If you scour the web looking at Mock Drafts there are four things that are certain.

The first thing that everybody knows is what the strengths and the weaknesses each team are.  From those strengths and weaknesses it is pretty easy to see what types of talent need to be brought into remedy the shortfalls and complement the strengths.

The second thing that is for certain is the current draft order.  Now obviously that can change, but currently everybody knows who is picking in which positions from first pick to the sixtieth pick.

The third thing that is not in doubt is that every NBA team has a thorough scouting report on almost everybody who is remotely draft worthy, and often years and years worth of these scouting reports.  You used to be able to pick a sleeper in the draft based off of doing extra homework.  The only thing that management has a tough time with now is figuring out which players are capable of translating previous success into NBA success, and which players are going to collect several million dollars at the end of the bench and fade into the sunset.

The fourth thing that is for certain is that nobody writing Mock Drafts has any idea of anything else.

In order to gain every competitive advantage there is more smoke-blowing this year than there ever has been, and teams are bringing in tons and tons of college and foreign players for workouts, whether they are really interested in them or not (sometimes they serve as a good measuring stick on which to judge players that they really ARE interested in, and sometimes they serve to confuse the competition).

Complicate this matter further by throwing in the fact that there are no consensus picks anywhere in the draft (except maybe a consensus of those players which have no chance of being drafted).  It seems like this is the first year where the top three to five picks change widely between drafts, and often widely in the same Mock Draft from week to week.
It should be noted, too, that we always have the same fun problem that we have every year in making draft predictions.  Trading of personnel and/or picks muddies the draft waters by ruining two of the certainties that we do have.  It alters the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and it messes up the draft order.

Even with all of that, though, it sure is fun to look at all of the Mock Drafts.

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