We now know when the 2020 NBA Draft will be held.

Oct. 16. 

That’s a Friday night; it’s the first time since the 1970s the NBA will hold its draft on that day of the week. By the time it gets here, we’ll have waited nearly 16 months between drafts, making for the longest gap in league history. 

Even though we’ve got nearly four months to go, so much mockage is left to take care of!

Let’s have some fun and bring a twist to the proceedings for this particular mock. It’s been six weeks since my previous mock, but we haven’t had a combine, haven’t players do workouts with teams, haven’t established a lottery order. I see no reason to adjust players’ positions just for the sake of doing it, you know?

Here’s the twist, then. 

I’m projecting out the 2020 first round based on my de facto big board. Below, in order, are the players who I think deserve to go exactly as they are listed because this is my prognostication on how good each of these guys will be as pros. I am taking into consideration their pre-NBA careers, identifying their current skill sets and glomming on my own projection on the areas I think they can and will, or can’t and won’t, improve upon. 

I am not taking team needs into account. I am not bouncing my thoughts off intel from NBA personnel, nor am I cross-referencing the picks in this mock draft with any other mock draft. The 30 players below are placed in deliberate order and they represent my collective best guess at who will have the most productive and long-lasting NBA careers from the 2020 draft pool.