5 worst NBA Draft classes since 2000
While the current 2017 draft class looks to be one of the best in recent years with a plethora of potential franchise types of players or potential All-Stars, eyebrows have been raised over the capability of the talent coming into the NBA in the last few years.
This issue prompted discussions concerning the minimum age of league prospects, and whether the one and done rule should be scrapped to have more mature prospects entering the league. This begs the question, what are some of the worst drafts in NBA history? What are some of the worst collective group of draftees that the NBA has ever seen?
To answer these questions, I came up with a list of the worst draft classes in the recent past. I have factored in the volume of talent, longevity with a greater emphasis on lottery picks.
#5 2013
I can’t help but put this class on this list. The only reason it’s not number one is that it’s only been four years, but still, the returns leave a lot to be desired. With three of the top five picks looking like some of the biggest busts ever: Anthony Bennett, Cody Zeller and Alex Len, it’s hard to argue. The draft was so bad that none of the prospects made it to the top two tiers during the classification (1. potential superstars, 2. all-stars, 3. starters, 4. rotation players, and so-on).
Giannis Antentokounmpo (15), CJ McCollum (10), Steven Adams (12), Rudy Gobert (27), Dennis Schroeder (17), Victor Oladipo (2), and Otto Porter (3) represent the best of the class. Once again, we had a majority of the lottery picks failing to live up to the hype. We had Anthony Bennet summarizing the talent pool by being the top pick.
While one player in the draft has made the All-Star Team (Giannis Antetokounmpo), none have made All-NBA teams. So far, they represent major projects that will take years to develop.