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Empire of the Suns will be bringing you an updated big board of the top NBA Draft prospects leading to the June 22 draft. After projecting where prospects ranked before the NCAA Tournament, Kellan’s board becomes more concrete after the tournament.

The aftermath of the NCAA Tournament on the NBA Draft is upon us.

The tournament featured elite players failing to make it out of the first weekend (Duke’s Jayson Tatum, Florida State’s Jonathan Isaac are just a few), but also featured one of the most anticipated individual matchups: Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and UCLA’s Lonzo Ball.

Fox’s domination of Ball and UCLA is one of the biggest shockwaves of March, firmly placing Fox in the top-10 of the big board. It even has him flirting with a top-five selection while Ball’s flaws were exposed to the biggest audience he had all season.

We also had more players declare for the draft and our first major surprise non-declaration with Texas A&M freshman big Robert Williams likely coming back to school.

As far as the changes in the rankings go, the time between the two big boards has our destination as the soft conclusion of the first three tiers in this draft.

Markelle Fultz is, without a doubt, the best prospect in this draft.

Beyond Fultz, two prospects have the profile and allure to become generational players, even with their flaws. For spots 4-11, however, the phrase “best player available” goes out the window and it will come down to what a team needs.

There’s many “best fit” scenarios that will become more clear when the draft order is set on May 16. For now, we go back to a big board and introduce more big men at the end of the lottery following that third tier.

1. Markelle Fultz, PG, Washington, 19 years old (—)

As many draft experts said following Kentucky’s thrashing of UCLA, perhaps the biggest beneficiary was not Fox, but Fultz. While I’m not subscribed to the idea, Fultz was not viewed as a lock for No. 1 headed into the tournament, and some believed a strong tourney run from Ball could have him at the top spot by the time it was over. That didn’t happen, of course, with Ball’s flaws being put on full display in his biggest stage of the season.

Fultz got a kick out of it.

😂😴 — Markelle Fultz (@MarkelleF) March 25, 2017

Barring something unforeseen, he’s not moving from this spot.

2. Josh Jackson, SF, Kansas, 20 years old (—)

Jackson didn’t go out with much of a bang in the tournament, further emphasizing that his No. 1 or No. 2 option potential is just that – potential. His combination of skills is a once in a generation type of arsenal, but he lacks the go-to ball-handler talent right now to definitively challenge Fultz for No. 1 or convince teams he’s alone at No. 2 on every board behind Ball. To be fair to Jackson, what he is would be enough to No. 1 in most drafts, but he’s against point guard prospects you rarely see in one draft, and there’s two of them.

3. Lonzo Ball, PG, UCLA, 19 years old (▲4)

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post titled, “Three reasons Lonzo Ball should not be in the top-3 on the Suns’ NBA Draft board.” While I still believe in Ball’s flaws, I was wrong in terms of a big board ranking. A deeper look at this class in the lottery reveals three players that have the special sauce to be something extraordinary, and Ball is one of them. I knew this before that column, but I believed his red flags deserved a lower ranking. After a look at others who could be ranked No. 3, there’s no one keeping me from putting Ball at the end of this second tier by default. His attacking and defense have improved, something he deserves credit for, and what he’s good at he’s phenomenal at. Hey, better to admit I was wrong now instead of three years after the draft when he’s averaging 15 and 12, right?

4. Jonathan Isaac, PF/SF, Florida State, 19 years old (—)

Isaac was always going to be the steadiest prospect on boards throughout the tournament and will very likely maintain that all the way up to late June. His elite role player potential on both ends is hard to deny. He falls into the third tier of hte lottery that includes players that are difficult to separate. It comes down to prioritizing which concerns are less worrisome, and Isaac’s appears to be if he can be “the guy” on the team. I’m not worried about that because being solid on both ends with a chance to be special defensively is enough to stay in the top-five.

5. Frank Ntilikina, PG, France, 18 years old (▼2)

What Ntilikina has been doing in his 16 minutes per game for Strasbourg IG in France sounds enough alarms for me to feel wary enough to move him down despite my professed love for his skill set. While the appeal for the 18-year-old is his 3-and-D potential at the point guard position, he still needs to be a primary ball-handler at times. There are flaws in his game there, such as attacking the rim or, in general, being more active when he has the ball. I’m still sold on his role player skills on offense and sky-high potential on defense, but he’s more raw than I initially thought. Like other rankings, this is more of a compliment to the tremendous depth of the top-10.

6. Jayson Tatum, SF/PF, Duke, 19 years old (▲2)

Tatum is the one prospect on this list that has the highest chance of making me look like an idiot. In this NBA season, there are 15 forwards averaging 15 points per game or more and shooting at least 44 percent from the field and 35 percent from deep. This is the type of group it seems like Tatum should fall under if he reaches his potential, with perhaps higher qualifications the better he gets. For example, if we raise the points per game to 20, field goal percentage to 46 and three-point percentage to 36, we get five forwards: Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Jabari Parker and Gordon Hayward. That’s the prospect you’re hearing whispers about for a top-3 selection.

7. De’Aaron Fox, PG, Kentucky, 19 years old (▲6)

My partner in crime on this blog Kevin Zimmerman convinced me on our podcast before the Elite Eight that at some point, I’ve got to stop punishing Fox for not being a shooter (right now) and value him for what he is. It also helps that Fox corrected some of his defensive mistakes against UCLA from the first matchup in the second — limiting over-aggressiveness — thus maximizing the damage he can do. The 39 points I’m less sold on with how the Bruins inconceivably kept going over his ball screens instead of letting him shoot and cutting off the space to drive, but his tools on that end are plentiful, as he showed. He’s not far behind Jackson, Isaac, and Ntilikina on the “two-way monster” potential leaderboard, but that aforementioned ceiling for Tatum gives him the edge.

8. Dennis Smith Jr., PG, North Carolina State, 19 years old (▼3)

Smith is the one player from my first rankings that could have benefitted the most from a tournament appearance. Instead of locking up a position in the top-five, questions from his regular season will persist. Still, he has almost everything you could look for in an offensive point guard, but the ranking of him against Fox and Ntilikina comes down to valuing either Smith’s shooting and scoring in all three areas, Ntilikina’s high 3-and-D potential or Fox’s playmaking and defense. For now, I’m leaning toward the latter, but it’s very close.

9. Lauri Markkanen, PF, Arizona, 20 years old (▼3)

Markkanen gets punished in this ranking by how many things the guys above him are good at or could be good at. In the end, he deserves to be ranked around a player like Monk given his limitations defensively and the hope he becomes more offensively. Dude is an elite shooter, though, and is a very large human being.

10. Malik Monk, SG/PG, Kentucky, 19 years old (—)

All Monk did in the Elite Eight loss to North Carolina was hit two ginormous shots he’s supposed to hit. Like what I said above regarding Markkanen, though, a bucket-getter can’t compete with the versatility of the top eight players in this class.

11. Miles Bridges, SF/PF, Michigan State, 19 years old (▼2)

Bridges’ jumper improving earns him a spot at the end of his tier. His NBA body, athleticism and motor to relentlessly go at opponents makes me throw any tweener concerns into the wind as far as a lottery evaluation goes.

12. Zach Collins, C, Gonzaga, 19 years old (N/R)

Collins was seen as either the best or second-best prospect in the Final Four, and all he did was prove those people right in the first game. He’s not going to impress you with a high skill set or crazy athleticism, but he’s a fluid athlete at 7 feet tall who defends very well and can make all the right plays offensively. Thunder center Steven Adams was drafted No. 12 in 2013 and the awesome player he’s been for Oklahoma City despite a pedestrian 11.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game is the ideal turnout for Collins as a prospect. He’s the best pure big man prospect in this year’s class.

13. Jarrett Allen, C, Texas, 19 years old (N/R)

We have arrived at the point in the draft where tools and upside reign supreme. Allen has an absurd wingspan that’s nearly 7-foot-6 and showed improvement in the second half of the year. His length is used in a variety of ways on both ends and he’s a capable of passer out of the post. Despite the physical gifts, he has to grow as a finisher, continue playing hard and become better at dealing with contact.

14. Isaiah Hartenstein, PF, Germany, 20 years old (N/R)

This ranking might have to do with what Nikola Jokic is doing for the Denver Nuggets right now, but I see some of the future All-NBA center in Hartenstein. At 7-foot-1, Hartenstein has a good looking jumper, can make flashy passes and there’s a post game to go along with his perimeter skills. He also moves well for his size and very initial indications show long-term potential defensively. But his shot doesn’t gain consistency just because it looks nice, and from everything I’ve read, he seems like a potentially miserable teammate (how else do you earn an evaluation like this that’s so focused on things like on-court demeanor?). Teams drafting around here could have the stability in place to turn him into something great, unlike most of the teams in the top 10.

Previously ranked: OG Anunoby (11), Robert Williams (12) and Josh Hart (14).

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