It's June, which means the NBA only is in its ninth month of play and Zion Williamson still will be the No. 1 pick in this month's NBA draft. Yes, it's finally here, the reward for those teams with the not-so-pleasant memories of the 2018-19 season. This isn't really fair as a regular feature, unlike the NFL draft in which during the eight weeks preceding there generally are eight different No. 1 picks in the various mock drafts. We have Zion. And then Ja, who reportedly will have a minor knee procedure that will sideline him perhaps a month. Likewise, the tertiary Duke guy, Cam Reddish, also reportedly is headed for some sort of procedure that seems likely to knock him out of Summer League as well. And why exactly would New Orleans—yes, assuming they surprise everyone and select Williamson No. 1—have him play in Summer League? It's not like they need to see him dunk. Yes, it could be a very disappointing Las Vegas Summer League where the face-off between the top two draft picks is usually the headline.

LeBron James did play in Summer League in 2003, but it was not the Summer League extravaganza we now know. Much of it was in a small gym on the UMass/Boston campus. I recall Lonny Baxter kicking some and taking names that summer. But LeBron hadn't gone to college, so he did have some proving to do. But since Williamson seemingly hasn't subscribed to load management, we might yet have some fun win Vegas. What, there's other stuff to do?

And for more fun if your heart isn't beating too fast, here's a look at my Mock Draft No. 2.

Not that anything much has happened since my last one right after the mid-May draft lottery. Other than, of course, most of the likely lottery selections having their heights and weights taken at the Chicago Combine. Talk about news! But we do have a few weeks to go before the June 20 NBA draft, and we do need something besides the continuing analysis, scrutiny and assessment of Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet.