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Let's be honest, mock drafts are in no way indicative of a pro team's needs, or prospective wants in an upcoming draft, and sometimes they are just pure.....crap.
But it's the off-season, so as sports fans we will check to see where our teams and guys are at on the draft radar, particularly our NBA prospect Vince Hunter.
NFL Mock Drafts are even bigger loads of crap that are somewhat close, but usually doesn't reflect a team's war room needs or roster needs.
Now in my opinion of course, NBA Mock Drafts can sometimes be a little more telling in terms of draft stock more than the teams draft order and where a prospect could land (obviously).
From observations of them this year in following Vince Hunter's NBA stock, it seems they are built off conversations with scouts, stats, big performances, and in a sense, composite player rankings of the top pro prospects who could declare.
Hunter hovered around the early second round in a 2016 mock draft posted on NBADraft.net for most of the season, but his stock on that site has rose to a new level over the past month.
So why does one 2015 mock draft have VH as a second round pick, while the other three don't have any sign of UTEP's beast?
Neither does the most accurate Mock Draft (IMO) DraftExpress.net show Hunter as lock in the 2015 draft.
Some say Hunter needs a jump shot, and needs to improve his perimeter game, but Hunter's motor, athletic ability, character, and overall upside are more important than a jumper.
NBA teams draft off pure potential, which is very frustrating when you see foreign prospects drafted over established and polished four year U.S. college players who never get a well deserved and legit NBA sniff and become Euro-league stars. (See Randy Culpepper, Stefon Jackson among other non-UTEP players)
With equal or greater scoring and rebounding production, maturity improvement in his ball handling and decision making in 2015-16, I feel Hunter will be a first round lock in 2016. Hunter is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the NBA potential truth, but one more year could polish him for almost guaranteed stardom in the league.
Bold statement right?
Well most of the projected first round prospects in 2016 are currently planning their high school prom, while Hunter has established himself as a name people know while showing out against some of his fellow NBA prospects.
From what I've seen, read, and heard from scouts myself all season, it appears most think Hunter needs another year of fine tuning, and to repeat: a consistent jumper or perimeter game is not needed in VH's case.
Rajon Rondo has done fine without a jumper, as Shawn Marion has, and Blake Griffin is barley starting to develop his as weapon in his fifth season in the league.
While there is no indication or hint that Hunter is entering the draft at all in 2015, it's very interesting to see the various mock drafts and what they think about Hunter, since they are classified as "experts" and get first hand info from scouts, team personnel, and maybe even GM's.
One thing is for sure, Hunter will be in the NBA one day, but one more solid year as a Miner will guarantee him more financial security, and a for sure roster spot in the 2016-17 NBA season.