The “In Lieu of Jrue” NBA Prospect Watch: Midseason Community Prospect Rankings

Howdy, y'all. First off, I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and healthy holiday.

As far as college hoops goes, I didn't see a ton of stuff that caught my eye this past week. Well, outside of Joel Embiid seriously starting to turn some heads. Basically, I need everyone to shoulder the load for me this week, to do most of the heavy lifting.

Since this series started a few months ago, the comments have been filled with informal discussion about prospect rankings. Now, I want to make it official by conducting a midseason poll of the whole LB community. As I wrote in the Andrew Wiggins-centric installment a few weeks ago, the only draft board that truly matters is the one formed towards the end of *June. Still, if Chad Ford gets to release a mock draft every few weeks, I think we should probably rank our top prospects as we near the halfway point of the college season.

*Unless you're employed by an NBA team in a decision-making role. If that's the case (doubt it), please disregard that statement and thank you for visiting Liberty Ballers!

Here's how it'll work: Assume everyone who is eligible to enter the 2014 NBA Draft does indeed declare, and then rank your personal top 14 prospects in order (1- Player X, 2- Player Y, 3- Player Z, and so on). We're assuming that the New Orleans Pelicans don't make the playoffs, a scenario that's looking likely in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.

Feel free to explain your rationale and argue (civilly, of course) about the rankings in the comments, but that's not a requirement. I'll compile all the rankings, average them together, and work the results into next week's post.