DBB Mock Draft 2016: The Beginning

Greetings everyone. If you were around this time last year, chances are you knew about the absolutely awesome mock draft exercise we ran, created and mediated by our very own Awesome Hog. Well, this year, I've decided to bring it back, and it's going to be better than ever.

How It Works

Basically, participants will be assigned a franchise by a random draw. From there, they assume hypothetical control of said franchise and go through the pre-draft process of scouting players, bringing them in for workouts (this shit gets real), swinging trades for picks and whatnot and actually drafting the players themselves.

However, there are only 21 teams with a first round pick this year. Therefore, I was thinking that the first 21 people who declare interest will be given control of a team with a first round pick. The next 9 people who declare interest will be given control of one of the leftover franchises. From there, they will still take part in all the trade fun as they try and improve their team by picking at scraps or taking salary dumps from other teams, or maybe trying to trade into the first round altogether.

Rules

These will be explained again in the other posts to come, but just to give a brief outline now. These rules pertain mainly to trades and the actual drafting of players:

• All trades must be legitimate via the ESPN Trade Machine (where possible)
• Obviously, you cannot trade players who are about to hit free agency
• Any trade made must be posted in the official trade thread with the subject line *OFFICIAL TRADE* otherwise the league (me) will not recognise this trade as official and therefore will not be approved
• You can only draft players that are in the pool for the 2016 NBA Draft*

For this reason, the draft will be conducted after the cutoff date to withdraw from the NBA Draft, which is  June 13, 2016

Format**

This post is merely the introduction, to gauge interest and reel in the suckers acolytes of this intense process. There will be other threads showcasing the various things:

• Trade War Room Thread - this is where all trades are discussed, last year's thread garnered over 1000 comments I believe
• Official Trade Thread - this is where the *OFFICIAL TRADE* subjects will be posted. Failure to post in here will nullify any trades.
• Draft Thread - the fun part, the actual drafting of players
• Analysis Thread - the new part. In here, there'll be a recap of everything, and here's where awards and such will be given out. Ron Marshall, who was such an active part of this process last year, has the distinction of having the Ron Marshall Memorial Trophy named after him, which will go to the team voted by the fans to have improved the most via trades. Other fan-voted awards include:
• Best draft pick
• Worst draft pick
• Best offseason pre-FA (team)
• Worst offseason pre-FA (team)

**All future threads will be fanposts so as not to clog the front page of DBB, so make sure you keep an eye out for these. I'll tweet out when a new thread is posted, and you can follow me at @badboyskip.

Timeline

June 14, 2016 - Official DBB Mock Draft

To register your interest, all you have to do is comment below clearly stating your interest in taking part. Obviously I'll be involved in all this, so there's one spot taken. Therefore, the next 20 will be granted a team with a first-round pick, with the next nine being given a team without a first round pick, as they may try to get into the draft. Any other people after this point will be added to a wait list.

At the time of the draft, which will begin at 6PM ET on June 14, it is the responsibility of the franchise owner to be present in case your pick comes up. This is why I'm stating the time and date now so there's no surprises. Once the draft starts, there'll be a 2 hour hard limit in effect when it comes to draft picks, so as to keep the process moving. If you believe you won't be around to pick ahead of time, it is perfectly acceptable to email me a list of big board prospects available so I can make the pick for you if it comes to that. Otherwise, your franchise will be ceded to someone on the wait list.

Obviously time zones make this a bit difficult (I was asleep last year when my turn came around), so we'll try to cater as much as possible, otherwise email someone your board so they can make the pick for you. I have also decided to bring Awesome Hog on board for this as co-commissioner should he be interested, so he can be the American point of contact and we should hopefully have all time zones covered.

If you accept these conditions as stated above, please feel free to declare interest below, and let the madness begin.