NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years

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NBA Phoenix Suns Deandre Ayton (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

T-9. Phoenix Suns: 39.5 points

2001: Joe Johnson: 9 (7x all-star, 1x 3rd team – the original Joe Johnson rule)
2002: Amar’e Stoudemire: 22 (6x all-star, 1x 1st team, 4x 2nd team)
2008: Goran Dragic: 6 (1x all-star, 1x 3rd team, double points for 2nd round pick)
2014: T.J. Warren: 0.5
2015: Devin Booker: 1 (1x all-star)
2018: Mikal Bridges: 0.5
2018: Deandre Ayton: 0.5

One thing I didn’t know before I started doing this: If you create a formula for grading any NBA related topic and it churns out the Suns as a top 10 team, you will frantically re-assess that formula and do a deep dive into Suns history to figure out how it could possibly have happened. But for how terrible they’ve been during the last decade, it’s easy to forget how great they were from 2000-10.

The Suns might win the award for strangest draft history in the NBA. They seem to be the only team that drafts better players outside of the top 5 than inside the top 5. Excluding Deandre Ayton, the Suns have had 3 top 5 picks since 2013, those picks have turned into Alex Len, Dragan Bender, and Josh Jackson – not awesome.

But on the flip side, every single one of their best players in the last 25 years has been drafted 9th or later. If you move the start date back to 1996, they’ve drafted: Steve Nash (15th), Shawn Marrion (9th), Amar’e Stoudemire (9th), Goran Dragic (45th), T.J. Warren (14th), and Devin Booker (13th).

Are they really good at finding diamonds in the rough? Is it mostly luck? All I know is the Suns should never tank again, they are somehow better without it.