NBA Draft Mailbag: Our final predictions for mid-major prospects

The NBA Draft is tonight, marking the unofficial end our relationship with some of our favorite players as a part of the college basketball community.

The draft will be dominated by Power 5 prospects, but there’s plenty of intrigue surrounding the mid-major stars. Will Chandler Hutchison wind up as a first round pick as many expect? Which team is going to gamble and take Mitchell Robinson? Can Brandon McCoy work his way onto a team’s draft board? There’s a lot going on tonight that should pique the interest of mid-major fans.

With that being said, those aren’t the only questions. In this NBA Draft-themed Twitter mailbag, we’ve try to answer your questions in anticipation of the big night.

To me, Kostas Antetokuonmpo (yes, I spelled that without looking) is the most intriguing mid-major prospect in the draft. Antetokuonmpo was merely a role player for Dayton in his lone year with the Flyers, but it’s easy to see why a NBA team could be enticed by his potential.

Similar to his brother Giannis, Kostas is extremely long with a 7’2.25 wingspan. He’s athletic too, and has a raw skillset that could potentially be molded. Granted, this is a workout video, but you can see the flashes of what he could become:

In the end, I think Kostas gets drafted somewhere in the second round. Some team will be willing to take on the project of developing him into a contributor in hopes of him finding success similar to that of his brother’s.

Ingram is a guy that, in theory, is perfect for the modern NBA. The Loyola wing has 3-and-D guy written all over him. He shoot nearly 40% from distance during his career, and at 6’6 he brings the size to defend multiple positions.

As far as his draft stock goes, I’ve seen him pop in a few mock drafts here and there as a second round guy. The latter part of the draft is a crapshoot to predict though, so it’s hard to say with any confidence that he’ll get drafted. If he doesn’t, he’ll absolutely get a chance on a Summer League roster.

Alize Johnson is another one of the guys that I see as a fringe second round guy. Greg wrote about what he can bring to the table here.

The biggest thing working against him was his poor showing at the combine. At just 6’8 with a 6’8.75 wingspan, there are concerns about his lack of size for the position. He didn’t shoot it all that well at the combine, and his stats from this season don’t really give him the benefit of the doubt. As of now, I think it would be a surprise to see him drafted, but wouldn’t rule it out entirely.

As I said above, predicting the second round of the draft can be a crapshoot. I think that Antetokuonmpo, Kevin Hervey or Brandon McCoy could all end up as late second round picks.

You have to think that not having any players get drafted will put Geno on the hot seat tonight.

To be blunt: Your favorite player probably isn’t going to get picked. If they weren’t invited to the combine, their odds aren’t great. But that’s okay! All of these guys will probably get Summer League invites. That’s as viable of a path to make a roster as getting drafted is.