Kentucky sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis moved up while freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe moved out of the latest Draft Express Mock Draft for 2016 released Friday.
The 5-foot-9 Ulis moved up to No. 32 from No. 47 and could move into the first round, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com said.
Ulis this week was named the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
“For small guys, I think it translates even better in the NBA than college just because the floor’s more open,” Isaiah Thomas, the 5-9 guard from the Boston Celtics, recently told SNY.tv. “It gives you more space to create and if he could driblbe-drive and shoot the ball, l think he’s going to have a spot in this league.”
Meantime, the 6-3 Briscoe dropped out of the 2016 mock altogether and is now listed at No. 39 in 2017 because of “poor feedback” Givony has gotten from NBA personnel.
Kentucky has two guards coming in for 2016 in De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, who are projected at 4 and 15 in 2017, respectively. Should Briscoe spend another year on campus, Kentucky would have at least three key guards in the backcourt.
Kentucky now has just three players listed in the 2016 mock in No. 7 Jamal Murray, No. 10 Skal Labissiere and No. 32 Ulis.
Maryland sophomore Melo Trimble also fell to No. 29 in the 2016 mock.
The top 10 remained unchanged: No. 1 Ben Simmons of LSU, No. 2 Brandon Ingram of Duke, No. 3 Jaylen Brown of Cal, No. 4 Dragan Bender of Maccabi Tel Aviv, No. 5 Kris Dunn of Providence, No. 6 Jakob Poeltl of Utah, No. 7 Murray, No. 8 Henry Ellenson of Marquette, No. 9 Buddy Hield of Oklahoma and No. 10 Labissiere.
Five of the Top 10 projected picks are college freshmen.
Kansas, the No. 1 team in the nation, doesn’t have a single projected first-round pick. Freshman Cheick Diallo is listed at No. 31.
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
And like ZAGS on Facebook
