NBA Draft 2014: Consensus Draft Rankings 7.0 -- It's June, are you ready?

Okay, so March Madness is over, and underclassmen have declared for the draft. The NBA season finished and the lotto balls were finalized. The Combine came and went. The Lottery also happened, and the order was found out. And the Utah Jazz just got a head coach -- everything is lining up towards the big night, the NBA Draft. That's on June 26th, and oh, look at that, it's the 9th already. So it's time for the consensus draft rankings 7.0. This time around we have 30 different mocks, 24 of them from people who get paid to follow and write about basketball. The six amateurs know their stuff too. Let's just get on with it and see who the consensus king is, for this round.

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Rank #1-15:

Also every single one of these players are on every mock draft used, except for two. Another problem is that two of the Mocks don't go for the entire 1st round either, and that's where the difference lies. Embiid is the new #1, deposing Wiggins. That is understandable as bigs with talent are rare. We also see Vonleh jumping over Randle, who had the commanding lead for months. UCLA's Zach LaVine started the year off as a lotto pick, and then fell out of favor a bit. He has returned after a solid NBA Draft Combine performance, and excellent predraft workouts. For the most part, these are going to be your Top 15 guys, the only question is if Payne can hold off Ennis and Hood.

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Rank #16-30:

Okay, there is less overt consensus here, and the # of mocks goes from 30 all the way to 1 in one case. Does Sherridan Hoops putting Mario Hezonja in this draft mess things up? Yes it does, Other Barry Other Amar, yes it does. I'm not crazy about how this first round ends, and feel that some second rounders will be better. But this isn't the Amar mock draft. It's the consensus one. And the consensus says that Porzingis is not going to be the next Andris Biedrins. An interesting story line will be to see where Ennis falls to, a lot of observers do not expect him to fall past the Toronto Raptors at #20.

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Rank #31-45:

I am convinced that Robinson or McGary are must-drafts if they get to #35. Speaking of that pick, a lot of people seem to think the Jazz will not let Bogdan^2 pass them if he's available. I would. We already have a great Euro who isn't playing for the team right now in Ante Tomic. Moving beyond the Jazz, Dinwiddie has made a big jump, now ahead of Jordan Clarkson. Austin helped his draft stock as well, but not more than some of the other bigs like Tavares and Klimenko.

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Rank #46-60:

I haven't seen a lot of Thanasis, but there is very little I don't like. With how deep this draft is you may actually get a potential rotation guy in the late second round. The Jazz know this better than most teams because Mo Williams, Paul Millsap, and Raul Neto were all #47 picks. I could see the team moving back into this quarter of the draft if there is someone they like.

What I do not like is the understandable uncertainty of this section. If you want I can re-do this post and give the rankings of players after taking out the players who are seen in five or fewer drafts. (If that was the case then a guy like Jerry Sloan's newest crush, RDM, would be drafted)

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Rank #61-80:

Which brings me to RDM, who is listed in 15 mock drafts or big boards, and is behind a few guys that only one person thinks will be drafted. There are 30 drafts used for this consensus ranking. Having 15 guys (half) agree on you being drafted means more to me than one person who thinks someone else will be better than you. Anyway, I think he's my new Kabongo because Jerry likes him. He could be a guy invited to training camp or play in summer league.

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Rank #81-100:

Aaaaand, this is the Top 100. Tons of uncertainty here, even for me. I didn't bother looking up certain heights or positions of these guys. I would not be surprised to see two of these guys play in the NBA at some point. As a fan of crazy names there are a few guys here that interest me. But it's not as strong a group as the last group was (#61-80).

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Okay, so my big board is now about 160 players and here I am showing you just the Top 100, and it is still showing way too much. After all, the NBA Draft is only 60 players. Still, this is a fun exercise for at least me because I care about things like the general consensus of things. This is a great tool to use to help build your own mock drafts or opinions on players. I know that I respect most of these guys and gals who do mock drafts regularly. And as a result, I respect their opinions too. Some players have little consensus, others are pretty much locks for their spots now.

Two weeks to go, though. And a lot of things can happen still.

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Mocks / Big Boards used:

Mock drafts / Big Boards are all the most recent versions, and were updated in the first or second week of June, except for 11 that were updated in the last week of May.