As the decade comes to a close, we rank the last NBA Draft classes of the last 10 years. Which are the most top-heavy and which are the deepest?
The decade is about to end, and there have been a number of memorable NBA Draft classes over the last 10 years. Which has been the best, though? We rank them.
10. 2019
I think by default this draft had to go last considering we haven’t even seen them play half a season. Not to mention, probably the best player in this draft, Zion Williamson (1st), is yet to play a game.
With that said, this draft hasn’t looked that good in its first season. Ja Morant (2nd) has been the one bright spot and RJ Barrett (3rd) is putting up numbers but they’re incredibly inefficient.
Some players that look like potential solid NBA players are De’Andre Hunter (4th), Coby White (7th), Jaxson Hayes (8th), Rui Hachimura (9th), Cam Reddish (10th), PJ Washington (12th), Tyler Herro (13th), Matisse Thybulle (20th), Brandon Clarke (21st) and Eric Paschall (41st).
Probably the biggest steals of this draft so far are Brandon Clark and Eric Paschall who have looked really good so far this season. On the flip side, some guys who have looked pretty rough include Darius Garland (4th), Jarrett Culver (6th), Romeo Langford (14th) and Sekou Doumbouya (15th).
Obviously, there is still a lot of time for this draft to improve. It’s really hard to judge guys based on less than 30 games work but they all have plenty of work to do regardless. With that all being said, the one bright spot of this draft so far is definitely the depth of the second round.
The second round has some guys that look like really good NBA players already such as the aforementioned Eric Paschall (41st), Carsen Edwards (33rd) and others.
I hope in the next five years we’ll look back at the past ten drafts and see that this draft is near the top. And with potential generational talent in Zion Williamson, that is entirely possible.