After reading articles about redrafting the 2013 draft, i decided to look at the last five drafts and see who was able to draft a top 10 player that year, and do so while maximizing the value of their position in the draft. For example, golden state selecting Klay Thompson at number 11 in 2011 is more impressive than Cleveland drafting the consensus number 1 pick, Kyrie Irving that same year.
These are the teams that i think have made the most of their draft positions, with regards to the top 10 players of the draft in any given year.
1. Indiana by far. Paul George at 10, when he is perhaps the best player in the 2010 draft. Lance Stephenson at 40, is looking like perhaps the 8th best player in that same class. Leonard (15) and Plumlee (26) were excellent picks in their years, even though they were traded for George Hill and Luis Scola. Going as far back as 2008, Roy Hibbert was a great pick at 17.
2. Golden state has turned a 7 pick, Curry, and 11th pick, Thompson into an allstar back court. I strongly believe Thompson will make an allstar team soon. Curry is the 3rd best player in his class, Thompson is the 3rd or 4th best player in his class. Barnes was a solid pick at 7. But Udoh was a bust at number 6 in 2010.
3. Philadelphia's highlights were Jrue Holiday at number 17 in 2009, Vucevic at 16 in 2011 (even though they lost him for Andrew Bynum), Carter-Williams at 11 in 2013 and the draft day trade of Holiday for Noel at 6 and a future lottery pick. The lowlight is that Evan Turner picked at number 2 is maybe the 10th best player of the 2010 class.
4. Detroit has a great return in Drummond at 9 (he looks like the 3rd best player in the 2012 class), and solid picks in Monroe at 7, Brandon Knight at 8, and Caldwell-Pope at 8.
5 and 6 are a tie, and i give the edge to Danny ainge for his extended track record.
5. Boston turned the 21 pick into the 7th best player of his class with Jared Sullinger. Avery Bradley at 19 is arguably the 10th best player of the 2010 class. Olynyk was an average pick in a funky year. Picked at 13, he looks like the 16th best player. Let's see how he ranks in 2 years.
As a bonus (meaning i looked beyond the last 5 years) Ainge found the second best player of the 2006 draft with the 21st pick in Rajon Rondo. Al Jefferson at 15 is the 4th or 5th best player in the 2004 draft. He also built a title team in 2007 by trading the 5th pick and Wally's big contract for Ray Allen, knowing he still had pieces to make a move for Garnett.
The biggest blunder was wasting the 7th pick in 2006 in a trade for Sebastian Telfair. In his defense, the 2006 draft was probably the worst draft in the last 20 or 30 years, and he still managed to get Rondo out of it.
6. Chicago picked Taj Gibson at 26 and Jimmy Butler at 30, and they are arguably top 10 in their classes.
7. Toronto picked DeRozan at 9, and he appears to be 4th best in his class. They also made solid picks with Valanciunas at 5 in 2011 and Terrance Jones at 8 in 2012.
8. Utah made 3 solid picks for their draft positions in Hayward 9, Kanter 3 and Burke 9.
9. Milwaukee has done well with Sanders 15 and Antetokounmpo 15. As a minus they did draft Fredette at number 10 and traded him to Sacramento in a trade in which both teams lost or broke even at best.
My point is that no matter where the celtics end up in the draft this year, Danny Ainge is a very very good triggerman when it comes to finding value wherever his picks fall. He is one of the very best in the entire NBA!
Topic: Tankers and Non-Tankers Rejoice: Celtics are Power Drafters. (Read 6786 times)