The draft is the ultimate game of chance. Heading into the 2019 NBA Draft, these five players could outperform where they’re selected.
Scouting the NBA draft is a year-long task. Players break out from nowhere, some make steady improvements over the course of the college season, and with the one-and-done movement still going strong, there’s a new crop of freshmen to track year after year.
For months, mock drafts are compiled, scouting reports and big boards release every few weeks, and still when the NBA draft rolls around there always manages to be a few players who go later than they should.
Sometimes injury concerns have them slip down the draft, sometimes teams rather invest in a sure thing than taking a shot on someone with potential, sometimes it’s the opposite. For whatever reason, there are always sleepers in every draft class.
The 2019 NBA Draft will be no different than any drafts before it. Without a consensus on players outside of the top three (Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, and RJ Barrett) it will be interesting to see who rises and who falls on Thursday night.
In the following slides, we will dive into five players who are most likely to have better NBA careers in comparison to the expected outcome of a player taken in that range. Sleepers can come from any part of the draft. Some of the names will go in the first round, some will go in the second round, and some might even go completely undrafted.