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The 2016 NBA Draft is still 49 days away. The playoffs have barely escaped their first round. Hell, the draft lottery hasn't even been run yet.
But that doesn't mean it's too early to start making predictions about where Vanderbilt standouts Damian Jones and Wade Baldwin IV will end up. The two Commodores left the program early to take advantage of a weak draft class and hope to be first round picks in this year's draft. If either is selected in the first 30 picks, they'd earn a guaranteed contract worth millions of dollars.
Jones and Baldwin could be the first Commodores selected in the first round since John Jenkins (23rd) and Festus Ezeli (30th) in 2012. Before them, Vanderbilt hadn't had a first round pick since Will Perdue back in 1988.
In order to get a better idea of where these standouts could end up, we turned to a handful of mock drafts from reputable site across the internet. Here's where the experts believe Damian Jones and Wade Baldwin IV will be selected in 2016.
Wade Baldwin | |||
Mock Draft | Pick | Team | Last Updated |
CBS (Gary Parrish) | 24 | 76ers | 5/4/2016 |
Draft Express | 15 | Nuggets | 4/26/2016 |
CBS (Sam Vecenie) | 16 | Celtics | 5/2/2016 |
USA Today | 17 | Grizzlies | 5/2/2016 |
Hoops Hype | n/a | n/a | 4/17/2016 |
ESPN (Chad Ford) | 22 | Hornets | 4/15/2016 |
Sports Illustrated | 20 | Grizzlies | 4/1/2016 |
Assuming an average selection at No. 40 in the mock draft that failed to include Baldwin, pundits place his average draft slot at No. 22.
Damian Jones | |||
Mock Draft | Pick | Team | Last Updated |
CBS (Gary Parrish) | 23 | Celtics | 5/4/2016 |
Draft Express | 20 | Pacers | 4/26/2016 |
CBS (Sam Vecenie) | n/a | n/a | 5/2/2016 |
USA Today | 29 | Spurs | 5/2/2016 |
Hoops Hype | 23 | Celtics | 4/17/2016 |
ESPN (Chad Ford) | n/a | n/a | 4/15/2016 |
Sports Illustrated | 26 | Raptors | 4/1/2016 |
Jones isn't as highly valued as Baldwin -- something few would have predicted coming in to the 2015-16 season. If you assume the CBS and ESPN mock drafts that fail to include him would slot him in at the 40th pick, his average draft position falls to 28.7.
There are no guarantees for the NBA Draft. The one thing we know is that mock drafts rarely agree on where Vandy's playmaking duo will end up.