Pippen Ain’t Easy’s 2022 NBA Mock Draft: Final two-round forecast

Admittedly, Patrick Baldwin Jr. just suffered a disastrous freshman season and will likely slip late in the draft because of it. Foregoing the opportunity to play at Duke, Baldwin instead opted to join his father in Milwaukee. Baldwin’s weak supporting cast allowed opposing defenses to hone in and affect his shot. Baldwin’s shooting was supposed to be his calling card, but he hit just 17-of-64 attempts (26.6%) from deep before going down for the season with an ankle injury.

Those 11 games did a lot to tank Baldwin’s draft stock. But as we saw with Memphis’ recent selection of Ziaire Williams, one rough season at the collegiate level isn’t enough to discourage the Grizzlies from selecting real talent when they see it. If he performs well in private workouts and recaptures the shooting that helped make him the 5th highest-rated prospect in 2021, Baldwin could still be a first-round steal.

By trading away JaMychal Green and a future first-round pick, the Denver Nuggets were clearly on the look for a player that could come in and help contribute to their championship chase while still hopefully having room to develop further. No one fits that bill better than Kendall Brown, who is one of this draft’s best athletes and defensive talents.

In fact, Brown will likely have a very similar role to Denver’s Aaron Gordon when he finally cracks an NBA team’s rotation. Surrounding Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. with great defensive talent is a great idea and should help mitigate defensive issues while the stars can focus on what they’re best at—putting points on the board.