NBA Draft: How did the experts do evaluating the 2020 Draft?

Evaluating the NBA Draft experts: Chad Ford

Chad Ford was one of the earliest draft analysts to gain a following, and he was a longtime fixture on ESPN and now on his own personal website. His pre-draft rankings are listed here.

What he got right: Ford was one of many to correctly peg LaMelo Ball as the best player in this draft class. He also dropped French point guard Killian Hayes to 10th, one of the lower numbers among analysts.

Further down the board, he was the highest of the five experts on Leandro Bolmaro, the Argentine combo guard, ranking him 23rd. Similarly, he had Jaden McDaniels ranked 24th, which while way too high was tied for the lowest of the group. Players such as Anthony Edwards, Devin Vassell, Aaron Nesmith and Aleksej Pokusevski came out similarly ranked a season later as they did in his pre-draft rankings.

What he got wrong: Chad Ford ranked James Wiseman third overall, which was both similar to many but also too high. What was more aggressive than the consensus was his ranking of Deni Avdija, whom Ford had ranked at fourth overall but who went 14th in our redraft. He also went to bat for Precious Achiuwa, ranking the Memphis big man 12th, and Udoka Azubuike, ranking the Kansas center 34th; apparently, only the Utah Jazz were higher on Azubuike than Ford.

There were a few players that Ford ranked too low, including Immanuel Quickley at 42 — although in Ford’s defense, most everyone did. He was the lowest on Desmond Bane, ranking him at 35 (he went seventh in our redraft) and fellow Grizzlies draftee Xavier Tillman Sr. (33rd, when he went 22nd in the redraft). Finally, Ford was the lowest of the group by far on Paul Reed, the DePaul power forward; while Ford captured the league consensus, as Reed went 58th, he would almost certainly be a first-round pick now and went 19th in our redraft.

Grade: C; Ford understands teams really well but seems to miss on certain factors that will kill a player in the modern NBA