ESPN’s latest NBA mock draft has Suns address center concerns early

The key point of the college basketball season is here, as the most talented NBA prospects are starting to separate themselves from the others.

As we also inch closer to the 2018 NBA Draft, numerous mock drafts have started to analyze what players best fit the needs of each NBA team.

For the Phoenix Suns, that means addressing concerns at the center and point guard positions.

At center, Alex Len is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and 35-year-old Tyson Chandler is nearing the end of his 17th year in the league.

At the same time, the Suns haven’t seen the same explosiveness at the point guard position since Eric Bledsoe was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in November.

Whether one or both of those positions can be addressed before the trade deadline or after the season remains to be seen.

But with the Suns seemingly in a position to have a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft, general manager Ryan McDonough will have a decision on draft night about which position to address first.

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In ESPN’s latest NBA mock draft, the Suns are slated to take Texas center Mohamed Bamba with the third overall pick.

Bamba is an interesting draft prospect, as has been pointed out in the Empire of the Suns NBA Draft Big Board. With a 7-foot frame and 7-foot-9 wingspan, Bamba has tremendous upside with an ability to dominate in the paint on both ends of the court.

According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Bamba makes the most sense for the Suns if Luka Doncic and Deandre Ayton were off the board.

With Tyson Chandler on the wrong side of 30 and Alex Len entering unrestricted free agency, shoring up the center position looks like a natural move for the Suns here. It helps that they won’t be sacrificing anything in terms of talent, as Bamba will likely get some looks in the top two as well due to his rare combination of length, shot-blocking instincts and offensive promise.

Bamba is starting to make 3-pointers more consistently (6-for-17 in his past 8 games), and his unicorn potential gives him arguably the highest upside of any player in this draft.

Bamba averages 12.4 points and 10.7 rebounds for the Longhorns, shooting 53 percent from the field. He also presents an ability to shoot from 3-point range, though, has not been able to connect on most attempts this season as he is 9-for-36 (25 percent) from beyond the arc.

The Suns are projected to pick Duke freshman point guard Trevon Duval with the 22nd pick in the first round, a pick they acquired from the Miami Heat in the Goran Dragic trade from 2015.

If the pick lands outside the top-7, it will convey to the Suns this year, as it does in this scenario.

Duval presents the same explosiveness from the point guard position that Givony says the Suns are missing.

The Suns are in dire need of a starting-caliber point guard after trading Eric Bledsoe to the Bucks.

Duval has had a somewhat disappointing freshman year thus far and has seen his stock drop significantly from where he started the season. The Suns could opt to take a flyer on the big, long-armed, athletic guard, hoping that a change of scenery and NBA spacing help him realize the potential he demonstrated in high school down the road. Duval’s jump shot looks irrevocably broke, but he displays enough promise in other areas to warrant a flyer at this stage of the draft.

Duval’s season numbers don’t necessarily stand out like other point guards in the class, as he averages 11.5 points, 6 assists and 1.6 steals on a Duke team riddled with talent.

But, his athleticism is enough to warrant a first-round selection, as he could potentially provide the spark the Suns desperately seek alongside Devin Booker.

As for the Suns’ remaining three picks in the second round, Givony projects them to pick Florida guard Jalen Hudson, Villanova point guard Jalen Brunson and Illinois State shooting guard Milik Yarbrough.

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