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thanks.
the only error of your list is just the wrong positon for Tmac who was drafted at 9th.
Tmac doesn't even deserve a seacond round pick.
i was looking at the draft and found it interesting to see how some players ended compared to their rank of draft.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/
so here my thoughts with, since 1992, the first and second real best players of each year and their number of pick of draft, and the steal(s) of each year:
1992: best player: 1. Shaq (draft :1) / 2nd : Mourning (2) / Steal : Sprewell (24)
1st and 2nd draft pick clearly ended as the two best players.
1993: 1: C.Webber (1) / 2: Allan Houston (11) / Steal: Sam Cassel at 24
Shawn Bradley was pick n°2 this year.
1994: 1. Jason Kidd (2) / 2. Grant Hill (3) / Steal: none
"Big Dog" Robinson was draft first.
1995: 1. Kevin Garnett (5) / 2. Rasheed Wallace (4) / steals: KG at 5 ; Finley at 21
Joe Smith is the bust of this year with n°1 draft pick.
1996: 1. Kobe Bryant (13) / 2. Steve Nash (15) / Steals: Peja Stojakovic at 14 ; Jermaine O'neal at 17. KB and Nash also.
you cant' say number 1 and 2, Iverson and Camby were bust since they are one great and one good player, but KB at n° 13 has to be one of the biggest miss of all the recent drafts. You can also argue that ray allen (n°5) or AI are better players than Nash, but the two MVP awards of the suns PG makes him the second best player of my list.
but when you think about kobe (13), nash (15) J.O'Neal (17) and Peja (14) all being drafted after Todd Fuller (n°11) :
1997: 1. Tim Duncan (1)/ 2. Chauncey Billups (3) / steal: Tracy Mac Grady (9)
K.Van Horn was n°2 this year. it's safe to say the number one of this year hasn't disappointed the team that drafted him. you can also argue that T-Mac is better than Billups, but the team success is in Billups' favor.
1998: 1. Dirk Nowitzki (9) / 2. Paul Pierce (10) / steals: Rashard Lewis (32) and Cuttino Mobley (41). Dirk and Pierce could be considered here too.
Olowokandi and Mike Bibby were 1 and 2 this year. Vince Carter, at 5, is a great talented player, but didn't have the same team success than Nowitzki and Pierce.
1999: 1. Elton Brand (1) / 2. Manu Ginobili(57) / steal: manu ; Ron Artest (16) ; Kirilenko (24)
Steve Francis was n°2 this year. You can almost argue that manu was the best player this year, but Brand's stats are impressive. the two best players are aguable since Artest, Baron Davis (3), Lamar Odom (4), Richard Hamilton (7) Shawn Marion (9) were also on this draft. I still see Brand and Manu above them. Probably the biggest steal of this thread with manu.
2000: 1. Kenyon Martin (1) / Michael Redd (43) / steal: M.Redd
Poor year of draft, considering you can argue that Martin is the best player of this list. Big steal with M.Redd. Big bust with Stromile swift (2).
2001: 1. Pau Gasol (3) ; 2. Tony Parker (28)/ steals: TP ; Gilbert Arenas (30) ; Mehmet Okur (37)
Big steals with Tony and Arenas ; BIG bust with Kwame Brown (1).
2002: 1. Yao Ming (1) / 2. Amare Stoudemire (9) / Steals: Carlos Boozer (34) ; Tayshaun Prince (23)
N°2 of this draft was Jay Williams. Amare is better than Yao of the offensive end but his lack of defensive talent makes Yao a better overall player IMO.
2003: 1. Lebron James (1) / 2. Dwyane Wade (5) / steal: Josh Howard (29)
you can argue that Chris Bosh (4) could be the 2nd best player behing LBJ and why not even Carmelo Anthony (3). Darko Milicic was n°2.
2004: 1. Dwight Howard (1) / 2. Al Jefferson (15) / steals: Al Jefferson ; Kevin Martin (26)
Okafor was n°2.
2005: 1. Chris Paul (4) / 2. Deron Williams (3) / steals: Monta Ellis (40).
Bogut (1) and Bynum (10) haven't still shown their best, as big men usually are longer to peak. that's also why i'll stop here because two years of NBA would be too short to judge a player's level.
I suppose most of you won't learn a lot of things that they didn't already know here, but i found it interesting to see where the best players of the actual NBA were ranked in their draft.
All the big busts are well known (Brown, Milicic....) but we can see that a lot of first pick confirm all the hope too, more often than not: Shad, Tim, AI, LBJ, Dwight Howard, Yao.
The biggest steals are: Manu, Tony, Arenas, Boozer IMO. I would add Kobe since even at 13, it's still a steal considering his level.
Well, do you agree with this list of best players and best steals of each draft ?
thanks.
the only error of your list is just the wrong positon for Tmac who was drafted at 9th.
Tmac doesn't even deserve a seacond round pick.
good list
great thread! you didn;t do 06 and 07 because there is not enough mileage on the players to consider busts and steals?
that's what i wrote, no ?
absolutely. seeing that Bogut and Bynum could really peak in two or three years and why not be better players than Deron Williams from the same draft made me stop at 2005.
nice read
TMac doesn't even deserve a 2nd round pick? Right.
I'd make Iverson the 2nd best player in the 1996 draft. I think he's a better player, and I think he's done more in the league, than Nash.
Kobe is only a steal in FAR, FAR hindsight. KG was the first of the avalanche of HS players the year before, and he had only been in the NBA for a year and hadn't shown anything special. HS players were a HUGE risk. It's also no co-incidence that 95-96 began the avalanche of HS players and 2000 began the drafts. There was no longer the HS feeder system into the NCAA, at least not the elite players.
Same with J O'Neal at 17. He was a huge flyer, and really did nothing until he was traded 4 years later to Indy.
Also, I would argue that Anfernee Hardaway is the second best, or maybe the best of 1993. He was simply a witch until his knee went out.
Pierce, successful?, that punk was a career loser till K.G. cried his way out of Minnesota.
bogut is a bust. certainly not worthy of a freaking #1 pick.
Awesome Post. Thx.
nice thread
like i wrote in my post, it's arguable that AI and even Ray Allen are better players than Nash. They are as much talented, if not more, and one has a MVP award and the other a NBA ring. so, you can be right with AI.
You can argue that Pierce brought to KG as much as he received. Pierce was the Finals MVP and had shown some clutchness that i never saw in KG.
surely not a n°1, especially considering CP3 was in that draft. but i still think Bogut is far from his peak.
KG didn't cry his way out of Minnesota. He stuck with that team for a decade and politely requested a trade, he didn't make a big deal about it like a lot of other players do. He had demanded a trade after the 2006 season and was patient for an entire season before being traded.
BS.
He cried and pouted his way out of Minnesota and for the last couple months of his Minny career was "injured"
coughbull cough
Sorry that you hate KG but he didn't fake an injury KG is not the type of player who would do that, KG has become very obnoxious but he stuck it out in Minnesota more than most star players would.
Unless there's proof of it accusing a player of faking an injury is unfair to that player.
If Mchale and Ainge weren't such butt buddies, I doubt Minny would have ever traded him.
I believe the story on Kobe was he would have been drafted higher, think it was Charlotte, but he and his agent threatened to not sign, play in Italy, if he wasn't taken by LA. Likely all in illegal collaboration with the Lakers.
thanks for the thread
it just goes to show that quality players (including all-stars) can be drafted really late, including round 2.
and its funny how so many teams have passed up on MVPs and scoring champs for duds!
Joe Smith is not a bust. He was just misused in Minnesota at the SF position which does not suit him. And McFail is still an idiot.
Kobe was taken by the Hornets then traded to LA for Divac.
BS.
Management told him to sit the final games because they werent making the playoffs, and they wanted to increasde their chances of getting in the lottery to keep their lottery protected pick that year.
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