The recent mock NBA draft guts the ACC’s top teams.

ESPN’s latest guess as to which college players will go and where if the NBA draft was held today is especially impactful on the ACC’s three best teams, especially Duke. The Blue Devils’ four freshmen are all one-and-done first rounders, three in the first four picks. Zion Williamson has moved to the top of the board as No. 1 overall by the 10-win New York Knicks, for whom he has said he would love to join and rock Madison Square Garden.

Teammate R.J Barrett, who was on most of the earlier mock boards as the top pick, is listed by ESPN at No. 2 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are sitting on 12 wins for the current NBA season and need a lot more help than the lithe 6-9 lefty.

After Murray State’s sleeper, 6-foot-3 point guard Ja Morant from South Carolina, at No. 3 comes Duke’s Cam Reddish as the 4th overall pick with the Chicago Bulls where he would join ex-one-and-done Dukie Wendell Carter, Jr. Reddish got off to a slower start than Zion and Barrett, but how he was pumping in long jumpers in the comeback win over Louisville, Reddish may be the best prototype small forward of them all.

Carolina’s Nassir Little is still a lottery pick, No. 7 in the ESPN predictions to the Washington Wizards. Little is a poster child for one-and-dones being drafted on potential, as his struggles on the college level have been well-documented all season. Nas has played much better and looser lately, but he still comes off the bench and sees only 20 minutes per game.

Virginia 6-8 stud De’Andre Hunter, one of the Cavaliers’ wrecking trio the other night against the Tar Heels, is listed as the No. 9 pick to Minnesota. So that makes five underclassmen lottery picks said to be going from the ACC’s top three teams.

Duke point guard Tre Jones also made the first round, projected at No. 24 by Boston, which would be very interesting if the Celtics traded or lost Kyrie Irving, as rumored. Right behind Jones is Carolina’s Coby White, who has vaulted into the first round and going to the 76ers per ESPN.

Now, both Duke and Carolina have good freshman classes coming in next season, with each still recruiting unsigned high school seniors. But if Duke lost four and Carolina lost two, plus three other starters, neither team would be nearly as good in 2020, as well as Virginia, playing without Hunter.

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