NBA Mock Draft : Celtics to give up first pick Paul George?

Mock drafts should be fun. Look man – I understand the desire to know what is most likely to happen on draft night. But I'm just as interested in the wacky scenarios that could happen on these utterly predictable of nights.

So for this mock draft, I'm taking a different route than your typical mock draft. What if NBA teams get insanely trade-happy on June 22, and tons of draft-night trades throw off even the best-laid of our mock-draft plans?

This is an especially important year to consider the possibility of a slew of draft-night trades blowing up any mock scenarios experts come up with. 

One reason is because the team with the No. 1 pick is the Boston Celtics, a team that's fresh off a trip to the Eastern Conference finals. This isn't a rebuilding team; this is a team that's a piece or two away from legit title contention, and I wonder if Danny Ainge is thinking that getting a veteran star now is more important than a potential-filled 19-year-old who could pay off later.

The other reason is, well, this draft is stacked. We spoke about the 2014 draft (Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid, etc.) as one of the deepest, most talented draft classes in years. Well, the 2017 draft is deeper and more talented, I believe – perhaps the deepest draft since 2003 (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade). It's not a draft where you want to be on the outside looking in.