The NBA draft is here and all i keep hearing about this is a deep draft. What makes a draft deep? Is the draft deep when teams can fill all of their needs because of the talent pool? Is the draft deep because the quality of the star players are bountiful and they can carry the league for the next ten years? Is the draft deep because all 30 teams are going to select someone who instantly makes them relevant and makes them much better? I will explore these topics and hopefully try and understand what a deep draft is?
The best class in recent memory in the draft was the class that had of course Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. Chris Kaman was in that draft. So was David West, Dahntay Jones, Mikeal Pietrus, Boris Diaw, Kirk Hinrich, Kendrick Perkins, and Josh Howard. Nick Collison and Carlos Delpino and T.J. Ford make this draft one of the deepest draft in NBA history. Seven of those guys are all stars. Ten of those players played on championship teams or in the NBA finals. I did not forget Darko Milicic. He is a champion from his Piston days. His game is improving. (Don't Laugh). This class is controlling the NBA today.
The question now is what makes the 2012 class deep like this one. Will they have players who revolutionize the game? The only super star player in this draft is Anthony Davis. He won every award as a freshman and culminated his season with a championship. Is he another Marcus Camby type player? Camby was awesome in college and actually dominated Tim Duncan in College. The NBA was another story as Duncan has 4 rings and the greatest power forward ever. The 2003 class had Carmelo Anthony as a freshman leading Syracuse over Kansas for the title. T.J. Ford was the big award winner that year in college. Injuries have curtailed his NBA career. The 2012 class has good college level player moving on to the NBA. No talk or very little talk about the European players. It has good big men, good swing men and a few crafty point guards. In that 2003 class, the majority of the names mentioned were starters for their teams and some of them were their team leading scorers in their first year. Who in this class has that type of ability? Harrison Barnes was touted as a cant miss product out of high school and has the NBA body, swag and game to be a team leader in every category. Bradley Beal is being compared to Ray Allen. Thomas Robinson from Kansas has the game to be consistent scorer in the league but nothing flashy. Austin Rivers should have stayed in school another year to learn a position for the NBA. I watched Dion Waiters play for Syarcuse and he is gutsy but he is nothing special. Kendall Marshall is solid but can he defend? Micheal Kidd-Gilchrist is like Marvin Williams. He does not have a defined position and does not have a good jump shot. The point I am making is I want someone to explain to me what makes a class deep. If this class can produce like the class of 2003 then i will understand what a deep class is all about. If they do not then i guess I will never know. I was looking at classes since 2003 and each class has someone who was special and a bunch of busts. There are also a lot of players who have not even played in the league yet because they are still playing in Europe. I have not been a fan of the draft in a long time. My Knicks haven't drafted well in years and they dont have a first round pick this year. Neither do The Lakers or Clippers. I wish them all well and great health. What has happened to Brandon Roy and Greg Oden I don't wish on anyone. Kentucky and North Carolina has a lot of players going to be drafted tonight. Let their matriculation begin..
