Houston Rockets: 37 best prospects in the 2021 NBA Draft

Houston Rockets NBA Draft big board 6-10

Rank   Player               Ave Rank      Range

#6    Scottie Barnes:     7.9               5-11

#7    Keon Johnson:      8.4               6-15

#8    Davion Mitchell:  9.1               5-17

#9    Josh Giddey:         12.6             8-16

#10 Franz Wagner:    13.4              8-19

The only way the Houston Rockets end up making a selection between picks six and ten is if they make a trade, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility. However, even if the Rockets don’t make a selection in this range it is imperative that they know if a good prospect is falling and the value that other teams might place on certain picks.

Scottie Barnes and Keon Johnson are pretty firmly entrenched as the sixth and seventh best prospects in the draft. Only two big boards have Barnes outside of the top-10 and both of them have him 11th, and while the same can be said of Johnson, one board has him as the 15th best prospect.

The eighth-ranked prospect, Davion Mitchell, has a lot of buzz surrounding him right now and he is the most likely bet to beat his draft ranking due to his perceived NBA readiness. At 22-years-old he is an older prospect but there is almost zero chance he falls out of the top-10 as he is pretty solidly considered the eighth-best prospect.

So far in this draft, we’ve seen drop-offs in perceived prospect quality, based upon average rank, from first to second, third to fourth, fifth to sixth, and now eighth to ninth. These drops don’t mean much for the future but they indicate which prospects are viewed as being roughly the same quality.

Josh Giddey, the ninth-rated player, is an intriguing prospect that every source has a mid to late lottery pick. He’s a jumbo-sized playmaker from Australia and if he had dominated in the NCAA for a season he might be knocking on the top-five, but he looks like a safe bet to go anywhere from seventh to fourteenth.

Rounding out the top-ten is Franz Wagner, who the Rockets should keep an out on if he is to slip. Wagner’s average ranking is closely bunched with players ranked 11 through 14 and one big board has him ranked as low as 19th. Wagner is close to a top-ten talent and if the Rockets can land him by packaging the 23rd and 24th picks then they should absolutely consider doing it.

Next: 11 to 15