NBA Mock Draft: Chad Ford Version 3.0

It's that time again. NBA Draft guru Chad Ford is back with his third mock draft for ESPN.com on their insider content.

Ford's Mock has the Cavaliers picking a sad sixth after the team has now passed Sacramento and Toronto in the standings. With the Lakers doing some winning of late as well the second first round pick the Cavaliers own is currently slotted at 26th.

Many of the players in the draft have recently announced they officially will be going pro but a couple intriguing prospects will be sticking around for more college basketball.

Check out after the jump (or just look at the picture) who Ford has the Cavaliers selecting.

North Carolina's enigmatic small forward Harrison Barnes looks slated to go to Cleveland at six in Ford's Mock. The Cavaliers have a need for a wing player and the Iowa native Barnes could be a fit for the team. I'm not a draft expert so I won't be the best person to provide analysis on Barnes since I didn't see him play much over the past two years but now is your chance to offer us a scouting report on Barnes in the comments section. I encourage you to do so as it would be nice to get some consensus reports on the site.

For what it's worth, Ford has the Cavaliers selecting St. John's freshman small forward Moe Harkless with the 26th pick. If you watch a lot of Big East basketball and care to give us some of your personal reports on what type of fit Harkless could be for the Cavaliers I also encourage that.

If you haven't noticed in the FanPost section, loyal readers and commenters davidzavac and DBrimstone have been doing some great work in their draft scouting pieces. It just so happens that in this case davidzavac wrote about Harkless recently. I'll offer you up the positives that he saw in Moe:

Things that I really like: The guy is 18. He had a solid PER, he works hard on both ends of the floor. He played 36 minutes a game on a team that went through a lot of turmoil with Steve Lavin going through health issues. He rebounds, grabbing almost 9 a game. He is an athletic guy, and Chad Ford wrote that if he had a jump shot he would be a lottery pick. He is 18 years old, and has plenty of time to develop a functional shot. Plus, with Kyrie and possibly Brad Beal, Jeremy Lamb, or Harrison Barnes, to go with Alonzo Gee, three point shooting won't be something we absolutely need right away. In the meantime, he is already a great finisher. He was the Big East freshman of the year.

For now, I'm just going to keep on rooting for the Cavaliers to end up with that coveted 4th position heading into the NBA Draft Lottery.