2014 NBA Lottery Mock Draft & Top 20 Prospects

Who would you take?

My favorite draft* in sports is today so it's time to make some more crazy sports predictions (Hopefully more successful than my World Cup ones!). 

*Easily my favorite draft. Hockey's a nonstarter, baseball players don't show up in the league till 3 or 4 years later, & the NFL draft... Listen, I like the NFL draft, but after the first round do you care about who anyone's drafting besides your favorite team (& maybe division rivals)? Do you know who any of the non-quarterbacks are after first round? No & no––unless you're some crazy Mel Kiper wannabe. The NBA draft is primarily made up of guys you know, & they can have a huge &, immediate, impact. Only 5 players are on the court at a time, instead of 11, & they play offense & defense. Not only that but starters & even all-stars are traded during the draft, & they have championship impact. Remember Ray Allen to the Celtics, what about George Hill for Kawhi Leonard? Those were huge trades! And this year we've got Kevin Love hanging out waiting to see if the Wolves are smart enough to trade him now rather than getting nothing next year. It's gonna be so much fun! 

The NBA draft has always been a mixed bag for me. In 2009 I whiffed harder than David Kahn, nailing just 4 of the 14 lottery picks, including having DeJuan Blair going to the Pacers at 13 when he actually went 37 to the Spurs. In fairness to me Kahn should've taken Steph Curry like I predicted, & Blair's a better player than actual Pacer pick Tyler Hansbrough.* In 2010 I rebounded, hitting 9 of 14 & beating out every major sports publication (Believe me, I checked). 2011** saw me go a solid 8/14, overrate Derrick Williams & have a better understanding of how good Kawhi Leonard was that a bunch of NBA teams (then again everyone who wasn't a NBA GM seemed to). I skipped 2012, then last year the Cavs went crazy, picking Anthony Bennet 1st, trades were happening all over the place, madness reigned & I ended up a Skip Bayless like 2/14.*** Suffice to say I run pretty hot & cold with the NBA draft, so hopefully this is a bounce back year. Or maybe not... Last year's craziness was a lot of fun & this year has the bonus of the players being drafted actually being good. 

*I may also have had Jordan Hill as the third best prospect, ahead of James Harden & Steph Curry, so I'm no GM. Fuck... why would you even read on beyond this point after I told you that? Just know that between Hill & Derrick Williams I've learned to check my Arizona bias. 


**The best part of my 2011 predictions––my 5 sleepers: Jimmy Butler, Charles Jenkins, Nikola Mirotic, Norris Cole, & Isaiah Thomas. Butler's an elite defender, Thomas is a future 6th man award winner (Who was the last pick of the draft!), Cole's a solid backup, & Mirotic should be an impact player once he comes over from Europe. If only I'd said Chandler Parsons instead of Charles Jenkins I'd look like a genius. 

***I have no idea if Bayless ever makes draft predictions, but if he did I'd imagine they'd be horrible & he'd figure out a way to criticize LeBron James with every pick.

2014 World Cup: Who Takes Home the Trophy?

Obviously New Zealand won't be winning it all,
as they did in my World Cup 2014, but who will?

Today, after a long four year wait, the World Cup begins yet again so it's time to post the rest of my predictions––both those based on logic (Joseph's) & those based on whim (Joe's). You can see the group play predictions here, & the round of 16 predictions here. First let's recap who's left. 

Joseph's Final 8: Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Belgium

Joe's Final 8: "Brasil", England, France, Germany, Chile, Italy, Argentina, Ghana

Now on to the rest of the picks!

2014 World Cup: Round of 16

I've narrowed it down to 16, but who moves on now?

Yesterday I made my picks for who will escape group play in this year's World Cup, you can read those here, today I'm going to pick all of the elimination games. Of course if you read yesterday's piece you know I'm not making entirely straight forward picks. We've got Joseph's picks, which are reality driven, & Joe's picks, which are based on some combination of movies, non-soccer history, & pro-Africa bias. The smart money's on Joseph's picks, but this World Cup will be a lot more fun if Joe turns out to be right. Okay all this writing about my self (selves?) in the third person is starting to freak me out so let's just get to the predictions.

2014 World Cup: Who Gets Out of Group Play

We're now on the brink of the greatest sporting event in the world* so it's time for me to make some predictions! Am I even remotely qualified to make World Cup predictions? Well... I did win the

World Cup in World Cup 2014 on my Xbox with New Zealand, which surely counts for something. Or at least it would if I didn't create the entire team, including a 6'7 goalie. But that's neither here nor there, the important thing is I'm back to making sports predictions. Last year I predicted the Seattle Seahawks would be the best team in football & I don't see why picking the best country at fùtbol should be any more difficult. 

*Or just the biggest tournament involving the one popular sport that requires essentially no equipment, has simple enough rules that people can play it anywhere, & doesn't involve actual tackling so wimps can play it. Now to be sure the first two aren't bad things, it's good to have an accessible game that both rich & poor can play, but it is important to acknowledge the real reasons soccer is the most popular sport in the world as opposed to "because it's the best!" The third, well... when soccer players stop flopping all over the field like they've been shot maybe I'll respect their toughness. Until then give me the other sport that has constant action and a World Cup every four years, because no one can doubt it's played by real men.  Plus this, no soccer team has a pre-game ritual that cool. 

You suck "Brasil."

Haha ok, I don't know much of anything about soccer so I'm going to make two sets of predictions. Joseph is going to make cautious, cerebrally based, forecasts of the results ahead while Joe is going to make wild predictions straight from the gut. Is that too gimmicky? Maybe, but it'll be fun to see if the World Cup is anything like March Madness, where your six-year-old niece beat you this year because she liked the Connecticut mascot. Without further ado let's get to my billion dollar bracket.