With February coming to a conclusion, March is right around the corner. For college basketball players, it’s the home stretch leading into the postseason of conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament.
From an NBA perspective, how prospects perform under the bright lights is often a key variable when it comes to projecting their likely upside at the highest level. Thus, for teams with significant draft assets in a given year, “March Madness” is a crucial period for evaluations.
In 2022, one of those teams with major stakes in the upcoming NBA draft is clearly the Houston Rockets. Not only have the Rockets (15-43) held the league’s third-worst record for most of the 2021-22 season, but they also have a second first-round pick headed their way from Brooklyn — and it could be better than expected, since the Nets (31-28) entered the All-Star break with 12 losses in their last 14 games.
It’s possible that Brooklyn’s pick could even end up in the lottery, since the Nets are currently in a spot where they have to make it through the Eastern Conference’s play-in tournament just to make the playoffs.
Given the NBA’s week-long hiatus and frozen standings, a new wave of mock drafts has emerged in recent days. Within those, here’s a look at the latest pick odds and who the experts are projecting the Rockets to select with both their own pick and that of the Nets. Prospect descriptions and analysis can be found at the corresponding mock draft links.