ESPN Rookie Rankings (based on potential)

[Quetzalcoatl]

That was a really strong class.  I don't know how many All-Stars it will produce, but it gave a lot of really solid pieces.

[Eddie20]

The concept "potential" is such an arbitrary concept that this isn't really all that helpful. That being said, there's a lot to take issue with these lists. I don't see how Cauley-Stein, Hollis-Jefferson, or Kaminsky has more "potential" than Okafor. Johnson is going to be a stud and should be on there, and I think Turner should be higher based on pure potential.

The Okafor potential is based on the current direction of the league. If it were 10-15 years ago he would probably be #2, no worse than #3. His defense is atrocious and his offense is one dimensional, so you have to construct an entire team based on those limitations. Is he really that good to build around?

[Eddie20]

I'd be interested to see if you asked them what they thought each players career highs in the various stats would be, where they came down?  I mean I can't imagine they both don't have Okafor in the 25/12 range for points and rebounds if not higher and yet that somehow equates to 10th most potential.  I mean either this is the best draft in history, or those guys are just being overly critical with Okafor.  I imagine it is latter.

Those are some lofty expectations. Especially with a player that doesn't rebound well for his positionl. Okafor has talent, but teams are catching on to his moves. The one handed pump fake isn't getting anyone nowadays and it's no secret that he's awful passing from doubles.

[cb8883]

That was a really strong class.  I don't know how many All-Stars it will produce, but it gave a lot of really solid pieces.

And Ainge blew it once again by insisting this team made the playoffs. To get swept? Awful. Learn from mistakes and TANK in 2015!!!!

[Future Celtics Owner]

That was a really strong class.  I don't know how many All-Stars it will produce, but it gave a lot of really solid pieces.

And Ainge blew it once again by insisting this team made the playoffs. To get swept? Awful. Learn from mistakes and TANK in 2015!!!!

But we made the playoffs and that made the young guys on the team so much better and created a winning environment.......good joke

We all knew we needed a center. We all knew that this draft had them in spades. Then we start winning because DA did not waive Bass Jonas Gigi or trade useless vets that are not in our future.......and we pick Terry

Can you imagine how set we would be with Kristaps/Towns/Okafor.....even Turner could become a beast and be better than all of them. But we can not mess with a winning culture its not like we were the 2nd worst record in the league one year and then we had the best record and won the championship the next.....with 3 guys that were all on horrible teams the year before.

[colincb]

I'd be interested to see if you asked them what they thought each players career highs in the various stats would be, where they came down?  I mean I can't imagine they both don't have Okafor in the 25/12 range for points and rebounds if not higher and yet that somehow equates to 10th most potential.  I mean either this is the best draft in history, or those guys are just being overly critical with Okafor.  I imagine it is latter.

I can't imagine either having Okafor peaking at 25 PPG and 12 RPG. There's no one in the NBA doing that this year. More to the point, out of 78 centers listed in Basketball-Reference.com Okafor ranks as follows through yesterday:

65th Total Shooting % (17th percentile)
40th PER (49th percentile)
68th Defensive Box +/- (13th percentile)
53rd Total Rebounding % (32nd percentile)

Out of the top 30 centers in MPG, he's 29th in Total Shooting % ahead only of Noah who doesn't play under the basket and after Drummond. He's 24th in Total Rebounding % after Brook Lopez. He's 29th in Defensive Box +/- ahead of only Kantar, and he's 24th in PER between Len and Noah.

IOW, he's playing poorly despite putting up numbers on a very bad team. I thought  he was over-rated based off his play in the tourney and his defensive deficiencies/ slow reaction time, but I'm shocked about how bad his stats are as opposed to the eye test, which is why you use both. He'll get better, but he's no savior.

[KG Living Legend]

 Well I personally feel smart for having Hollis Jefferson as my binkie predraft.

[Bucketgetter]

Okafor is better than what they have him listed as.

Nice to see my boy Myles Turner getting love from someone else but me. Unfortunately, I always wanted Karl towns since his jr year in hs and was excited when he chose UK because i thought he would struggle for the necessary minutes to show his skill-set. I really got screwed this past draft. 3 less wins and we could have drafted Myles Turner with our own pick. Ainge messed up big time, I'll never forget.

Lol YOU got screwed? I feel so bad for you!

[Eddie20]

Okafor is better than what they have him listed as.

Nice to see my boy Myles Turner getting love from someone else but me. Unfortunately, I always wanted Karl towns since his jr year in hs and was excited when he chose UK because i thought he would struggle for the necessary minutes to show his skill-set. I really got screwed this past draft. 3 less wins and we could have drafted Myles Turner with our own pick. Ainge messed up big time, I'll never forget.

Lol YOU got screwed? I feel so bad for you!

You didn't know? He recently bought the team from Wyc. He just forgot to change his user name.

[Bucketgetter]

Okafor is better than what they have him listed as.

Nice to see my boy Myles Turner getting love from someone else but me. Unfortunately, I always wanted Karl towns since his jr year in hs and was excited when he chose UK because i thought he would struggle for the necessary minutes to show his skill-set. I really got screwed this past draft. 3 less wins and we could have drafted Myles Turner with our own pick. Ainge messed up big time, I'll never forget.

Lol YOU got screwed? I feel so bad for you!

You didn't know? He recently bought the team from Wyc. He just forgot to change his user name.

Ah, I apologize current celtics owner. You got screwed big time, sir.