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2008 Draft class, best in last 10 years?


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Looking at the draft-classes year by year, 2008 stands out the most, 2003 was good but outside of the 4 big players there was nobody else really.

 

Derrick Rose

Michael Beasley

OJ Mayo

Russell Westbrook

Kevin Love

Danilo Gallinari

Eric Gordon

DJ Augustin

Brook Lopez

Jeryd Bayless

Jason Thompson

Brandon Rush

Roy Hibbert

Javale McGee

JJ Hickson

Ryan Anderson

Courtney Lee

Serge Ibaka

Nicolas Batum

George Hill

Nikola Pekovic

Mario Chalmers

DeAndre Jordan

Omer Asik

Mbah a Moute

Sonny Weems

Goran Dragic

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Looking at the draft-classes year by year, 2008 stands out the most, 2003 was good but outside of the 4 big players there was nobody else really.

 

Derrick Rose

Michael Beasley

OJ Mayo

Russell Westbrook

Kevin Love

Danilo Gallinari

Eric Gordon

DJ Augustin

Brook Lopez

Jeryd Bayless

Jason Thompson

Brandon Rush

Roy Hibbert

Javale McGee

JJ Hickson

Ryan Anderson

Courtney Lee

Serge Ibaka

Nicolas Batum

George Hill

Nikola Pekovic

Mario Chalmers

DeAndre Jordan

Omer Asik

Mbah a Moute

Sonny Weems

Goran Dragic

Those three, in bold, are all-stars you could see making the team for years to come (maybe Gordon).

 

To me, only one of those players is a superstar, and that's D-Rose. Kevin Love is pretty good, but he's not where Duncan, Garnett, and other former superstars have been over the years...at least not yet.

 

LeBron, Wade, Melo, Bosh...that's a nasty group. Add David West, Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich, TJ Ford, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, Josh Howard, Mo Williams, Kyle Korver and Rick Rickert...it's hard to ignore that draft.

 

The following year produced Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Devin Harris, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Kevin Martin, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, and Trevor Ariza.

 

2005 had Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Andrew Bogut, Monta Ellis, Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger, David Lee, Brandon Bass, Louis Williams, and Marcin Gortat.

 

You can make a case for a lot of those.

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Those three, in bold, are all-stars you could see making the team for years to come (maybe Gordon).

 

To me, only one of those players is a superstar, and that's D-Rose. Kevin Love is pretty good, but he's not where Duncan, Garnett, and other former superstars have been over the years...at least not yet.

 

LeBron, Wade, Melo, Bosh...that's a nasty group. Add David West, Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich, TJ Ford, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, Josh Howard, Mo Williams, Kyle Korver and Rick Rickert...it's hard to ignore that draft.

 

The following year produced Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Devin Harris, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, JR Smith, Kevin Martin, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, and Trevor Ariza.

 

2005 had Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Andrew Bogut, Monta Ellis, Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger, David Lee, Brandon Bass, Louis Williams, and Marcin Gortat.

 

You can make a case for a lot of those.

 

I meant in terms of overall good players. Sure those past draft classes had 5-6 or so amazing players but 2008 had 30-something average to good, to amazing players.

 

Also plenty of players on the 2008 still have a ton of potential, just look at Ibaka, Roy Hibbert, Goran Dragic, Michael Beasley, OJ Mayo, Javale Mcgee, Nicolas Batum, Ryan Anderson and Nikola Pekovic

 

Also, didnt Hibbert make the all-star game?

Edited by YugoRocketsFan
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I agree with Yugo. The depth of the 08 class is pretty insane. Basically all those guys are contributing NBA players...and most are very vital to their team's success.

 

If Beasley had turned out to be a superstar, as well as Mayo, I think the draft would be looked at as one of the greatest...but because those guys aren't superstars or even all-stars, the draft is looked at differently.

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2003 had a once in a generation player(LeBron), another HoF'r (Wade), another superstar (Melo), and a perrenial All-Star (Bosh).

 

Add in those other guys that RD mentioned (Kaman, West, Williams, Diaw, Howard, Barbosa were all very close to All-Star status at one point, and some were infact All-Stars), and 2003 takes it for me. I'll take ridiculous top-heaviness over depth anyday.

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