The 2010 NBA Draft, Deep and Talented!

A look back at the past two decades of NBA Drafts reveals a great inconsistency from year to year.  Some years many All Stars are drafted and the talent pool goes deep into the first or early second round.  The 2003 NBA Draft featured a handful of superstars, LeBron James, D. Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, plus many other players who have had very good NBA careers so far.  But those great years are the exception, not the norm.

Some years even the top ten picks are mediocre and the majority of the players drafted fizzle out and fail before ever making a difference for an NBA team.  Case in point, the 2000 Draft.  The top five picks, Kenyon Martin, Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Marcus Fizer and Mike Miller all failed to become stars in the league and the entire first round featured exactly zero star players.  The best of the bunch might be Hidayet Turkoglu, a good third option type player, while the second round of the 2000 draft produced one steal, Michael Redd but no other meaningful players.

So the question now is, how does the 2010 draft look in terms of depth, talent and future stars?  The answer is good news for the NBA, it's teams and the fans.  Not only are there a handful of potential superstars in this draft but there is great depth as well.  Wall, Turner and some of the young big men such as Favors, Cousins and Motiejunas could develop into perennial All Stars and many other projected first round picks could be the same.

But what might make this draft special is the depth of talent which extends well into the late first round or even into the second round.  Teams with multiple first round picks like the Timberwolves, Grizzlies and Nets could each be adding a couple of key players to their rosters.  Many of the players are young or inexperienced and will take time to develop (Avery Bradley, Hassan Whiteside etc.) but I think a great many of them will find NBA success or even stardom.

My prediction for this draft, when we look back 5 or 10 years from now, is that it grades out very well in terms of star players, number of impact players and second round steals.  But it remains to be seen which GM's will realize this and make moves now to acquire some of this great talent.  In exactly one month we'll all find out.