NBA Mock Draft: Tony Bradley up to 32, according to DraftExpress

When Tony Bradley announced that he wouldn’t be returning to North Carolina for his sophomore year, his draft stock was hovering around the 40s range according to most mock predictions. It appears that those trends could be trending in his favor if the more recent mock drafts are correct.

DraftExpress has Bradley at No. 32 overall in their mock draft from June 3rd. That’s quite a jump up from their last prediction for him of 40th. This is obviously no guarantee for how things will go on draft day later this month, but it could be an indication that Bradley has found a way to improve his standing in workouts since his announcement. The Phoenix Suns have the 32nd pick in the draft this season.

Being selected 32nd is still not the first round pick that Bradley seemed to be hoping for when attempting to decide whether or not to return for another year in Chapel Hill. It is close enough to make it possible, depending on how the final evaluations of players shake out for teams.

It is still easy to argue about whether or not Bradley could have been better served by staying at North Carolina another season in which he would have been a starter on a team trying to return to the Final Four for the third straight year. The huge jump may take the edge off that for some, but you can bet there will be a lot of hand-wringing about it either way.

In other former Tar Heel news on that front, DraftExpress has Justin Jackson going 16th overall to the Chicago Bulls. That puts him ahead of some familiar names like Harry Giles and Bam Adebayo. Jackson at 16 would also be five spots behind Luke Kennard if this particular mock proved to be correct.