You’re Nuts: When do you expect Brice Sensabaugh to be taken in the 2023 NBA Draft?

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There's not a consensus on when Sensabaugh will hear his name called, with numerous outlets projecting him to be taken with different picks.

The NBA Draft Lottery is coming up in less than a week, and the NBA Draft just over a month away. While he hasn't officially made a decision yet, all signs point to All-Big Ten honoree Brice Sensabaugh remaining in the draft, where he is projected to be a first round pick. Where he goes is the question.

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As previously stated, we’re discussing the NBA Draft this week, with a Buckeye projected to go in the first round for the second straight year. But where in the first round? We don't have the draft order yet, but we can guess roughly which pick he will be taken.

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As long as his knee injury that popped up at the very end of the season doesn't linger into June, Brice Sensabaugh has a longshot chance to get drafted in the lottery next month. Even if he goes outside of the top 14, I think he’ll be taken immediately after. Nothing is more valuable in the NBA than being able to create and make your own shots, and Sensabaugh is one of the best in this entire draft class at doing that.

Recent mock drafts are more or less in agreement that Sensabaugh will be a first round pick, but where in the first round. Of the six I looked at this week, three of them have Sensabaugh going with picks 13 or 14. The other three have him going with picks 23 or 24. Fortunately for Brice, going to the team with pick 13 or 14 (somewhere in the range of Toronto or New Orleans) would not be a bad situation, and if he winds up in New Orleans, he’d be playing with E.J. Liddell next season! If he goes in the early 20's, he’d wind up on a team that's already playoff-caliber.

Here's what some of the mock drafts say right now:

CBS (Gary Parrish) : 13th pick to TorontoCBS (Kyle Boone) : 21st pick to Brooklyn NBC Sports : 24th pick to SacramentoTankathaon: 13th pick to TorontoUSA Today Sports: 14th pick to New Orleans Bleacher Report: 24th pick to Sacramento

Sensabaugh's struggles on defense are pulling him down a bit, but not as much as you would think. At 20 years old, he has time to improve there. But he was one of the few people in college basketball last season to shoot 40% or above below the basket, at midrange, and from three-point range last season. He also looks like he has cut a few pounds out west, based on photos he has posted.

As long as Sensabaugh does well at the NBA Combine and his knee injury is nothing major, I could see him ding the opposite of what Liddell did on draft day — slide up the board without notice, I think he will go in that 13-15 range, which is actually higher than both Liddell and Malaki Branham last year, who went 20th overall.

This is a weird one because it is so hard to judge where a player might go, especially in May. It is hard to judge the day before the draft and we are doing it a month and a half before the draft. And while I do think Brice is ready and should go, I think he might fall a little bit.

His size could be a concern for teams. He is small for the NBA small forward and I think they could affect him. Plus, for as good as he is on offense — and he is one of the best pure offensive players and scorers in the draft — the concerns on defense are real. He really struggled on that end of the ball in his first year at Ohio State, and a lot of it was him not being where he was supposed to be, which NBA scouts will notice.

When you look at some of the small forwards in the league, they are some of the best scorers on the floor. It could hurt his stock a little bit with teams not knowing if they can trust him on both sides of the ball. There is a narrative that "NBA teams don't care about defense" and for the most part, they don't. But you can't be a complete liability on that end, so he will need to clean that up at least a little bit and show some improvement to go along with how good he is scoring.

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