NC college basketball guys in the NBA Draft.

Matt Norlander, CBSSports.com. The Eye on College Basketball Podcast. I appreciate your time on a busy draft day and I know there's a lot of other news breaking as well. First, let me give you a compliment on the Emergency Eye on College Basketball Podcast on Bob Huggins. Live podcasting isn't always easy.

I try it with the hurricanes. I hope, I know you fixed your whatever got caught in your throat. I thought that was a riveting read of the Huggins arrest report. A terrifying read of that.

So I just wanted to give you your props for that. So let's get into your mock draft and I think you do mock drafts the way they're supposed to be done. What do we think these players will be? Because if we're just drafting for today we're doing it wrong. So we all know Victor Wenbanyama is going to be the best player in this draft or he should be anyway.

Everything is set up for that. I was intrigued by number three so we'll start local because you have Derek Lively at number three. Yeah I do and by the way like I've done it in this format so you'll go to CBSSports.com and the layout looks like all the other mock drafts but man oh man unfortunately the reading comprehension of a certain section of the of the sports loving public I may need to just not have team logos and do I may I may need to do this more traditionally going forward because it's fine like I'm kind of tapping into my inner Gary Parrish here but like the people that find this thing are like this is the absolute worst most idiotic mock draft I've ever seen in my entire life. It's not necessarily a mock draft it is how I think the draft should go based on who I think will have the best NBA careers and yes every year when I do this with intention I make sure to have a couple of big swings because guess what many more years often than not you will have players wind up being you know top three top five top eight in a given draft class that are picked well after that and so Derek Lively out of Duke I do have and I admit that this is not not likely but I think it is possible I have him as the third best player from this class when we look up a decade from now only bested by Wembe and by Scoot Henderson and the reason why is that Lively has all of the tools and all of the potential to be an all-star level big man at the NBA level if he can put it all together and play consistently and have some offensive you know dynamism to his game like he can shoot a three he's going to have to grow into that and be asked and be relied upon to do it I think he will I think he'll shoot 35 from three as a pro that's going to be a major factor in this defensively we know what he can be I think he's got a chance to be a top five defender in the NBA he just happens to be the second best potential defender and big man in his own draft class because you know it's just one Binyama is not an absolute sure thing because there's no such thing as a sure thing but you got to be practical with this like one Binyama is on his own on his own tier here so yes I do have lively third overall projected I want to be I want to be clear though he will not be a top five rookie next season and it will take time but I also think and then talking to a few NBA folks this week I think there's a chance there's a chance he actually sneaks in some and goes you know 9 10 11 on Thursday we'll see his range is viewed as like 9 to 16 or so but the vibe is that he is moving up and it is much more likely that he will go say 11 than he would say 15 now you can't teach seven foot uh Matt Norlander is joining us from cbssports.com and the iron college basketball podcast here's the thing I talked to Chris Carroll about him we had him on the other day and I talked to him about both him and Derek Whitehead who we'll get to next and he likened him to Tyson Chandler he thinks he can fill out uh maybe not to be what Tyson Chandler was who was basically uh part superhero uh after a while although he did have back problems uh but he thinks that lively will get better and we we know that there is offensive upside because that's how he was billed coming into uh coming into duke that he can he can step outside and hit three pointers he tried a couple tried a few I think he shot like 11 times or so from three point range during the season he made one I thought everybody went bananas when he made one but I I agree I think he's a super athlete I think he can guard multiple positions if he gets switched off maybe not on all point guards but I don't think he's going to embarrass himself if in a screen and roll he gets switched off on a point guard I think he can bother them I think the defensive side is really where he's going to make his money I think there's a lot to that and I do think it also will matter where he winds up getting drafted I think he is a plus sometimes that matters with the players sometimes it doesn't so many factors go into uh what makes a guy have a successful NBA career some of them are under his control some of them are not obviously where you go the kind of coach you go to the city you live in the part of the country you know like there are you talk to people at the NBA level and frankly I've talked to a few NBA players over the years who I first got to interview and know in college and I think it's a way more complex now there is a you know as I'm as the saying and belief goes in NBA circles like 20 percent of the league is going to play in the league no matter why it just doesn't matter they're that good they're that valuable but the other 80 percent like it is it is situation dependent and so for lively in particular I do think where he gets selected if he goes to the right kind of franchise that wants to use him in the right ways develop them then he's got a chance but his defense his defensive upside is really really huge and then you just you know he's just so active as a big man I his stats don't pop out I do can I get that and some of it a lot of factors there as well but I think the best is yet to come and it is no surprise to hear that his stock is you know steadily increased over the past month is Derek is Derek Whitehead's stock also increasing because I don't know that it is but maybe it should be I don't believe that it is I think there's a decently wide spectrum now I have Whitehead as the 12th best player long term in this draft now some of that is based off of what I saw before he got to do right my colleague 247 sports Adam Finkelstein has made sure to to know I think both on our podcast and also on HQ this week that Whitehead essentially played hurt the entire season so there's some of that now he has he he's currently not able to play and he just had he has second foot surgery and he's expected to be good to go later this year but that will drop him down a few spots spots if he wanted a one wound up going after pick 25 26 27 I think that's on the table I think his best case scenario to get drafted is I think right now heading into this is probably like 19th or 20th I think but he's got the size I think he's grown into be a really good shooter I think if he if he avoids injuries and that's what I'm also I'm also saying with this is that like I don't think he's going to have injury issues plague his career if they do it changes everything but if he can get healthy stay healthy his size and also his defensive versatility as a shooting guard I actually think is is pretty is pretty pretty high I I don't know I like him I kind of I you know I do that it sounds strange but I swear it's the truth I do this I look at the players I look at their skill sets I remember what I saw in high school with it in college and I don't really take school affiliation into account whatsoever I just don't and then I and then sure enough I notice well geez I got two Duke guys in the top 12 I've got three Yukon guys in the top 30 men and it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that they won the national championship I just happen to think that Yukon's Jordan Hawkins Andre Jackson Jr. and Adama Sanogo will be three of the 30 best players from this draft when we look up in the mid 2030s so anyway I it is beneficial to to people in your part of the country area to see that the Duke has this it is not lined up with where the NBA is right now in terms of like Whitehead's not going to get picked in the lottery that's not happening but I think he eventually puts it together and is a really solid shooting guard that starts for a number of years in the NBA. Matt Norlander CBSSports.com Ion College Basketball Podcast is joining us I do want to talk about Scoot versus Brandon Miller but you lead me into something else that I don't want to forget so because you talk about two Duke guys or two Connecticut three Connecticut guys in your top 30 so I had a conversation with Seth Greenberg about overtime elite yesterday and I'm not knocking overtime elite I'm not knocking g-league ignite where Scoot Henderson played in the Thompson Twins played at overtime elite but is there an argument to be made that one of the things that we always forget is the is competitive basketball and games of consequence where the outcome matters and I'm not sure that Scoot Henderson played a game where the outcome mattered for g-league ignite and I don't think the I watched overtime elite because my son is hugely into it but man those were the worst basketball games I've ever watched for the level of talent some of those guys played had so is is college a better way to evaluate simply because the games matter and you get to see something in these players that you won't get to see in those settings you will get a lot of people at the NBA level telling you yes but because of where we are in the early stages of g-league night and overtime elite which are two very different things in very different parts of the country playing very different competition like g-league ignite you are playing NBA players like they are guys on two-way contracts but you know you are going up against grown men and in many cases you're either playing guys that are absolutely in love with basketball because you have to be to play in the g-league or they are on their they're on their way probably in many cases to to at least going back and making a roster there so from so I bring that up to say a lot of NBA scouts and front office executives have taken a good amount of stock into the actual competition in g-league ignite OTE is a different deal at this stage and the thompson twins being on the precipice of both being drafted in the top 10 I think amen will go forward to the rockets asar is a little bit tougher to project you can hear anything from five all the way down to nine we'll see if any teams in the top 10 trade and if that affects it but they're going to go top 10 and then we'll see how good or not they are at the next level I agree with you that in college inherently there is just so much more at stake you're also more publicly visible you are dealing with the media more often there are many things about going and playing high major division one men's college basketball that can set you up for success at the next level if you are a valid and legitimate NBA prospect but I'm not going to discount either those leagues yet because they're still you know OTE is in its infancy for the most part and it's been around for a couple years and and scoot is undeniable like scoot had scoot gone to college basketball I mean it's hard to see how he would not been just an absolute menace and force and musty kind of player but he chose the ignite route and now he'll get picked either second or third tonight because of it matt norlander cbssports.com ion college basketball podcast you got back to scoot I appreciate that we'll close on that appreciate your time best to you and your family enjoyed the draft tonight and I'll talk to you down the road sir thanks I appreciate you have a nice day.