1. Cleveland Cavaliers  •  Otto Porter  •  6’8″ / 205 / SF / Georgetown

For once when Cleveland gets lucky and wins the lottery, they don’t have a ton of glaring weaknesses on the roster. The draft is typically not a “fill a need” night, so maybe my projection of Porter as the top pick leans more toward my thinking that Cleveland trades this pick within the next two weeks. Cleveland could be a placement for another team, but that other team would have to be willing to give up some one relatively big because teams within the next few picks are top suitors for swapping picks.

2. Orlando Magic  •  Nerlens Noel  •  6’10″ / 230 / F / Kentucky

Pile on the pressure of stepping into the shoes of Dwight Howard, who took a pretty slim Orlando team to an NBA Finals appearance. Noel has a lot to live up to, since he looked like the best prospect in this draft in the short time he played for Kentucky this season. Orlando would assemble a promising, young frontcourt with Noel and Nikola Vucevic. Orlando fans must be patient, though, because Noel is no Anthony Davis — nor does he have a clean bill of health.

3. Washington Wizards  •  Victor Oladipo  •  6’5″ / 214 / SG / Indiana

This is one of the prime suspects to swap picks at the top because Washington would love Noel. Instead, they’re in a spot to take the best available, which a lot of teams think is Oladipo. No, they don’t need shooting guards, but Oladipo is a special player. Washington is on the cusp of something, especially when John Wall is healthy. Remember, when Cleveland took Kyrie Irving a couple years ago, people were saying he was good but was “no John Wall.” Washington was 9-31 without Wall and 20-22 with him.

4. Charlotte Bobcats  •  Anthony Bennett  •  6’8″ / 240 / F / UNLV

Here’s a no brainer, unless Charlotte really likes Alex Len, the seven-footer from Maryland. This is an opportunity to draft probably the most physically imposing player in this class. Bennett got a bad rap for his bad game in the NCAA Tournament, whereas he was actually quite consistent during the regular season. In back-to-back games early in the season, he put up 22 points apiece against Oregon and Iowa State. Charlotte doesn’t have one player who’s a legit post presence.

5. Phoenix Suns  •  Ben McLemore  •  6’5″ / 185 / SG / Kansas

People question what McLemore said after the season about not being the kind of player who takes command and has a kill-the-opponent attitude. That’s fair, but the better question is what reason would Phoenix have for not taking him? Phoenix is an ugly team and McLemore might bring them some flare at the very least. McLemore had some jaw-dropping performances. He scored 36 points against West Virginia on 80 percent shooting to name just one.

6. New Orleans Pelicans  •  Alex Len  •  7’1″ / 255 / C / Maryland

This pick cements Anthony Davis as New Orleans’ power forward of the future and Len as their center of the future. Len looks good on paper, but the reason he’s not the number one overall pick is because he didn’t show his array of skills all the time — at least the skills scouts think he should have, being so big.

7. Sacramento Kings  •  Trey Burke  •  6’0″ / 190 / PG / Michigan

We wonder every year if this is the draft pick that fixes Sacramento’s mess. Will Burke be the player to do it? The odds are against it because Sacramento just has a lot of things. Burke is the best player available, but Sacramento will have to sort out all of their guards to make this work with him.

8. Detroit Pistons  •  Shabazz Muhammad  •  6’6″ / 225 / SF / UCLA

All of Detroit’s pieces are good, except they don’t have a legitimate player at small forward. Muhammad could be that guy, with his physical presence. He’s had a tough offseason, gaining a lot of doubters, but Detroit took a calculated risk when they drafted Andre Drummond last year — a player people thought might not pan out — and look how that worked out.

9. Minnesota Timberwolves  •  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope  •  6’5″ / 205 / SG / Georgia

Caldwell-Pope is a bit of a mystery because you’re projecting him based off of what you think he can do with a better supporting cast around him. However, I think Caldwell-Pope will be a part of that supporting cast for Minnesota, who built their team around Kevin Love. While I think he has the tools to be a good scorer in the league, Caldwell-Pope will benefit from having a point guard like Ricky Rubio to distribute him the ball and a big man like Love who can take attention away from him. At Georgia, Caldwell-Pope had to do it all.

10. Portland Trail Blazers  •  CJ McCollum  •  6’3″ / 200 / G / Lehigh

He worked out with the point guards at the NBA Combine, but McCollum shouldn’t expect to be a point guard, especially not in Portland. I’m a big believer in his potential as a shooting guard in the league — so much so that I think he has a chance to be the best shooting guard from this draft.

11. Philadelphia 76ers  •  Cody Zeller  •  7’0″ / 240 / F / Indiana

I have a number of qualms about Zeller. How’s his strength? Is he tough enough? Why does he dribble himself into trouble? Can’t he play his size? Can he play big minutes? Will he be bullied? These are all important questions.

12. Oklahoma City Thunder  •  Jamaal Franklin  •  6’5″ / 205 / SG / San Diego State

13. Dallas Mavericks  •  Dennis Schroeder  •  6’2″ / 165 / PG / Germany

14. Utah Jazz  •  Michael Carter-Williams  •  6’6″ / 185 / PG / Syracuse

Bradley is an unfortunate character, though important to the plot, because he comes in after every trick by the charismatic Four Horsemen and totally debunks it. Where’s the fun in that? The story is as tricky as it is surprising and Bradley is a poor side effect of it.

The trick you see in the previews, “Tonight, we’re going to rob a bank,” is as dazzling as you think it’s going to be on the big screen; in fact, everything in the movie lends to a cinematic experience. Bradley enters later, to an empty theater, explaining to the police how the Four Horsemen did it. He turns the trick sour, revealing that the foursome had to be legitimate criminals to pull the trick off. He robs us of the magic, while casting a shadow over the four most interesting characters.

Henley Reeves (played by Isla Fisher) is the super-sexy female magician of the bunch that has come together to set out on a journey to be invited to a mythic magician cult called The Eye. Reeves is the one who really jumps off the screen, although Daniel Atlas (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is the savvy leader of the group.

Fisher, Eisenberg, Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Caine, and Dave Franco make up quite the A-list cast, but they’re only a part of something much bigger and astonishing — the movie’s fireworks.

It’s not quite the roll call from the “Oceans” movies, which I’ve heard it compared to even though this is magic and that is genius robbery; however, the writers of “Now You See Me” could’ve learned a thing or two from the recent “Oceans” franchise starring Clooney, Pitt, Damon, etc.

The “Oceans” movies are patient. They wait until the very end of the movie to reveal how everything was done (for the most part). “Now You See Me” has a big reveal at the end, but it’s not the reveal of what fuels the movie — the magic. The reveal would’ve been all the greater had it held off and allowed the audience to believe in the amazing magic the Horsemen were pulling off throughout.

Instead, the film shows us the other side of magic, and how everything is a matter of being the smartest guy in the room.

“Now You See Me”: ★★1/2

That, in a nutshell, is the basis for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s new film, “The Internship,” about a pair of wristwatch salesmen who find out the business they work for is going under and they don’t have jobs. Worse, their middle-aged and don’t have much to offer besides their unmatched will to succeed in living the American dream, which is said to be “just a dream,” by Tija Sircar (who plays “Neha”).

Initially, it’s a breath of fresh air to see Vaughn and Wilson on the screen, together again eight years after their classic hit comedy “Wedding Crashers.” And can you believe it’s been eight years?

Vaughn (who plays Billy McMahon), approaches the Wilson (who plays Nick Campbell) about interviewing for the internship program at Google, even though neither of the guys would say they have “computer skills.” On Billy’s resume, he writes “C++” under computer skills — for a C+ grade and an overall positive (+) attitude toward the grade he gave himself. Of course, this convinces the Google recruiters — which Billy and Nick are interviewing with, together, on a Google Hang Out, in a public library, because they don’t have webcam computers — that Billy has computer coding experience.

To save some laughs for the movie, as a part of an online interview that keeps you grabbing your gut, they get the job and arrive at headquarters in San Francisco to find that they’re a part of something much, much bigger than they realized.

One hundred interns assemble into teams of five and the winning team at the end of the summer challenges will be hired by Google. It’s a lot riding on finding five perfect people. This is what Billy and Wilson find as a part of the reject pile that becomes their team — Team Lyle (Lyle, a young Google employee, being played by Josh Brener).

Rejected at the onset, Billy and Nick use their years of experience living life to bring their team together to try to win jobs in, as Nick calls it, “a mental Hunger Games” against a bunch of geniuses.

There’s something to this film in the way Billy and Nick use their ageless wisdom to teach their team (made up of by Brener, Sircar, Dylan O’Brien and Tobit Raphael) to break out of their tied-up shells and live a little.

It’s so new generational: look up from your smartphone and see the world, get out from under your parents’ stronghold, don’t be somebody you’re not, and you’re going to find that special someone — so, everybody, come to this strip club with me.

The film has some striking similarities and differences to “Wedding Crashers,” of course. For example, it’s Vaughn, not Wilson’s character, who is faced with the most adversity in “The Internship.” Bradley Cooper’s jackass character in “Wedding Crashers” is played by Max Minghella, who plays Graham, a self-absorbed kid who’s had everything handed to him and has the lump of coal in his ass that I was referring to earlier. There are two love interests, as their were in Crashers, though one is not for Vaughn.

Of course, the film looks really cool on the decorative, colorful Google campus in California. There are a lot of things to see and not enough time to see them, although the film tries really hard to squish it all in under two hours (the film is 119 minutes).

Working at Google is not crashing weddings, though. Then again, what is? If you’re going to the theater looking for a raunchy Crashers sequel, that’s not what you’re going to get. But there’s a lot to like about “The Internship.”

Often the image of working at Google is thought to be hip, cool and exciting, and while the movie portrays those things it also shows you how competitive it is — and I appreciated that. After all, this one Google campus hired 100 interns and is only going to hire five of them. If I told you two of the five were 40-year-old wristwatch salesmen, you’d laugh, but that’s because it’s a Vaughn and Wilson movie.

In the opening scene, Vaughn and Wilson are in a car driving to a dinner with a client and listening to Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” to get pumped up. The duo starts out as salesmen in an expired wristwatch market and end up working at Google, an ever-marketable brand. That’s ironic.

Nick just thinks it’s “classic Alanis.”

“The Internship”: ★★★

I found the stories of Jules (the Jillian Michaels of the film), Holly (the adopting parent) and Sklyer (the gold digger/easy birth parent) to be intriguing, then reaching, then boring, then exhausting. I could actually stand Wendy’s story, as the dare-I-say most normal parent. All things considered, it was the youthful spark of the relationship between Rosie and Marco that I found most appealing. It’s a relationship started on the basis of a one night stand that turns into a kid. Despite losing the baby and their prior hatred of each other, Rosie and Marco are blinded by the fact that they’re actually falling for each other — and it wasn’t just the responsibility of a baby that kept Marco around. As was the case in “Pitch Perfect,” I really enjoyed the job Anna Kendrick did as Rosie in the film.

Last, but not least, the welcome comic relief. At times, WTEWYE failed at comedy; however, the stroller dads lit up the screen with laughter — especially Chris Rock and his clumsy-cute son Jordan. Add to the equation an ever-hilarious Rebel Wilson, who works at Wendy’s store and you get a handful of really funny sequences.

For the most part, though, WTEWYE had a rough comedy side. The stories seemed real, but often overdone or annoying — for example, Skyler sneezes and out pops the baby. The movie doesn’t totally work, but it’s a good attempt. At the very least, it brings together the actresses from “Pitch Perfect,” who carry along their outstanding charisma and chemistry and it’s a way to see a few of them together, while you wait for the second acapella movie in 2014 or 2015.

I suppose it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

WTEWYE: ★★

“Lay the Favorite” Zero stars

Timeflies Tuesday “I Need Your Love”: ★★

Timeflies Tuesday “Wagon Wheel”: ★★1/2

“Promised Land”: ★★1/2

Think of this pick as a ball of Play-Doh — the person holding it can form it into anything, and even can take it apart to make other balls. The only question the person holding it has to answer is: What do I want to create? This is the question Orlando has to answer with the number one pick in a draft without a clear-cut best player and a draft that might be better later. A lot of bloggers and NBA writers are trying to answer this question. Some say Orlando should take the Ukranian seven-footer from Maryland, Alex Len, with the pick, but that move makes the least sense to me. Unless Orlando is sold on Len being a better player than their current center, Nikola Vucevic, they should steer away — and I don’t think he’s any better, especially right now. Also, I like Vucevic’s upside (he’s only 22). In Noel, Orlando will try fill out their front line, putting the aforementioned Vucevic next to Noel, who is an Anthony Davis-type athlete. It may not be a great front line, but it’s something and it allows Orlando’s leading scorer, Tobias Harris, to move to small forward where he isn’t stretching his defensive ability. Alas, there’s a combination of third options: trading down for multiple picks or falling in love with one of the other possible top picks.

2. Charlotte Bobcats  •  Alex Len  •  7’1″ / 255 / C / Maryland

Charlotte is a good example of what bad drafts can do to an organization. Their recent draft picks haven’t panned out in the league. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist doesn’t have an offensive game. Kemba Walker takes a lot of shots for how little he scores. The Bismack Biyombo experiment hasn’t worked. Now, Charlotte has too many needs to fill in one draft. They’ve really misplaced Biyombo, trying to play him at center when he’s only 6-foot-9. Len has been mentioned in number one pick discussions, but is a risk even at number two. That said, he offers Charlotte size in the middle and maybe a centerpiece of some kind of offense. Charlotte’s other seven-footer on the roster, Byron Mullens, would fit well as Len’s backup because he’s not consistent enough to be a starter. I think Michael Jordan will like some of the other prospects available, though — primarily, Ben McLemore; however, putting McLemore (an admittedly passive scorer) with Walker (who needs the ball) could be a recipe for destruction. For McLemore’s sake, I don’t want that to happen.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers  •  Otto Porter  •  6’8″ / 205 / SF / Georgetown

The plan in Cleveland, post-Lebron, is starting to work, led by Kyrie Irving, who is one of the best young point guards in the league. Irving is only going to get better and Cleveland can help kick start that process by drafting Porter, who I think can be a really effective wing player. Will he be an All-Star? Probably not, but he’ll work well in Cleveland’s offense. Like the Cavaliers, Georgetown was led by a quick, distributing point guard this season. At times, Georgetown’s Markel Starks played so fast that Porter was eliminated from the offense, but Porter benefited from having a heady point guard overall. Cleveland is on the cusp of something productive and Porter may put them over the top as they try to start to battle for a playoff spot.

4. Phoenix Suns  •  Ben McLemore  •  6’5″ / 185 / SG / Kansas

Any time Kansas head coach Bill Self calls a player the best freshman he’s ever had, buy stock in that player. Phoenix is in position to take whoever is the top player on the board and McLemore could be taken anywhere in the first four picks. There is some proof to Kansas players disappointing in the NBA, but McLemore has all the tools to be a starting shooting guard. I thought McLemore, as a freshman this season, was as good as former Jayhawk and current Miami Heat starter Mario Chalmers in his last year at Kansas — and the stats are comparable. Chalmers averaged 12.8 point per game in 2007-08. McLemore averaged 15.9 points per game this season. The two play different positions, but I think they’re similar in the way they score (with McLemore being a better athlete). A player more comparable on that 07-08 National Championship team is Brandon Rush, who hasn’t had much of an NBA career. McLemore and Rush are similar in size. Rush averaged 13.3 points per game in his last year. Both averaged about five rebounds per game. Phoenix can bank on McLemore’s growth, if anything, being that he’s only 21 years old.

5. New Orleans Pelicans  •  Trey Burke  •  6’0″ / 190 / PG / Michigan

Last year, New Orleans had an easy choice with the top overall pick and selected Anthony Davis. They used their second lottery pick of the draft on Austin Rivers, assuming he’d become a functional point guard in the NBA. I never thought Rivers’ skills converted well to the league and he showed the world he wasn’t capable of it this season with the worst statistical season ever for an NBA rookie. Burke is a true point guard, who is as good at passing as he is scoring. He worked well in the open floor with forwards like Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary, so he’ll know what to do with Anthony Davis, who is better than either of those guys. Burke, Davis and Eric Gordon create a nice, little package for the newly-renamed New Orleans franchise.

6. Sacramento Kings  •  Anthony Bennett  •  6’8″ / 240 / PF / UNLV

In 2010, I projected the Washington Wizards to take DeMarcus Cousins over fellow Kentucky teammate John Wall. I was wrong, yes, but Cousins is having a pretty good career, too; even though, he has attitude problems. With Sacramento’s sixth pick in this draft, I really didn’t know what to do. UCLA small forward Shabazz Muhammad is an option because John Salmons is aging quickly. Indiana’s Victor Oladipo is available, but by picking him you’d be picking a bench player with the sixth selection in the draft — only because he can’t play small forward and because you can’t draft a player this high you’re going to bench right away. So, I slate Bennett as the pick. He’s a physically imposing, highly athletic power forward who draws lengthy comparisons to Karl Malone. I’m toying with the idea that Bennett and Cousins up front would become one of the most physical front lines in all of basketball, comparable to the New York Knicks teams of Charles Oakley and Roger Mason.

7. Detroit Pistons  •  Victor Oladipo  •  6’5″ / 214 / SG / Indiana

Depending who you ask, Detroit got the steal of the draft last year in Andre Drummond. He played like an All-Star in spurts and proved a lot of the doubters wrong. This year, Detroit is getting a player pretty much everybody knows about. You know what you’re getting with Oladipo. I like some of Detroit’s pieces — a young, talented front line and a solid leader in Brandon Knight. In Oladipo, Detroit is getting a player who plays shut down defense and brings a lot of intensity to the floor. He might end up being a rotation guy, but I think he could start. It’s a solid, safe pick, compared to, say, taking Shabazz Muhammad, which may fill a need, but may stir up trouble.

8. Washington Wizards  •  Dario Saric  •  6’10″ / 223 / SF / Croatia

There is a popular idea in relation to drafting a European player in this year’s draft. It’s the idea that you could draft one of these young European guys — Saric is 19 years old — and store them away for a year or two (at most) overseas, and then set yourself up to possibly have another lottery pick in another loaded class next year. This may be an opportunity to do it with one of the guys considered the best European player in the draft. Washington, however, has tried and failed before. Jan Vesely was a guy similar to Saric’s measurements and he hasn’t panned out — only averaging 2.5 points per game this season. Saric is another project, like Vesely, but he’s such an efficient scorer. With the Croatian national team this year, Saric averaged 15.5 points per game and made 71 percent of his shots. The reason, though, Washington may not choose a player to store away is because of how good they were when John Wall was healthy this season. With a healthy Wall, Washington could be a fringe playoff team.

9. Minnesota Timberwolves  •  Shabazz Muhammad  •  6’6″ / 225 / SF / UCLA

My worries about Muhammad are well documented and reasonable. I think he’s a selfish, low-ceiling player. It came out this season that he’s a year older than he led on, which means he has to be evaluated differently. Muhammad has an NBA body, I’ll give him that, but he doesn’t offer a lot to a franchise. He scores, but takes a lot of shots to reach his 17.9-per-game average. In comparison, Lehigh’s CJ McCollum averaged two more shots per game (16, not 14) and scored seven more points; however, McCollum is a tough fit here because he’s a combo point guard, and Minnesota already has Ricky Rubio. All things considered, Muhammad is a calculated risk at the ninth pick, as players start to blend together a little bit.

10. Portland Trail Blazers  •  Rudy Gobert  •  7’1″ / 235 / C / France

Portland would’ve taken either Saric or Muhammad to try to answer its small forward problem, but neither is available the way this mock draft has gone. So, they have to look elsewhere for a good piece to fit with their new centerpiece, Damian Lillard, who they drafted in the first round last year. Gobert could be a nice piece to compete and add size to the front line. I’m not sold on Meyers Leonard as a young center and I wasn’t happy when they took him last year, so Gobert would be really nice competition with Leonard. Or Portland could be satisfied with its lineup and store Gobert overseas for one more year to see if Leonard makes any progress in his second year. Portland wont reach for another small forward — a position that comes back into play anywhere after the 15th pick — but they could call teams lower in the draft that might be in love with players still on the board, like McCollum, Cody Zeller or Michael Carter-Williams.

11. Philadelphia 76ers  •  CJ McCollum  •  6’3″ / 200 / G / Lehigh

This is an opportune pick for a Philadelphia organization that fell from grace after being a scary playoff team one year ago to picking in the lottery this season. Five years from now, you could be looking at McCollum as being one of the best two players in this draft class and a vital piece to a Philadelphia squad that is a perennial playoff team. An injury cut into what could’ve been a launching-pad season for McCollum at the little known school, Lehigh, but he’s a proven player against the best teams. McCollum single-handedly upset Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament with 30 points, six assists and six rebounds. That same year, he had 19 points against Michigan State and 19 against St. John’s. This season, he played in only 12 games; however, he scored 30 in four of them, including a 36-point explosion against Baylor. What’s most impressive, though, is his efficiency. Before his injury, he was making 51 percent of his 3-pointers and 49.5 percent of his shots overall. He shoots in the mid-80s from the free throw line. He’s crafty, coming up with 2.6 and 2.5 steals per game in each of the last two years (1.4 in 12 games this year). I don’t know what guard position he’ll play, but he has enough size to be a shooting guard and that may be where Philadelphia can best utilize him.

12. Toronto Raptors  •  Cody Zeller  •  7’0″ / 240 / F / Indiana

This doesn’t mean I like Zeller in the NBA, it just means that I really don’t like either of Toronto’s options at power forward. It means I think it’s irresponsible to try to make Zeller an NBA center, so he fits as a four in Toronto. There’s no question Zeller has a lot of issues, but I’ll get to those; his biggest strength is that he’s a high-percentage scorer. He shot better than 56 percent from the floor in his two years at Indiana. However, Zeller plays smaller than he actually is, he dribbles himself into trouble, he can’t play defense outside of the paint, and he is easily bullied. All of these things have to be monitored and coached, but Zeller could be a workable role player for Toronto, which may be a team on the up-and-up.

13. Dallas Mavericks  •  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope  •  6’5″ / 205 / SG / Georgia

At Georgia, it looked a lot worse than it was for Caldwell-Pope because the terrible team leaned so heavily on their best player. On an NBA team, Caldwell-Pope should look much better because he has all of the athletic and physical tools to be an NBA player. Dallas has to figure out its age problem, though, which is quite a hill to climb. Vince Carter (36), Elton Brand (34), Mike James (37), Chris Kaman (31), Shawn Marion (35), and Dirk Nowitzki (34) are such a large nucleus of this team that once they’re all gone there wont be anything left. Take all of them away right now and look at what’s left: Josh Akognon (27), Rodrigue Beaubois (25), Darren Collison (25), Jae Crowder (22), Jared Cunningham (21), Bernard James (28), OJ Mayo (25), Anthony Morrow (27), and Brandan Wright (25). There isn’t much left when you take away the aged veterans — not even mentioning the fact that Marion and Carter make up the small forward spot and there’s no depth behind Mayo at shooting guard. Caldwell-Pope could solve some of those problems, while bringing youth to the team. He, Crowder and Cunningham would be by far the youngest guys on the team.

14. Utah Jazz  •  Michael Carter-Williams  •  6’6″ / 185 / PG / Syracuse

This actually works out really well for Utah. A point guard, Carter-Williams, is still available and Utah has been looking to replace Deron Williams since he left. Carter-Williams is a little bit of good, but quite a bit more bad. He’s a good passer and is solid at isolating, but he’s not going to offer you much more. He’ll be a small defensive nuisance against other point guards because of his length, but he can’t make anything outside of a layup and he can be a little sloppy, at times. However, Utah doesn’t really have another choice here. I’ve liked their roster for a while and I think Carter-Williams fits well. Utah’s current point guards, Mo Williams and Jamaal Tinsley, are aging. In the last three seasons, Mo Williams’ points per game has decreased by three points. Utah might stick with Mo for the immediate future, but Carter-Williams should be the pick — even as a project.

15. Milwaukee Bucks  •  Mason Plumlee  •  6’10″ / 235 / F / Duke

The way this draft is going to work, especially after the fourteen lottery picks, is that teams will look at the prospects left and know they’re going to be adding depth to their rosters, and probably wont be drafting a starter. So, Mason Plumlee may be the best available player. He’s eerily similar to John Henson, Milwaukee’s first round draft pick last season, which worries me a little bit because nobody wants to draft the same player one year after another. However, Plumlee is a better scorer (much more polished as a senior than Henson as a freshman) and a bit heavier.

16. Boston Celtics  •  Kelly Olynyk  •  7’0″ / 238 / F / Gonzaga

Between now and draft day a lot might happen in Boston. What will happen with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett? What about Jason Terry? Boston has a lot of decisions to make this offseason and those are some important questions. In the draft, however, they need to start rebuilding — knowing they’ll be losing Garnett and Pierce at some point soon, regardless of how they go. Olynyk’s rise at Gonzaga is astonishing. He went from averaging 5.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last year to 17.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this year, earning himself a place in the discussion for college basketball’s national player of the year. He has a nice, Garnett-like, jumper and a good defensive game, and he might still be getting better after a coming out party this season.

17. Atlanta Hawks  •  Gorgui Dieng  •  6’11″ / 245 / F / Louisville

18. Atlanta Hawks  •  Jamaal Franklin  •  6’5″ / 205 / SG / San Diego State

Since Atlanta has two picks in a row, I paired their picks up before discussing both of them in the same blurb. This scenario, as it is every year, is a unique opportunity to capitalize for any organization. Atlanta can do that with each of these picks, drafting two sort-of versatile guys. Dieng could be a rotation player at both power forward and center, providing a solid backup for the ever-important franchise players, Josh Smith and Al Horford. Certainly, Atlanta will be giving up offensive output for a stronger defensive front when they swap Smith and Dieng. Franklin could potentially play shooting guard or small forward in the NBA. He’s one of my favorite players in this draft because he was such a fun college player to watch. He could be a fringe starter, especially when Atlanta plays either of it’s non-starter-quality small forwards, Kyle Korver or DeShawn Stevenson. Franklin, over those two, is the best quality small forward Atlanta has. However, Franklin’s glaring flaw is that he doesn’t have an outside game. His 3-point percentage dropped from 32.5 to 28 percent in the last two years (when he played significant minutes). Even so, I’m a fan of Franklin’s and a believer that he brings something to the table.

19. Cleveland Cavaliers  •  Archie Goodwin  •  6’4″ / 198 / SG / Kentucky

Cleveland made a great pick third overall in Otto Porter and now Goodwin could add guard depth to the roster. At this point, Goodwin might be the best player available, since he could get drafted anywhere from 12 to here. While Goodwin struggles with consistency in his game, I really liked his shooting stroke and natural ability to score. He’s sub-par defensively, but Cleveland isn’t drafting him to be a defensive powerhouse; in fact, the only players, in this draft, you will pick for that are Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, Gorgui Dieng, and Jeff Withey. Three of those four guys are off the board, although Cleveland should draft Dieng in a heartbeat if he’s available. Withey, while excellent defensively, is similar to Dieng in that he struggles on the offensive end. Here, he’s a stretch. So, they take Goodwin, who is a promising project.

20. Chicago Bulls  •  BJ Young  •  6’3″ / 180 / G / Arkansas

I didn’t have Cleveland taking Jeff Withey at number 19, but I seriously considered slotting him with Chicago at this pick because Withey’s strengths are the definitive strengths of Chicago as a whole. If it looks like Carlos Boozer isn’t going to last long in Chicago, then they need to take Withey. I’m not counting on that just yet. Instead, I have them taking a player who can put points on the board — a problem they faced all season without Derrick Rose. Young is a high-volume scorer. I think his 22.7 3-point percentage this season is deceiving and a fluke. Last season, he made more than 40 percent of his 3s with the same workload. His shot may need a little tweaking, if there happens to be a problem with it, but he’s a good scoring option this late in the first round. If you’re missing 20 percent more from beyond the arc than you did one season before, but maintaining your 15-points-per-game average you’re doing something well.

21. Utah Jazz  •  Lucas Nogueira  •  7’0″ / 200 / C / Brazil

Utah can draft the 20-year-old Nogueira, pack him up and ship him back to Brazil, where he can simmer and develop for another year (maybe two). He’s a lot like a bigger Jeremy Evans, who’s currently on Utah’s roster — high energy, athletic rebounder with shaky offensive skills. Utah’s roster affords them the opportunity to ship away an international prospect like this, while they’ll hope their selection of Michael Carter-Williams earlier doesn’t blow up in their faces. You could bring Nogueira in right away and try to stretch what he’s capable of, but that’s dangerous.

22. Brooklyn Nets  •  Mike Muscala  •  6’11″ / 239 / F / Bucknell

An overhaul of forwards is needed in Brooklyn, where the small forward and power forward are the weakest positions. I don’t like Gerald Wallace at power forward, although I know why he’s there; however, his salary is so expensive that Brooklyn needs to prepare to get rid of him. I have Brooklyn drafting Muscala, although CJ Leslie might be a much more reasonable choice. Muscala is a bit of a reach, but if he does one thing well it’s being consistent. He made more than 50 percent of his shots in the last three season, all during which he averaged more than 27 minutes per game. He’s a steady free throw shooter and his scoring output increased each of his four seasons at Bucknell.

23. Indiana Pacers  •  Shane Larkin  •  5’11″ / 176 / PG / Miami

When you start trying to project what players will be drafted by the best teams, you start asking yourself what can make this good team better. Indiana’s system works well for them, as one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. Larkin is a guy the Pacers should love because he’s such a hard worker, he’s crafty and he’s a leader. There wasn’t once this season you could count Larkin out. Indiana’s worry last year, around draft time, was: Can they keep Roy Hibbert? And: If not, how can we address that in the draft? This year they don’t have that problem. Indiana is blessed with an outstanding front line. By drafting Larkin, they get better in the backcourt.

24. New York Knicks  •  Steven Adams  •  7’0″ / 250 / C / Pittsburgh

New York has its fair share of issues, especially age, depth and Amar’e Stoudemire. With all of those issues, New York has a few definite options with this pick — Adams, Jeff Withey, CJ Leslie. Those three, all forwards or centers, make sense, but Adams makes the most sense, even though the league scouts don’t have a lot to go off of when looking at him. He didn’t even average double digit points in his only season at Pittsburgh, but you had to see him to understand why he’s a first rounder, and you had to see him to understand why he should be the pick over Withey and Leslie. First, New York is old and Adams is 19. New York’s depth is old. Marcus Camby (39), Jason Kidd (40), Kenyon Martin (35) and Pablo Prigioni (35) are all passed their prime and on their way out of the league. Adams is a youngster, who I thought could benefit from one more year of college. He adds youth and depth to the roster in an especially important position, center. New York’s Stoudemire problem is a whole other story. It seems like they don’t want him anymore; as a matter of fact, if they want to trade him, he could be bait to get into the lottery this year. Adams gives them leverage to move Stoudemire, which is good. Adams is certainly a work in progress, but his ceiling might be higher than most of the players being drafted around him.

25. Los Angeles Clippers  •  Tony Mitchell  •  6’8″ / 235 / SF / North Texas

Mitchell is ranked 19th on my list of top prospects, so he has fallen but it’s an earned fall because he wasn’t nearly as good this year as he was last year — and worse, that came with playing more. Preseason, Mitchell was mentioned in the top ten conversation (even top five), but dropped off as he didn’t produce as well as everyone thought he should’ve. He scored 1.7 fewer points per game. His shooting percentage from the field dropped 12 points with three more minutes of play, on average, and his 3-point percentage dropped almost 14 points. He was better and more efficient two years ago, but has some intangibles to be a good player.

26. Minnesota Timberwolves  •  CJ Leslie  •  6’9″ / 200 / PF / North Carolina State

It’s time for Leslie, a player who is good at everything, but not great at any one thing, to be drafted. Leslie made use of his extra years at North Carolina State by figuring out exactly what he does, whereas he could’ve entered the NBA draft either of the last two years. What teams should like about Leslie is that he understands his game. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and doesn’t try to do anything that will stretch his abilities too thin. He could turn into a nice role player for Minnesota’s front line, which also features power forward Derrick Williams, who was the number two pick when he was drafted.

27. Denver Nuggets  •  Jeff Withey  •  7’0″ / 235 / C / Kansas

JaVale McGee is Denver’s long, athletic center and Withey is similar, minus the great athleticism. He’s defensively sound and adds good depth to Denver’s front line. In this situation, Withey is the best available prospect and should get picked up in the range they’re picking in. His offensive game, while only a little better than average, is better than the previously-drafted Gorgui Dieng, but the two players are eerily similar.

28. San Antonio Spurs  •  Alex Abrines  •  6’5″ / 190 / SG / Spain

For an aging organization, like San Antonio, a prospect like Abrines fits well, especially since he gives you options. Abrines is only 20 years old, so San Antonio could store him overseas and let him develop his game a little bit better or they could bring him right onto the roster and let him be mentored by a couple successful international guards, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

29. Oklahoma City Thunder  •  Glen Rice Jr.  •  6’5″ / 206 / G / Georgia Tech

There isn’t a player this late in the draft to make up for the absence of James Harden. There isn’t a player this late in the draft who can pick up the scoring deficit after Russell Westbrook gets hurt. There isn’t a solid center this late in the first round to allow Oklahoma City to kick Hasheem Thabeet to the curb and add depth behind Kendrick Perkins. So, I don’t really know what to do with them. Rice is a player with good genes, who could be a bit of a hybrid guard and small forward. He’s versatile, at the very least.

30. Phoenix Suns  •  Reggie Bullock  •  6’7″ / 205 / SF / North Carolina

Torn between a point guard like Lorenzo Brown (North Carolina State), a big man like Andre Roberson (Colorado), and Bullock, I think Phoenix will like Bullock. I thought Bullock could’ve used another year at North Carolina — no Tar Heel really did much this year — but he decided to make the leap and this mock draft has him benefiting from his decision, as he squeaks into the end of the first round.

Today, there was this major article on Yahoo! that was skeptical of Tiger’s drop, whether or not he broke the rules. Moreover, there’s a viewer video of some moron pointing out that maybe the ball didn’t cross where Tiger’s playing partner, Casey Wittenberg, said it did — this allowed him to take a drop where he did and hit a really good shot close to the green. He still got a double bogey on the hole.

But this pisses me off. After a made my sarcastic comment yesterday, my grandpa asked me and my brother (a lifelong golfer) if viewers should be allowed to call in and report things like a rules violation. And the answer is hell no — or as I said it, “Golf shouldn’t be an interactive experience.”

This all stems from The Masters a few weeks ago, when a viewer initially called in say he thought Tiger illegally dropped a ball during his round. Officials reviewed the video and decided there was no violation. Then, Tiger had a post-round interview in which he said he moved a little bit back to drop the ball. Only then, did the officials re-review it and asses a penalty to him. There are so many things wrong with the way that all got resolved.

First of all, no viewer should be allowed to call in during a tournament and call a player on a mistake or “apparent” cheating. This would be like Major League Baseball viewers calling in to say something wasn’t a ball or strike — oh, you know, because they have the privilege of replay on a “K-Zone” on TV.

Moreover, rules officials shouldn’t be able to re-review things that happen during somebody’s round. After his round is over, and the card is signed, it’s over. Anything he says during a TV interview shouldn’t be used against somebody. Where’s the Freedom of Speech in that? In his post-round interview during The Masters, Tiger spoke honestly as though he didn’t think he did anything wrong. It’s unfair to the player.

After all of that, I thought this was over. I joked about it on Sunday. But today there’s the Yahoo! article and it upsets me that there’s any skepticism as to how that event was executed.

What’s even sadder is that the Yahoo! writer who wrote the article seems to be hinting at some sort of favoritism the PGA officials have for Tiger. That’s ridiculous. Sure, some people might have arguments in different cases, but they penalized him at The Masters didn’t they? No favoritism there. It’s ignorant to suggest that’s what this situation is.

As the article describes, Wittenberg was paraded with questions after his rough round about the Tiger drop. He stood his ground (good for him!). Tiger did the same — although the slighted writer of the Yahoo! article emphasizes that he was asked “17 gentle questions” about winning.

When finally asked about the drop, however, Tiger answered the honest way. He asked Casey and his caddie about the shot during the sequence. This was Tiger’s quote:

Yeah, I talked to Casey and the caddie, and we agreed that’s where it crossed. Because I hit a pop‑up big high hook, so it started way right, and then it went way left. So it had a lot of room to it. We decided it crossed there, and I played it. If (the rules officials are) not there they can’t see it, so there’s really no point. The only guys who really know are Casey and his caddie, so that’s who we rely on.

This is the way it should be. Golf, or any sport for that matter, shouldn’t be an interactive experience. Golf, especially, is a game between a people in a group – in Sunday’s case, Tiger, Casey and the two caddies. Decisions like that are made in an agreement between the players. That’s the honorable part of the sport.