In Ford's latest mock, he's got UCLA's swingman at #16:
Analysis: Muhammad might be the most difficult player in the draft to place right now. After coming in with enormous hype, scouts are obsessed right now with the weaknesses in his game. Can he shoot off the bounce? Can he go right? Does he have the athleticism to defend? Is he a selfish player?
Muhammad is working hard to answer his critics and these workouts will go a long way to determining where he ultimately lands. But with Paul Pierce's run with the Celtics nearing an end, Muhammad might be worth the risk here if the Celtics' preferred target, Schroeder, already is off the board.
Muhammad has been the enigma of the draft. Once a lottery pick, his underwhelming freshman season at Westwood coupled with the controversy of his birth certificate has him falling on draft boards. This kid reminds me so much of Paul Pierce and how his stock plummeted coming out of Kansas. He'd make a good upside pick for Danny at #16, but until we know what Danny is doing with The Captain and his contract, we won't know whether the team is in rebuilding or reinforcing mode.
Curiously, a lot of the big men that have been linked to the C's have also fallen in Ford's mock draft. Gobert, Plumlee, Olynyk, and Dieng have all slipped into the late first round. Scalabrine's crush, Steven Adams, is projected to go at #12 to the Thunder, but as ESPNBoston's Chris Forsberg suggested yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if Ainge traded a mid-level vet for another pick to grab a center and develop him alongside Fab Melo.