I agree with you totally. Obviously I watch a ton of college basketball, which can be very laborious at times. The word ugly springs to mind! But, I find myself disagreeing with the so called experts and their mock drafts all the time. I had Murray ahead of Ivey from about a third of the college season on. To my mind, it was a no contest. But that's just me and my eye test. I think a lot of mock drafts create a current that starts to pull everyone in, and if you go against that current, you look like an idiot.
When you get down to it, it's subjective! The question is, how much of your subjective opinion is actually based on what you saw, or is it based on what you've read or heard. In a court of law, that's called hearsay, and it's inadmissible. Highlight video's don't count, or at least should only count for about 25% of an opinion. When I'm judging a player, I try to look for all the things he does well, and in particular, at least one thing he does that's special. I can find the negatives later. I want to know what he can do, not what he can't do! The world is loaded with people that can't do. I do use a numerical scale of individual traits, like athleticism, ballhandling, shooting etc. I also place a huge emphasis on feel for the game, how quickly a player makes his reads and his reaction time off those reads. Court vision and how good of hands a player has. Anyway, I think you get the picture.
Point is, its a labor of love, and it's a time consuming process and much more complicated than reading a mock draft. And with all that, you can still be wrong. Usually because you can't get inside the players mind and find out how much desire he has. I've always said that 50% of success is mental. It's the difference of a hitter going up to the plate hoping he gets a hit, to a hitter going up to the plate knowing he's going to get a hit. The latter has the best chance of success. Those are the guys I'm looking for, and Murray has that trait.