The Downbeat #1029 - My Name is Giannis

We have so much fun with the NBA draft every year, at least I do. And if you are like me, you check mock drafts around the interwebs to see who they have the Jazz taking. I was wondering if these mock drafts are even remotely accurate, and if so, which are the most accurate? I decided to take 5 reputable nba draft sites and take their best mock drafts from the last 3 seasons and see how they did. I'm measuring them by how many lottery picks they guessed right, how many in the first round and how they did pegging the Jazz's picks. Here are the results:

Lottery Picks: 22/42 (52%)

1st Round Picks: 26/90 (29%)

Jazz Picks: Got Enes Kanter right; Missed on Alec Burks and Gordon Hayward

ESPN Insider- Chad Ford

Lottery Picks: 10/42 (24%)

1st Round Picks: 13/90 (14%)

Jazz Picks: None Correct

Lottery Picks: 20/42 (48%)

1st Round Picks: 22/90 (24%)

Jazz Picks: None Correct

Lottery Picks: 19/42 (45%)

1st Round Picks: 21/90 (23%)

Jazz Picks: Guessed Enes Kanter correctly

Sam Amick in 2011 and 2012 - Ian Thomsen in 2010

Lottery Picks: 19/42 (45%)

1st Round Picks: 21/90 (23%)

Jazz Picks: Amick guessed Enes correctly. Thomsen guessed Hayward pick correctly.

100%. On Everything.

The numbers for the 1st round guesses don't surprise me at all, but I was a little surprised at how many picks are missed in the lottery. I guess teams are pretty mum. The Jazz are obviously very secretive. Most had the Jazz taking Brandon Knight at 3. None had them taking Alec Burks. All of them, other than Thomsen had the Jazz drafting Ed Davis from UNC. I get the feeling that each of these mock draft sites, are either talking to the same team executives, are coming to the same logical conclusions, or just read each others' work and parrot it. I mean, nobody had MKG to the Bobcats, but everybody had Thomas Robinson. Everybody.

I think Chad Ford is really good at what he does and he appears to have a lot of contact with GMs personally. I wonder if that makes it harder for him to get a feel for the draft. He probably gets lied to a lot around June.

Now that we've established that Mock Drafts are mostly wrong, even right up before the draft, let's take a look at some guys that we are projected to take by these 5 sites, so we can know who the Jazz WON'T be drafting in June:

Kelly Olynyk

Sergey Karasev

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Steven Adams

Dario Saric

Dennis Schroder

So, sorry if you wanted the Jazz to draft any of those players, but Kevin O'Connor does not deal with mock draft sites, that reveal his drafting strategies.

Here is your obscure NBA draft prospect video of the day: Giannis Adetokunbo. He looks really good in these videos. They look like they are Grecian Church Ball Leagues.

In a year with so much fan frustration with the team and organization, I think it's important to point out the annual Larry H. Miller Day of Service that happened last Friday. Each year, the employees of the several Larry H. Miller Companies get together for a day of community service. Anytime a group with so much money and influence decides to give of themselves and their time, it should be recognized and commended. GM Dennis Lindsey mentioned how much he enjoyed serving in the community on his latest 1280 the zone interview. I just hope he didn't get too annoyed at all the LHM employees who probably asked him who he's going to draft and target in free agency whle painting houses and weeding. Here is a video put together by Jazz Employee Eric Bresee (@da_breezman) from last year:

I'm going to put 2 and 2 together here and allow you to get to 4:

The Cleveland Cavaliers just rehired Mike Brown to be their head coach.

Jerry Sloan comes to every Jazz home game still.

Jerry Sloan is interested in coaching in the NBA again.

Dennis Lindsey from his last interview on 1280 the Zone:

"I'm getting to know Coach Sloan, just a little bit, just from a few interactions and hope to get to know him well and much deeper as we go on here"

WELCOME BACK JERRY SLOAN AS THE NEXT UTAH JAZZ HEAD COACH!

(I don't really think this will happen. Just having some fun. In fact it will never happen. Not in a million years.)

I think we should try a massive get together this summer at a park or something. I think it would be fun to reserve a park with some outdoor basketball hoops and a pavilion and have a big hot dog roast and play a 3 on 3 tournament or something. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud here. If the staff of slcdunk were to put something like that together, would you be interested in attending and stepping out from behind your slcdunk avatar?