So this post is what I like to call "reverse engineering" the draft process. In my mock drafts, I have used what I call "forward engineering"--advanced stats with fudge factors given to athletic traits--rebounding, defensive playmaking, and other NBA translatable factors like age (smaller the better), player improvement from past season and mutual exclusion factors (threes+free throws). We'll bring that up at the end of the post to get a consolidate assessment based on this forward and reverse engineering combination.
But what is this "reverse engineering"? This time, we're going to use the past--namely, the past drafts, an use history to set the precedent for what players--using age, positional profile, and college they came from--to see if they have a non-statistical template that looks good or bad for the NBA. Because, as we all know, the statistical template isn't everything--it tends to be illuminating in identifying some sleepers, but there's also a fair share of misfires. So we need to account for this factor, and combine it with the statistics.
Another note: I won't post all the players in the "reverse engineering" process because there's a ton of them. For college players alone, I have about 330 data points to work with. Just like with the "forward engineering", I won't share the statistical formulas. So, without further ado:
