get paint touches or the slasher who doesn’t finish left-handed need specific situations to succeed, and these are all exactly that.

There were a lot of trades. Which seem realistic? Do you anticipate a fluid trade market, even if it isn’t quite as chaotic as what happened here?

Macri: I think you’ll see trades of a smaller variety, except up top, where my over/under on the number of top-three picks traded would be 1.5. As for the trades you guys came up with, the Phoenix/Atlanta is the only one I could actually see happening, although I’m not sure I agree with who either team took afterwards. If I were Phoenix and I wanted Pat, I’d bet on him falling, as I think the Detroit stuff (which I’ve heard myself from multiple sources) may be smoke.

Will: You never know what could happen, but I’m not anticipating too many trade-ups on draft day. This class isn’t viewed as being particularly strong at the top, so while teams picking early might want to trade down, who is going to want to trade up? The most I’m expecting is something similar to the #6 for #11 and Dario Šarić trade between Minnesota and Phoenix last year, which the Suns-Hawks trade that you guys came up with resembles. A deal similar to that one structurally seems feasible. 

PD: I’ll confess to being always trade averse with mock drafts — finding consensus value is nigh impossible — but, uh, Cleveland may have traded away the three best players in a deal? And I love Chuma’s upside, but… it’s a tough scene. IRL, I think that the cap situation is gonna send some owners into panic as their new tax bill approaches and it’s likely that teams may shake things up with more financial motives than basketball ones. 

A few rebuilding teams completely reconfigured their cores, and a few competing teams loaded up on useful playoff players. Who do you think really set their team up well? 

Macri: I mean, if the Nets actually got David Griffin drunk and/or high enough to do this trade, they set themselves up as favorites next season, so good for them. Nesmith would help LA next year, and Deni to the Spurs could be the jolt they need to get them back on track as a franchise (although again, I think he goes 2 before he goes 11)

Will: This Nets team looks really damn good. Jrue Holiday is obviously great, and Lonzo Ball could be a cool linking piece. Their 26th pick, Xavier Tillman, will help them win games immediately. 

PD: Orlando got a hell of a lot more fun. I have no idea how it would work on on a possession-by-possession basis offensively, but they got a roster of real pieces destined to be more than an NBATV series in the East. Okoro, Kelle and Isaac on defense? Wild. I’ll say, I think one team that didn’t make a move and is worse for it is Indiana. Maybe the most- or second-most likely team to recalibrate their whole shit this summer (winter?,) and in a simulated market where seemingly everything was on the table it seems that Indy neither got better to get up against the Heat/Bucks/Nets/76ers nor got worse to enter the Cade Cunningham Sweepstakes.  

Any that you think were disastrous? It’s OK, don’t hold back.  

Macri: I’ve commented on a few of the trades and players who I think slipped too far (add Obi to that list, by the way — I’m not a fan, but 15 is absurd), so just as far as guys who went too early, Cole Anthony at 12 stands out.

Will: The closest thing to a disaster here is probably what the Pistons did. Cole’s a really dynamic shooter, but given his burst, finishing, and decision-making issues, I don’t think he has a future as a high-usage initiator. Dotson in the early 2nd is pretty bland to me. He’s small, limited vertically and doesn’t have the strongest shooting profile. Hey, at least they’ll get an early lottery pick next year. 

PD: I don’t really understand what the Sacramento plan is? Trading up to get a big doesn’t really jibe with where they are on assets or teambuilding, especially with Vassell on the board. While I think Yek is awesome as a prospect, I don’t know how he makes the theory of Sacramento better without a Bagley or Buddy trade to re-form the roster. Maybe a larger move fell through at the last minute, but this feels very KANGZ.

Which teams were clearly drafting and trading whilst off the Henny?

Macri: I think everyone from about 10 to 17 just passed the Henny down the line (or the Courvoisier, if you will), because Hali on Dallas, to me, is unfair. I have their championship over/under in the Luka era at 2.5 right now, and this might push it over 3. Just a spectacular fit. The best gift they’ve gotten since, well...yeah. 

Will: Cleveland must’ve been under the influence. I’m not against shipping off the three pieces they traded. Unfortunately, that return package isn’t too hot, and then they drafted Obi, who’ll turn 23 this year and severely limits them from a team building perspective (even if 15 for Obi may be “good value”). It feels like this team has no direction. 

PD: Drafting James Wiseman number two is not a sober decision.

Support our panel of experts!

Jonathan Macri writes the Knicks Film School newsletter daily, and recently launched an extremely affordable subscription model to receive the full-service KFS newsletter experience. He also hosts the Knicks Film School Podcast, and, oh yeah, he writes for The Strickland about once a week. Follow him on Twitter at @JCMacriNBA.

Will Morris writes about the NBA Draft, mostly on his blog Will Morris Hoops. You can find him on Twitter at @w_a_morris.

PD Web writes about the NBA Draft, mostly on his Prospect Development Web Patreon page. PD is nice enough to offer all of his content for free there, but if you like his work, please consider sending a few bucks his way. PD can be found on Twitter at @abovethebreak3.

Stay tuned, soon we’ll release which Stricklandites drafted for which teams, and offer our justifications for our picks and trades! In the meantime, roast or praise your favorite moves in the comments!