You know over the last couple of months, I have been trying to do some catch up on various college players, draft evaluations and such, and in this years draft, I have to say I am unimpressed. If any year was a good year to trade out of the draft, this one is it. I cannot think of one player where that is good enough to get excited over. Am I wrong in this? Does anybody have any suggestions on who to check out if I am missing something here?
Very few people are thrilled with this year's draft crop. It doesn't have any blue chip prospects (a LeBron, Duncan, Oden, Durant, etc) and it's shallow. To me, it's one of the weakest drafts I can ever remember going in.
Rubio is a beast. Blair is underrated. Blake Griffin is Antonio McDyess, the Denver version. However, he has had problems in the past with both knees. I like James Hardin. He'd fit in well with Roy. I've seen comparisons for him ranging from Brandon Roy to Baron Davis. Though, I really doubt he'll be as good as either Roy or Davis. But a nice guard prospect. Outside 5 or so prospects this draft would depress me if we were a lotto team.
From what I can tell, it's pretty certain Rubio will not be in this draft. If he were, that would be a big prize for whoever drafts #1, IMO. Griffin and Harden are both nice prospects, but not amazing ones. Thabeet being arguably the third-best prospect in the draft is a pretty serious indictment, IMO. To me, his ceiling is a prime Theo Ratliff. Good player, but uninspiring for possibly the third-best prospect in the draft.
I think it is good for a lot of these prospects to not be over hyped. Guys like Earl Clark, Eric Maynor, Gerald Henderson will really help there teams in depth. And Blake Griffin is a fuckin beast.
Rubio, Brandon Jennings, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Thabeet, Jeff Teague (who will be a stud). Seems like a good enough draft class to me. Reminds me a lot of the Roy draft class. If we had a lottery pick and a desire to draft another point guard I'd be all over Jeff Teague. He reminds me of Deron Williams.
If you count a player unlikely to be available, Rubio. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/chris_mannix/03/18/rubio/ That draft was pretty awful. Roy, Aldridge and Rondo are pretty much the only valuable players to come out of that draft. (Rudy Gay has superficially nice numbers, but his efficiency makes him a pretty mediocre player.)
Gay is an above average player, I certainly think you could include him in your list of good players from that class (unless of course it makes you feel like it goes against your argument). I never said it was a great class, certainly not a class like 03'. I can look back at many drafts that were a lot worse. It was a slightly above average class.
The situation is Memphis is such a mess, it is hard to fairly evaluate Gay. I'm of the opinion that he is more than just a guy who puts up good stats on a bad team - but until/unless he gets a chance with a good team, there is no way to prove it!
Gay has a PER of 15, which is average for a starter. He went backward from last year. In addition, his defense is poor and that isn't counted (in any meaningful way) in PER. As I said, he superficially looks good, but I wouldn't count him as a valuable player (in terms of winning games...his trade value may be above his on-court value). Last season, he looked like he was developing into a star, as he had an above average PER and was young. But not only did he not improve from there, he got worse and is now a year older.
You can blame OJ Mayo for that. Anywho, you can never really tell with rookie classes. I mean, this season has had probably the deepest class in the past 10 years. I won't say it's the best, because it's hard to top a year that had LeBron, Wade, and Carmello but there's so much talent this year it's ridiculous. Nobody predicted that. And the Oden-Durant rookie class was supposed to be really good as well, but there hasn't been anyone else besides the aforementioned two that had really broken out yet. Horford, Brooks, Scola, Green, all seem like role players at the moment.
Will it be as bad as the 2000 draft? http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_draft_history/2000.html Only 6 guys in that draft are quality starters in the league today. Mike Miller, Kenyon Martin, Joel Pryzbilla, Michael Redd, Crawford and Hedo.
Those guys are quality starters? Lol! I guess I am poking more fun at Crawford than anything. Last I looked he had played his way out of Golden State, and is probably heading to the euro league or China, as soon as GS can figure a way to get out of his contract.
Holy geez, Eric Barkley? I remember him, but I don't. The name rings a bell but I forget what how he played. Did we trade him or was he just a complete bust?
