The glut of guards in the 5-10 range makes stock changes a little tricky to spot, but it seems like Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. is rising within that group.
Now, that’s not a universal opinion. Vecenie, for instance, has Brown falling to the Milwaukee Bucks at No. 10, a pick made after Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr., Houston’s Kingston Flemings and Arizona’s Brayden Burries are all off the board.
The other three mocks, though, all have Brown going no later than No. 8. Woo mocked Brown seventh while noting he “appears to be on solid footing going into next week and has had a positive predraft process” and mentioning he is “in play” for the fifth and sixth picks. O’Connor went a step further and mocked Brown No. 5 and wrote that “he is dominating workouts.”
Brown’s lone season of college ball wasn’t the most efficient you’ll ever see, but it was injury-impacted and still featured some truly jaw-dropping stuff. He might have the widest gap between peaks and valleys among prospects in this range, but that also means he might offer the most upside, and that often serves as the biggest driver behind draft decisions.
