re: Fact: We will be picking one of 7 players:

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Is there a consensus No. 1 prospect in this year's draft? Is there a consensus anything in this year's draft? Of course, the word "consensus" is a bit of a joke. We are a week away from the draft, and there are still major debates running internally within every front office in the league. If teams can't agree, internally, on the order of draft prospects, how can we create a "consensus" ranking? As hard as it is for NBA draftniks to believe, there is little agreement within teams, let alone between them, on draft night. This year is especially difficult. There aren't any elite players at the top of the draft, and there is enormous parity from the late lottery to the early second round. Many prospects are all over the board. I've been doing this a long time, and I've never seen so little agreement so close to the draft. The draft is an inexact science, despite concerted attempts to create analytical models that are more predictive of a player's future success. I've read through a number of those models, and they don't agree on anything either. NBA teams watch prospects play thousands of hours of games. They go to practices and camps. They hire guys from MIT to create statistical solutions. They work out players, give them psychological tests, do background checks and conduct personal interviews. And still, there is little consensus. Factor in the debate between taking the best player available versus filling team needs and the situation muddies itself further.

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