[NBA Draft]: 2023 Mock Draft Comparison, February (updated 2/16)

Note: If the table is not loading correctly on your mobile device via Twitter, then copy and paste this link in your browser and view the post on my site at https://hoopsdistillery.com/mockdraftcomp-feb23/.

2/16 update: I knew more mock drafts were coming, but not this soon! Tankathon updated his picks just hours after I posted this #mockdraftcomp and then Sam Vecenie/The Athletic released his today. Vecenie has Jalen Hood-Schifino way up at #15 and Kobe Bufkin at #28. He also has Terquavion Smith dropping way down to the bottom of the 1st round and Nick Smith moving down to the late lottery. Lots to think about and analyze, as always To make that analysis a bit easier, I updated the pick variance chart. Not surprisingly, there’s high variance across the mid-lottery guys whose value differ greatly across mocks.

Sending good vibes and all of our support to Jeremy Woo who got laid off by Sports Illustrated yesterday, along with a bunch of other awesome writers (even one of my fav’s, Howard Beck!). All I can say is…it’s THEIR loss! We’ll be looking forward to Jeremy landing somewhere good soon, so he can pick up where he left off with his all-star level draft analysis.

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The February mock drafts are here and so far, we have picks from Jonathan Givony/ESPN-Draft Express and two from Jonathan Wasserman/Bleacher Report who seems to be updating his mock every two weeks. Plus, I added our Hoops Distillery updated mock draft. Little to no fluctuation in production for Wemby or Scoot this month. Jarace Walker is moving up the boards after a run of great games proving his great versatility, and Brandon Miller seems to be solidly in the 3 to 5 range after Alabama’s run to #1 in the country. Meanwhile, Nick Smith was back in action this week for Arkansas, and Dereck Lively came back onto draft radars after a stellar performance against UNC.

Shout out to Tankathon‘s ‘box ‘Prospect Game Logs‘ page. If you haven’t checked this out, it’s a great tool, for those of us who are tight on time. What becomes a bit frustrating with the ESPN.com box scores is that it can be sorted it by either top 25 or by conference, but as teams move in and out of the top 25 it’s easy to miss a game or two.

Also, I highly recommend this post from @deanondraft called The Downside of Upside if you’re looking for some good food for thought as we approach the heart of draft season. Reading this immediately made me think of Gradey Dick, who most have going in the 10-15 range. Due to his size, basketball IQ and elite shooting he has a very high floor, but as @deanondraft points out, that does not mean he doesn’t also have a high ceiling. Based on this, would any of us really be surprised if he ends up the 3-5th best player in this draft over guys like Nick Smith, Cam Whitmore, or the Thompson twins? They all have less size, less production, less definable skills than Dick, but still have the perception of having higher ceilings based on more elite athleticism.

There will be more mock drafts posted in the coming weeks, so make sure to check back for updates and follow me at @hoopsdistillery on Twitter for update notifications. Also, if I’m missing any mock drafts that you feel belong alongside the ‘All-NBA level’ draft analysts I currently include, leave a comment or DM me on Twitter.

	The Athletic (2/16)		Tankathon (2/15)		B/R (2/14)		Hoops Distillery (2/12)		ESPN (2/4)		B/R (2/1)
1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama	1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama	1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama	1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama	1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama	1. HOU	Victor Wembanyama
2. DET	Scoot Henderson	2. SAS	Scoot Henderson	2. SAS	Scoot Henderson	2. SAS	Scoot Henderson	2. DET	Scoot Henderson	2. DET	Scoot Henderson
3. SAS	Brandon Miller	3. DET	Brandon Miller	3. CHA	Amen Thompson	3. DET	Amen Thompson	3. SAS	Amen Thompson	3. CHA	Amen Thompson
4. CHA	Amen Thompson	4. CHA	Amen Thompson	4. DET	Jarace Walker	4. CHA	Gradey Dick	4. CHA	Brandon Miller	4. SAS	Ausar Thompson
5. ORL	Jarace Walker	5. ORL	Ausar Thompson	5. ORL	Brandon Miller	5. ORL	Nick Smith	5. ORL	Ausar Thompson	5. ORL	Cam Whitmore
6. IND	Cam Whitmore	6. IND	Jarace Walker	6. IND	Gradey Dick	6. IND	Brandon Miller	6. OKC	Nick Smith	6. TOR	Brandon Miller
7. WAS	Anthony Black	7. ORL	Nick Smith	7. NOP	Cam Whitmore	7. NOP	Jarace Walker	7. IND	Jarace Walker	7. NOP	Nick Smith
8. NOP	Ausar Thompson	8. NOP	Keyonte George	8. ORL	Nick Smith	8. ORL	Anthony Black	8. ORL	Keyonte George	8. IND	Jarace Walker
9. TOR	Keyonte George	9. WAS	Cam Whitmore	9. TOR	Keyonte George	9. WAS	Cason Wallace	9. TOR	Cam Whitmore	9. ORL	Keyonte George
10. OKC	Gradey Dick	10. TOR	Gradey Dick	10. WAS	Ausar Thompson	10. TOR	Keyonte George	10. WAS	Anthony Black	10. WAS	Gradey Dick
11. ORL	Cason Wallace	11. POR	Anthony Black	11. POR	Taylor Hendricks	11. OKC	Cam Whitmore	11. NOP	Gradey Dick	11. POR	Jett Howard
12. POR	Nick Smith	12. UTA	Cason Wallace	12. UTA	Cason Wallace	12. POR	Ausar Thompson	12. LAL	Cason Wallace	12. OKC	GG Jackson
13. UTA	Rayan Rupert	13. OKC	Brice Sensabaugh	13. OKC	Anthony Black	13. UTA	Jett Howard	13. POR	Kyle Filipowski	13. UTA	Cason Wallace
14. LAL	Jalen Hood-Schifino	14. GSW	Dariq Whitehead	14. GSW	Jett Howard	14. GSW	Taylor Hendricks	14. UTA	Jett Howard	14. PHX	Brice Sensabaugh
15. ATL	Jett Howard	15. ATL	Jett Howard	15. UTA	GG Jackson	15. ATL	Rayan Rupert	15. UTA	Brice Sensabaugh	15. ATL	Taylor Hendricks
16. UTA	Kris Murray	16. LAL	Kris Murray	16. LAL	Brice Sensabaugh	16. UTA	Kyle Filipowski	16. NYK	Rayan Rupert	16. LAL	Maxwell Lewis
17. GSW	Brice Sensabaugh	17. NYK	Kyle Filipowski	17. ATL	Kris Murray	17. LAL	Kris Murray	17. ATL	Maxwell Lewis	17. NYK	Anthony Black
18. NYK	Jordan Hawkins	18. UTA	Rayan Rupert	18. HOU	Jalen Hood-Schifino	18. NYK	Brice Sensabaugh	18. NYK	Kris Murray	18. GSW	Kris Murray
19. POR	Taylor Hendricks	19. HOU	Terquavion Smith	19. NYK	Jordan Hawkins	19. HOU	Maxwell Lewis	19. GSW	Taylor Hendricks	19. UTA	Kyle Filipowski
20. BKN	Maxwell Lewis	20. MIA	GG Jackson	20. POR	Dariq Whitehead	20. POR	Dariq Whitehead	20. PHX	Jalen Hood-Schifino	20. LAC	Jordan Hawkins
21. LAC	Dariq Whitehead	21. BKN	Kel'el Ware	21. BKN	Maxwell Lewis	21. BKN	GG Jackson	21. MIA	Dariq Whitehead	21. NYK	Kel'el Ware
22. MIA	GG Jackson	22. POR	Taylor Hendricks	22. MIA	Rayan Rupert	22. MIA	Terquavion Smith	22. SAC	Colby Jones	22. MIA	Terquavion Smith
23. SAC	Colby Jones	23. SAC	Dereck Lively	23. SAC	Ricky Council	23. SAC	Dereck Lively	23. LAC	James Nnaji	23. SAC	Dariq Whitehead
24. IND	Julian Phillips	24. BKN	Noah Clowney	24. BKN	Terquavion Smith	24. BKN	Colby Jones	24. IND	GG Jackson	24. IND	Noah Clowney
25. MEM	James Nnaji	25. MEM	Maxwell Lewis	25. MEM	Colby Jones	25. MEM	Kel'el Ware	25. BKN	Leonard Miller	25. BKN	Jalen Hood-Schifino
26. IND	Dereck Lively	26. IND	Colby Jones	26. IND	Bilal Coulibaly	26. IND	Jordan Hawkins	26. HOU	Jordan Hawkins	26. MEM	Colby Jones
27. BKN	Kyle Filipowski	27. UTA	Leonard Miller	27. UTA	Kyle Filipowski	27. UTA	Noah Clowney	27. MEM	Dereck Lively	27. HOU	Rayan Rupert
28. HOU	Kobe Bufkin	28. CHA	Jalen Hood-Schifino	28. CHA	Noah Clowney	28. CHA	Jalen Hood-Schifino	28. UTA	Terquavion Smith	28. UTA	Marcus Sasser
29. LAC	Leonard Miller	29. LAC	Marcus Sasser	29. LAC	Marcus Sasser	29. LAC	Leonard Miller	29. CHA	Dillon Mitchell	29. CHA	Leonard Miller
30. IND	Terquavion Smith	30. IND	Bilal Coulibaly	30. IND	Kel'el Ware	30. IND	Julian Phillips	30. IND	Kel'el Ware	30. IND	Jalen Wilson

Pick Variance	High	Low	Variance
Kyle Filipowski	13	27	14
Rayan Rupert	13	27	14
Jalen Hood-Schifino	14	28	14
Taylor Hendricks	11	22	11
Terquavion Smith	19	30	11
Anthony Black	7	17	10
GG Jackson	12	24	10
Maxwell Lewis	16	25	9
Kel'el Ware	21	30	9
Dariq Whitehead	14	23	9
Ausar Thompson	4	12	8
Nick Smith	5	12	7
Gradey Dick	4	11	7
Cam Whitmore	5	11	6
Brice Sensabaugh	13	18	5
Cason Wallace	9	13	4
Jarace Walker	4	8	4
Jett Howard	11	15	4
Noah Clowney	24	28	4
Colby Jones	22	26	4
Leonard Miller	25	29	4
Brandon Miller	3	6	3
Keyonte George	8	10	2
Kris Murray	16	18	2
Amen Thompson	3	4	1
Victor Wembanyama	1	1	0
Scoot Henderson	2	2	0

References:

Tankathon

The Athletic [Sam Vecenie]

ESPN/Draft Express [Jonathan Givony]

Bleacher Report [Jonathan Wasserman] – February 1st

Bleacher Report [Jonathan Wasserman] – February 14th

Search #mockdraftcomp on Twitter for all past Tweets

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Potential Movement of Draft Order (via Jonathan Givony/ESPN-Draft Express)

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