NBA Draft: Where would Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley rank compared to the past 10 year’s top-3 picks?

The Detroit Pistons are on the clock, and they have the privilege and the pressure of finding and selecting the best player in the 2021 NBA Draft. The consensus No. 1 pick is Cade Cunningham, but the top three of the draft seems particularly strong with Jalen Green and Evan Mobley all having particular cases for at least making Detroit’s decision difficult.

While everyone loves doing a mock draft, I wondered how people would set up a mock draft of the previous 10 year’s top-3 overall selections. That gives us a whole first round of teams, and allows us to add a mix of players who have seen the entirety of their careers play out, many at or near their peak, some derailed by injuries and some just straight up disappointments for various reasons.

The goal would be to determine where you would slot everybody, but with a particular eye on where you end up placing Cunningham, Green and Mobley. One major, obvious caveat — the top players in most drafts are often found after the top-3 picks. But drafts are crap shoots, GMs make mistakes and sometimes players just never develop, but there is also typically some broad consensus around the top 3 picks.

We are also forced to pick a little bit presumptively so you will need to project out just how good a LaMelo Ball or Zion Williamson will be compared to what we already know about Joell Embiid and Bradley Beal.

Throw your draft boards in the comments.