Your intrepid writer has officially begun draft prep, everyone. On Thursday night I, along with SportsEthos’ Tim Woodson, hopped into a 10-team, 9-cat H2H mock draft on Yahoo to get the lay of the land. This will be the first of many mocks that the team here will put together, so keep an eye out to see when/which mocks are on deck and get ready to join!

Mock drafts are great practice for draft day, but it’s important to remember that they’re just that — practice. Don’t get to attached to any team you assemble in a mock draft, and don’t get your heart set on a very intricate plan. If you figure out the first pair, or even trio, that you’d like to acquire, that’s great. Just know that things will probably sway during your actual draft. Perhaps the most informative part of mock drafting is figuring out the peaks and lulls in your draft; the spots where you have a full queue of great options and the zones when you’re stuck with players you’d rather not pick at all. We hit a few of those, and we’ll talk through it.

For the sake of transparency, I didn’t enter this with a specific plan. I chose the fourth spot at random and wanted to let the draft board dictate where I would head. It was my first mock of the season and I just wanted to see what the general population is doing.

The Draft

Round 1

1) Victor Wembanyama
2) Nikola Jokic

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