NBA Draft 2022: Here’s an early mock of the entire first round

On this week’s Bleav in Wizards podcast, we completed a mock draft of the first round in preparation for the 2022 NBA Draft. Dominique Nelson of the Wizards of Gallery Place podcast and our own Osman Baig joined me for the exercise.

We did not know who each other would pick and we randomly generated the draft order right before starting to record. Baig picked first, Nelson second, I went third, back to Baig fourth, and so on.

We opted for no trades for this exercise and strictly picked as if that team would be making that selection on draft night. It has been widely reported that Sacramento is likely to explore trading their 4th overall pick to either move down or acquire veteran talent in an attempt to be more competitive next season. Based on that, the 4th pick in our draft was made with the idea of who might be most ready to help them win right away.

Players like Dyson Daniels have been rumored to be rapidly moving up draft boards and that also showed up in our mock draft, as he went 8th to New Orleans. Daniels has been a popular name amongst Wizards fans so that took one potential option off the board for them. Bennedict Mathurin, another commonly suggested name, went one pick before Daniels. That left Baig, who picked for the Wizards at 10, with a tough choice.

He ultimately decided on Johnny Davis, the Big 10 Player of the Year out of Wisconsin. Once again, the idea of taking a total project didn’t seem representative of Tommy Sheppard’s thinking given the Wizards’ impending commitment to Bradley Beal.

With that preface out of the way, here’s our mock draft. Let us know what you think, who we missed on, and who are your sleepers outside of the first-round range.

1. Orlando (Baig): Chet Holmgren, 7-0, Gonzaga, 20.14 years (all ages are their age on draft night)
2. Oklahoma City (Nelson): Jabari Smith, 6-10, Auburn, 19.1 years
3. Houston (Modderno): Paolo Banchero, 6-10, Duke, 19.6 years
4. Sacramento (Baig): Keegan Murray, 6-8, Iowa, 21.84 years
5. Detroit (Nelson): Jaden Ivey, 6-4, Purdue, 20.3 years
6. Indiana (Modderno): Shaedon Sharpe, 6-5.25, Kentucky, 18.9 years
7. Portland (Baig): Bennedict Mathurin, 6-6, Arizona, 19.9 years
8. New Orleans (Nelson): Dyson Daniels, 6-7.5, G League Ignite, 19.2 years
9. San Antonio (Modderno): Jeremy Sochan, 6-9, Baylor, 19 years
10. Washington (Baig): Johnny Davis, 6-5.75, Wisconsin, 20.2 years
11. New York (Nelson): Malaki Branham, 6-5.5, Ohio State, 19 years
12. Oklahoma City (Modderno): Jalen Duren, 6-11, Memphis, 18.5 years
13. Charlotte (Baig): Mark Williams, 7-2, Duke, 20.4 years
14. Cleveland (Nelson): Ochai Agbaji, 6-5.75, Kansas, 22.1 years
15. Charlotte (Modderno): A.J. Griffin, 6-6, Duke, 18.7 years
16. Atlanta (Baig): Tari Eason, 6-8, LSU, 21 years
17. Houston (Nelson): Ousmane Dieng, 6-10, New Zealand, 19 years
18. Chicago (Modderno): E.J. Liddell, 6-7, Ohio State, 21.4 years
19. Minnesota (Baig): TyTy Washington, 6-3.75, Kentucky, 20.5 years
20. San Antonio (Nelson): Nikola Jovic, 6-11, Mega Bemax, 18.9 years
21. Denver (Modderno): Jalen Williams, 6-5.75, Santa Clara, 21.1 years
22. Memphis (Baig): Kennedy Chandler, 6-0.75, Tennessee, 19.7 years
23. Brooklyn (Nelson): MarJon Beauchamp, 6-6.5, G League Ignite, 20.6 years
24. Milwaukee (Modderno): Jake LaRavia, 6-8, Wake Forest, 20.6 years
25. San Antonio (Baig): Walker Kessler, 7-1, Auburn, 20.8 years
26. Dallas (Nelson): Kendall Brown, 6-7.5, Baylor, 19 years
27. Miami (Modderno): Christian Braun, 6-7, Kansas, 21.1 years
28. Golden State (Baig): David Roddy, 6-6, Colorado State, 21.2 years
29. Memphis (Nelson): Wendell Moore Jr., 6-5.5, Duke, 20.7 years
30. Oklahoma City (Modderno): Blake Wesley, 6-4.25, Notre Dame, 19.2 years