Delon Wright burst onto the national scene last year at the University of Utah, averaging 14.2 points per game. This season, the senior guard has become a Player of the Year candidate and skyrocketed up mock draft boards.

Wright is 6’5″ and 190 pounds and has the speed, shooting accuracy, athleticism and intelligence to be a point guard at the highest level. He’s great from beyond the arc and can spread the ball around to his teammates, and with 4.4 rebounds per game he’s proven that he’s not afraid to go inside as well.

His on-court abilities and leadership skills are big reasons why Utah is having an unexpectedly great season, currently siting at No. 13 in the Associate Press Top 25. The extra attention that comes from winning has made Wright a potential lottery pick as well.

Any NBA team looking for depth at the point guard position would be foolish not to take a look at Wright, who has what it takes to have a long NBA career.

If Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell decides to leave the school after his freshman year to go pro, he will certainly be a lottery pick. Currently, Russell sits at No. 2 on the Draft Express 2015 NBA Mock Draft. 

It wasn’t always this way, though. Russell didn’t enter college with the hype of a Jahlil Okafor and was absent from most preseason mock drafts. However, it’s hard to overlook his 19.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game and nearly impossible to pass by his 45.4 percent accuracy from three-point land. 

ESPN Insider Chad Ford—who didn’t have Russell on his August mock draft at all but has since moved him up to No. 6 in his Top 100—reports that NBA scouts are incredibly excited about the teen’s potential: 

‘There’s so much to love about his game,’ one GM told ESPN.com about Russell. ‘Even when he has a bad game, it looks like a good one because every time the ball leaves his lands, it looks like it’s going in. He plays with such great confidence and has a terrific feel. I think he could be a James Harden-type player at the next level. That’s what kind of scorer and playmaker he could be.’

NBA teams looking for an all-around combo guard won’t be able to pass on Russell if he’s on the board. Of course, the way it’s going, he won’t be on the board for long. 

UCLA freshman Kevon Looney is having a huge year, going from being completely overlooked in the preseason to a likely top-10 pick in the 2015 draft.

The 6’9″, 220-pound power forward is averaging 12.3 points and an astonishing 10 rebounds per game. 

He has an uncanny ability to completely take over games with his athleticism, as he did in a win over Stanford in early January. In the game, Looney scored 27 points, including 10 in a four-minute stretch that completely changed the course of the game, as reported by Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation.

O’Donnell sees similarities between Looney and a top-10 pick in last year’s draft:

It’s easy to compare Looney to another freshman power forward who entered the 2014 draft, Noah Vonleh of the Charlotte Hornets. Vonleh went No. 9 after one year at Indiana and put up similar numbers to what Looney is posting right now. Vonleh is certainly bigger and even longer, but Looney plays with more energy. Both show the early signs of a face-up game, but not one that’s fully developed.

It’s been a rough season for UCLA, but Looney has still been able to make the most of his opportunity in the NCAA. His persistence will likely pay off big this spring.

What a senior season Jerian Grant is having at Notre Dame. A year after sitting out the second half of his junior year due to academic suspension, he’s become one of the best college basketball players in the country. 

There were a lot of questions about Grant after his suspension last year, but he has answered all of them with style. The 6’5″ point guard is currently averaging 16.8 points and 6.3 assists per game and is the main reason Notre Dame is in the thick of the ACC race and ranked No. 10 in the country.

Now Grant has a good shot to be a late lottery pick.

He’ll be 23 when the NBA season starts. Some will use his age against him, but there are certainly teams who will see his physical and mental maturity as a bonus; after all, he’ll be ready to go from day one. 

Arkansas sophomore Bobby Portis has certainly proved that his underrated freshmen season was no fluke. The 6’11”, 242-pound forward is averaging an impressive 17.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this year. 

The knock on Portis has always been that there’s nothing exceptional about him—he’s not the most athletic guy out there, and his shooting and rebounding numbers are good but not elite. However, the facts that he’s good at pretty much everything and is averaging five more points per game and two more rebounds than in his second season have made scouts take notice.

There are a lot of great power forwards ahead of him in the draft, but Portis has shown enough this season to push him into the conversation for a late lottery pick.

Frank the Tank has, as expected, been one of the best college basketball players in the nation this season. The 7-foot Wisconsin senior is averaging 17.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this season and has been giving Jahlil Okafor a run for Player of the Year as well.

Despite his collegiate greatness, NBA scouts have been skeptical as to how effective he can be on the next level. However, this season, particularly with his great three-point shooting, Kaminsky has bloomed into a potential lottery pick—two experts at CBS Sports see him going in the top 14. 

Kaminsky was essentially unheard of when he joined the college ranks and has done nothing but improve every year since. He might never have the athleticism of his early-bloomer peers, but if he can continue to bulk up some, then his size, ability to stretch defenses and explosive shooting will be big assets to any NBA team.

It’s hard to garner a lot of individual attention on this loaded Kentucky team, but freshman Trey Lyles has still managed to mature into a possible lottery pick. Of course, it helps that he got increased playing time when Alex Poythress tore his ACL and was forced to miss the season.

Lyles, a 6’10” forward, is averaging 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21 minutes of play this season. He’s not the most athletic forward in the draft, which is why he’s unlikely to be picked in the top 10. However, some teams are impressed, as reported by Chad Ford of ESPN Insider: 

‘When you see him on the floor with Towns and Cauley-Stein playing small forward, you forget that he’s 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-10. He looks like a wing out there running around,’ one GM said, chuckling. ‘He’ll be a power forward in the NBA, and I think that will help his draft stock. As long as he doesn’t have to guard NBA wings, I think he’ll be very good.’

Lyles has great footwork and even better instincts, and the fact that he’s been able to hold his own (and more) with the Wildcats is a great sign. NBA teams looking for a versatile big man might just take a chance on Lyles late in the lottery.

Speaking of Kentucky, let’s talk about another impressive freshman: Devin Booker. 

Booker is one of the best pure shooters in a draft that doesn’t have that many, which is one of the big reasons why he’s now being discussed as a late lottery pick despite failing to even make many preseason boards.

Despite not being a starter for the Wildcats, Booker is the second-best scorer on the team with 10.7 points per game. His percentages are where he really stands out from the pack, though: The teenager is shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from beyond the arc.

All of this, and coach John Calipari still thinks Booker has tons of room for improvement.

“I want to see him attack the basket better,” the UK coach said, as reported by Jerry Tipton of Kentucky.com. “Right now, when he attacks the basket, he doesn’t avoid people. He’ll be flailing a little bit. I don’t want him to just be a catch-and-shoot player. I want him to be an offensive threat.”

But although he might be a little rough around the edges, Booker is sitting at No. 14 in the latest DraftExpress mock draft.