Houston Rockets: 37 best prospects in the 2021 NBA Draft

Houston Rockets NBA Draft big board 1-5

Rank Player                  Ave Rank          Range

#1    Cade Cunningham:    1.3               1-3

#2    Evan Mobley:              2.4               2-3

#3    Jalen Suggs:                2.8               1-4

#4    Jalen Green:                3.6               2-4

#5    Jonathan Kuminga:  5.3               5-6

If the Houston Rockets keep their first-round pick then they can take solace knowing that there isn’t much debate over who the top-five players are in this draft. Cade Cunningham has seemingly locked down the number one overall slot with every single big board, save for one, regarding him as the best player in the draft.

After Cunningham is where the debate begins. The difference between Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs is small but the fact remains that most people have Mobley as the second-best prospect and Suggs as the third best. What this means for the Rockets is that if they miss out on the first overall pick there isn’t much of a difference between the second or third.

Rounding out the top five are two players from the inaugural class for the NBA’s G-League Ignite program. Both Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga skipped college and instead played professionally in the G-League.

How Green and Kuminga two fare in the pros will have a dramatic impact on how teams view the next wave of high school to G-League prospects and them being behind three college players isn’t a surprise. NBA front offices and scouts have long undervalued players that skipped college in favor of an alternative route and it wouldn’t be a surprise if both Kuminga and Green end up better players than at least one of the players likely selected ahead of them.

Some analysts have Green as high as two but for most, he is viewed as the fourth-best prospect in the draft. Meanwhile, Kuminga has locked down the fifth spot with all but two ranking him as the fifth-best prospect, and the two that deviated have him ranked sixth.

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