While the 2020 NBA Draft has been postponed to October, many sportswriters have published mock drafts as of late.

One of the names near the top of many mock drafts is Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton. 

The order of selection for the 2020 NBA Draft (30 teams, 60 total selections) won’t be known until the NBA Draft Lottery on Aug. 25, but experts who have put out many mock drafts in years prior are still predicting what teams they think will take certain players. 

In a mock draft Monday, NBC Sports’ Rob Dauster had the Washington Wizards selecting Haliburton with the ninth overall pick out of 60. 

“Haliburton’s numbers jump off the page,” Dauster said in the article. “At 6-foot-5, he’s a lead guard with terrific vision that can throw every pass a point guard is going to be asked to make. He’s an excellent three-point shooter that has positional size and has shown himself to be, at the very least, adequate as an on- and off-ball defender. He was the best player on the floor for Team USA at the U-19 World Championships over the summer. All of that adds up.” 

“If there is a concern with Haliburton, it’s his physical tools,” Dauster said.

Dauster is not the only writer to have Haliburton going to the Wizards.

CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish has the Wizards selecting him as well.

“Tyrese Haliburton is a good example of a mostly unheralded high school prospect who became a statistical monster in college,” Parrish said in his July 6 mock draft. “So he’s a lead guard with size who consistently makes shots. And there’s not a franchise in the NBA that couldn’t use a player who can reasonably be described that way.”

In a mock draft published July 1, Fox Sports’ Jason McIntyre had the Detroit Pistons selecting Haliburton with the fifth overall pick.

“While teams love Haliburton’s well-rounded game, he doesn’t yet excel at anything,” McIntyre said. “My NBA comparison for him is Andre Miller, who was a Top 10 pick, is 11th in NBA history in assists, and had a 17-year career, but made no All-Star teams. The Pistons are a few years away from being a few years away. Haliburton is a safer pick than Killian Hayes, who has more boom/bust potential.” 

Two other NBA draft sites have Haliburton going in the top 10 in their latest mock drafts. NBADraft.net has Haliburton going sixth overall to the New York Knicks and Bleacher Report has the Charlotte Hornets selecting Haliburton with the eighth overall pick.

In his sophomore season at Iowa State, Haliburton averaged 15.2 points per game on 50.4 percent shooting from the field, 41.9 percent from beyond the 3-point line and 82.2 percent from the free-throw line while grabbing 5.9 rebounds per game.

Haliburton also dished out 6.5 assists per game and 2.5 steals per game.

The 2020 NBA Draft was originally supposed to happen June 25, but with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing back the finish of the NBA season to Oct. 13 (for now), the draft is tentatively set for Oct. 16. 

In a June 6 teleconference, Iowa State men’s basketball Head Coach Steve Prohm said he hadn’t heard much about where Haliburton could go in the draft but said he felt like Haliburton is a sure-fire lottery pick.

Iowa State has had one player, Marcus Fizer, finish his college career at Iowa State and be drafted in the top 10 of the NBA Draft. The Chicago Bulls selected Fizer with the fourth overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft.