The Houston Rockets were lucky to land Alperen Sengun in the 2021 NBA Draft. I had him second overall in my own mock draft, where Bleacher Report has him landing third.
With that in mind, let me issue an apology. When I recently published my own lottery redraft, I forgot Austin Reaves was drafted in 2021. He should have landed somewhere between fifth and seventh, which speaks to the strength of this class.
One could argue that the Lakers won this draft, although Reaves was technically undrafted. What a tremendous steal:
But that's not what we're hear to talk about. Let's talk about Sengun's placement in Bleacher Report's new redraft instead.
Rockets landed a top prospect outside of the lottery
Bleacher Report has Evan Mobley going first and Cade Cunningham going second.
To reiterate, I'd mentioned in my own redraft that the top-3 in this class are extremely flexible. You could make the case that Mobley is the best two-way player between him, Cunningham, and Sengun, so he deserves to be picked first.
You could also make the case that he's the weakest offensive player of the trio, so he should be picked third. Offense is the more important component of the game. Neither Cunningham nor Sengun is a defensive slouch, so plenty of teams would opt to draft a viable offensive engine over a defensive anchor like Mobley.
Bleacher Report identifies this, saying that if you "bake in the offensive strides made under head coach Ime Udoka, Sengun is one of three players with a first-overall case". So, fair enough. This isn't an exact science, and picking Mobley isn't going to tank anybody.
Not like, say, taking the 15th-best player in the class with the second overall pick...
Former Rockets lottery pick slips in every mock draft
Some Rockets fans would accuse me of being harsh by having Jalen Green go tenth in my re-draft. They may want to avoid this Bleacher Report article.
They've got Green going 15th. Frankly, they make a compelling case. Either way, there seems to be a firm consensus that the Rockets bungled the second-overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.
It's the most crucial mistake of the Rafael Stone era. The Rockets are fortunate that he's made so many more strong decisions. One of those was flipping Green for Kevin Durant before his next contract:
But a larger one was trading for Alperen Sengun on draft night.