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Around the League => The Draft => Topic started by: JSD on September 18, 2017, 12:11:17 AM

Title: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: JSD on September 18, 2017, 12:11:17 AM
Thoughts?
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Sketch5 on September 18, 2017, 12:54:14 AM
While the '96 team had some really fun players. The '84 line up is a SF or bigger PF than Barkely away from being a bad @## team. I mean talk about two way players.

Stockton would average 20 apg. LOL
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: RockinRyA on September 18, 2017, 01:16:43 AM
While the '96 team had some really fun players. The '84 line up is a SF or bigger PF than Barkely away from being a bad @## team. I mean talk about two way players.

Stockton would average 20 apg. LOL

They had Otis Thorpe, or Maybe Sam Perkins can play as a stretch 4.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Bucketgetter on September 18, 2017, 01:34:22 AM
I went with 96 since it’s the deepest. And still has huge star power.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: crimson_stallion on September 18, 2017, 02:46:02 AM
It's got to be 1984, and to be honest I don't think that's even debatable.

You have:
* Michael Jordan (Best SG of all time, arguably best player of all time)
* Olajuwon (Top 5 center of all time, along with Kareem / Wilt / Russel / Shaq)
* Barkley (Top 3 Power Forward of all time, along with Duncan / Malone)
* Stockton (Top 2 Point Guard of all time, along with Magic)

I mean seriously, that's four guys in this draft class who rank top 5 (or better) All-Time at their position.

By comparison:
- 1956: 2 guys who are top 5 all-time at their position (Baylor, Russell)
- 1996: 1-2 guys who are top 5 All-Time at their position (Kobe, maybe Iverson)
- 2003: 1-2 guys who are top 5 All-Time at their position (Lebron, maybe Wade)

Really no debate there.

Other's worth mentioning:
-1985 (Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Joe Dumars, Chris Mullin)
-1987 (David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller)
-2008 (Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose)
-2009 (Steph Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Demar Derozan)
-2010 (Demarcus Cousins, John Wall, Paul George, Gordon Hayward)
-2011 (Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Isaiah Thomas)
-2012 (Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond, Draymond Green)

Man, looking at some of those lists it just makes it stand out just how bad the most recent drafts have been.  I would consider every guy I've listed above to be either superstars, or guys with superstar potential.  2015 has easily been the deepest of the past 5 years, and I still can't see more then or 2-3 guys in that draft class who I feel have legit Superstar potential (Towns, Porzingis, maybe Booker at a stretch).  The other years have been significantly worse then that.

Has to leave me wondering how much this drop of in draft depth has to do with the push for guys to leave and enter the draft at 18-19 year old freshman, versus the older days when most guys would stay in college for 2-3 years and come draft time we usually had a handful of clear stars. 
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Somebody on September 18, 2017, 03:59:32 AM
It's got to be 1984, and to be honest I don't think that's even debatable.

You have:
* Michael Jordan (Best SG of all time, arguably best player of all time)
* Olajuwon (Top 5 center of all time, along with Kareem / Wilt / Russel / Shaq)
* Barkley (Top 3 Power Forward of all time, along with Duncan / Malone)

* Stockton (Top 2 Point Guard of all time, along with Magic)

I mean seriously, that's four guys in this draft class who rank top 5 (or better) All-Time at their position.

By comparison:
- 1956: 2 guys who are top 5 all-time at their position (Baylor, Russell)
- 1996: 1-2 guys who are top 5 All-Time at their position (Kobe, maybe Iverson)
- 2003: 1-2 guys who are top 5 All-Time at their position (Lebron, maybe Wade)

Really no debate there.

Other's worth mentioning:
-1985 (Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Joe Dumars, Chris Mullin)
-1987 (David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller)
-2008 (Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose)
-2009 (Steph Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Demar Derozan)
-2010 (Demarcus Cousins, John Wall, Paul George, Gordon Hayward)
-2011 (Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Isaiah Thomas)
-2012 (Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond, Draymond Green)

Man, looking at some of those lists it just makes it stand out just how bad the most recent drafts have been.  I would consider every guy I've listed above to be either superstars, or guys with superstar potential.  2015 has easily been the deepest of the past 5 years, and I still can't see more then or 2-3 guys in that draft class who I feel have legit Superstar potential (Towns, Porzingis, maybe Booker at a stretch).  The other years have been significantly worse then that.

Has to leave me wondering how much this drop of in draft depth has to do with the push for guys to leave and enter the draft at 18-19 year old freshman, versus the older days when most guys would stay in college for 2-3 years and come draft time we usually had a handful of clear stars.
I seriously disagree with your assessments regarding Hakeem and Barkley, imo Barkley is around the same as McHale in terms of great PFs and Olajuwon is not top 5 imo, I'd put David Robinson above him tbh, yes he got owned by Hakeem in that insane Rockets championship year but his impact on his team since his rookie season was unprecedented and he didn't have a lot of help till Duncan came, then he won 2 championships over the Kobe-Shaq Lakers, which imo was more impressive than Hakeem ruling over a Jordanless league (yes Jordan did play in the 2nd year but he wasn't himself). Also do not agree with Stockton being the 2nd greatest PG of all time, he was legendary but I'd take guys like Isiah Thomas over him, who put up the stats and won the rings (bonus that he won them over Jordan). But yes that draft was certainly the best.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Roy H. on September 18, 2017, 06:15:28 AM
While the '96 team had some really fun players. The '84 line up is a SF or bigger PF than Barkely away from being a bad @## team. I mean talk about two way players.

Stockton would average 20 apg. LOL

They had Otis Thorpe, or Maybe Sam Perkins can play as a stretch 4.

I don't think that Barkley works at SF.

Slide MJ to forward, and start Alvin Robinson? 4-time all-star, DPOY.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Celtics4ever on September 18, 2017, 06:52:23 AM
Quote
It's got to be 1984, and to be honest I don't think that's even debatable.

He is totally right folks!  TP
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: mr. dee on September 18, 2017, 07:01:19 AM
1996 because of how loaded it was from top to bottom. And this is the class where we have a 4x DPOY and 4x All-Star that went undrafted.

This class have produced 11 All-Stars, 3 MVPs and 2 DPOYs.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Sketch5 on September 18, 2017, 09:09:18 AM
While the '96 team had some really fun players. The '84 line up is a SF or bigger PF than Barkely away from being a bad @## team. I mean talk about two way players.

Stockton would average 20 apg. LOL

They had Otis Thorpe, or Maybe Sam Perkins can play as a stretch 4.

I don't think that Barkley works at SF.

Slide MJ to forward, and start Alvin Robinson? 4-time all-star, DPOY.

First could years in the league Barkley might be able too. He was pretty quick for a big guy. But I prefer him at the PF spot. If you're playing 80-90's rules, I'd prefer Barkley on Lebron. Chuck will get into his head and ruff him up to the point he can't play straight. Rules today, Lebron gets smoked by Jordans 45ppg. LOL

But there is also Kevin Willis, who was a beast at times, and I'd actually go with the next to last pick Jerome Kersey.
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Donoghus on September 18, 2017, 09:23:25 AM
'96 top to bottom. 
Title: Re: Poll: Greatest Draft Class?
Post by: Moranis on September 18, 2017, 09:36:25 AM
84 is very strong at the top (MJ, the Dream, Stockton, Barkley), but after the top 4 you are looking at Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Sam Perkins, and Kevin Willis as the next 4 (all but Perkins were all stars at least once). So that is a 7 all star class. Michael Cage and Jerome Kersey round out the top 10.  That just isn't a very deep class. 

96 is a lot deeper.  Kobe, AI, and Nash all won MVP's and Ray Allen is an easy 1st Ballot HOFer.  Obviously that 4 isn't as good as the top 4 in 84, but it isn't chump change either.  But going past them they had 6 other players make at least 1 all star team: JO, Peja, Big Z, Starbury, Toine, and Abdur-Rahim.  Then you add in DPOY Camby and long time quality starters like Fisher, Dampier, and Kittles and that is just a very deep draft.  And that doesn't even count Ben Wallace who wasn't even drafted so doesn't show up in the draft searches for that year. 

2003 had 9 all stars.  In addition to Lebron, Wade, Bosh, and Melo that class had other all stars in David West, Korver, Josh Howard (great before injuries), Kaman, and Mo Williams.  Hinrich, Diaw, Pachulia, TJ Ford, Barbosa, and Perkins were all long time quality starter level players (a few even starting for championship teams). 

So it really comes down to what you want.  84 was very top heavy but not very deep.  96 and 03 weren't as top heavy, though still had some heavy hitters, but were much deeper all the way through the class.