There's a reason these evaluations must be delayed, and this class could prove much better than expected if some of the greener players at the top of the board pan out.
Only one of the Rookie of the Year finalists came from this class, and he was a second-rounder (Malcolm Brogdon).
The class was often regarded as a two-player crop -one lost the entire season to injury (Ben Simmons), the other had the worst true shooting percentage of anyone who logged 2,000-plus minutes (Brandon Ingram). The latest batch of NBA newcomers did not make a great first impression. This worst-to-first walk-through of recent history will reveal all the bright spots and blemishes on the league's collective draft record. The 2000s have seen some gems, a few flops and everything in between. The highest-ranked drafts are those with star power, depth and minimal misfires. Nothing helps more than the presence of elite talents, while early busts are most damaging. Since we're using multiple seasons to make these judgments, we have spared the most recent classes from our rankings.įor those in the running, multiple measures are used to find their strength in relation to the others. It sounds crazy, but the idea is that with years of actual NBA data at our disposal, we can get an accurate assessment of how an entire draft class has fared. The 2017 NBA draft is almost upon us, which means so are overreactions and premature evaluations.īut before we rip this current class to shreds or shower it with unearned praise, we're going to do something bold: evaluate past drafts using the benefit of hindsight.