Latest / Bleacher Report / Is the 2026 NBA Draft Class ACTUALLY That Good?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The twenty twenty six NBA Draft is widely looked at
- 0:02Speaker 1: as one of the best NBA draft classes we have
- 0:05Speaker 1: seen in quite some time, where you actually have multiple
- 0:08Speaker 1: different franchise altering prospects at the top of the draft
- 0:12Speaker 1: rather than just one.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Or two guys. We're all college season long.
- 0:15Speaker 1: There was a debate on who would go number one
- 0:17Speaker 1: in the draft between aj Debonsa at BYU, Darren Peterson
- 0:20Speaker 1: at Kansas, Cam Boozer at Duke, and then a rising
- 0:23Speaker 1: star this year, Caleb Wilson at UNC. We're going to
- 0:26Speaker 1: look at how this draft class stacks up with some
- 0:28Speaker 1: of the better draft classes of all time, and it's definitely,
- 0:31Speaker 1: at least going into the draft, one of the most
- 0:33Speaker 1: stack classes we have seen in recent memory. This is
- 0:36Speaker 1: the NBA Draft Board powered by aws AWSAI is how
- 0:40Speaker 1: the NBA brings.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Fans inside the game.
- 0:43Speaker 1: So we'll go back to the nineteen ninety six drift
- 0:45Speaker 1: where you had a bunch of different guys that could
- 0:47Speaker 1: have gone number one at the time. You had a
- 0:49Speaker 1: stud guard in Allen Iverson out of Georgetown. You had
- 0:52Speaker 1: Marcus Camby, who was one of the better defensive prospects
- 0:55Speaker 1: in this draft out of UMass and this draft, when
- 0:58Speaker 1: you look at it was so stacked in the top five,
- 1:01Speaker 1: but also had so many sleepers that didn't even go
- 1:03Speaker 1: inside the top ten. Where you have Alan iverson, Marcus
- 1:07Speaker 1: Camby Tree from dor Raheems Defon Marbury, and Ray Allen.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Like I said, a stack top five, but you can
- 1:12Speaker 1: also see Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest players in
- 1:14Speaker 1: NBA history coming out of Lower mary In high school
- 1:17Speaker 1: thirteenth overall, Pej Stroyakovic fourteenth overall, a international prospect going
- 1:22Speaker 1: to the Kings, and then Steve Nash, one of the
- 1:24Speaker 1: greatest point guards of all time, going fifteenth overall.
- 1:27Speaker 2: And it's not just the lottery as well.
- 1:28Speaker 1: It produced Big Z's at Juno Sogelski's twentieth overall to
- 1:31Speaker 1: the Cleveland caval Years, even multiple time NBA champion Derek
- 1:35Speaker 1: Fisher at pick twenty four, So it's not like you
- 1:37Speaker 1: just need a lottery pick to get a franchise changing prospect.
- 1:40Speaker 1: And when you're looking at the depth of this class,
- 1:42Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't hold up. Maybe it's still a little
- 1:44Speaker 1: bit more top heavy, because when you're looking at this
- 1:46Speaker 1: twenty twenty sixth draft class, it's definitely loaded at the top,
- 1:50Speaker 1: but I think there's just great talent throughout the draft
- 1:52Speaker 1: that you can even find studs in the late teams,
- 1:55Speaker 1: twenties or hey, maybe even the second round as well.
- 1:57Speaker 1: So when you compare the twenty twenty sixth draft class
- 1:59Speaker 1: to this class thirty years ago, I think this class
- 2:03Speaker 1: does have a little bit more top and talent. Obviously,
- 2:06Speaker 1: it's easy to say that the nineteen ninety six draft
- 2:08Speaker 1: has produced multiple All Stars because it has, It's produced
- 2:11Speaker 1: Hall of famers. But when you look at the depth
- 2:13Speaker 1: I think of this year's guard class, it might actually
- 2:15Speaker 1: outstand or at least go toe to toe with this
- 2:17Speaker 1: year's class, where you're at Allen Iverson, shree Frobdor Raheem Marbury,
- 2:21Speaker 1: Allen Kobe Nash like a loaded guard class, and that's
- 2:24Speaker 1: why people have been calling this year's guard class generational,
- 2:27Speaker 1: because it's not just Darren Peterson at the top. When
- 2:29Speaker 1: you're looking at maybe the best forward from this class,
- 2:31Speaker 1: I think there's a chance Agabontsa would be better than
- 2:34Speaker 1: any forward prospect here, as well as Cameron Boozier and
- 2:37Speaker 1: Caleb Wilson.
- 2:38Speaker 2: So I think when it's all said and done.
- 2:40Speaker 1: The twenty twenty six NBA draft class can actually outperform
- 2:43Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety six draft class. So now let's go
- 2:46Speaker 1: to the nineteen ninety eight draft class, where you definitely
- 2:49Speaker 1: had some more volatility at the top of the draft.
- 2:52Speaker 1: It was not as much of a sure thing as
- 2:53Speaker 1: it was in nineteen ninety six. Obviously, Michael Olowokandi did
- 2:57Speaker 1: not really turn out to be as valuable as somebody
- 2:59Speaker 1: that normally go number one overall in the draft. Mike
- 3:02Speaker 1: Babe was still a solid pick at number two in
- 3:04Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things, But really the best picks
- 3:06Speaker 1: from this draft came number four Anthon Jamison to the Warriors.
- 3:10Speaker 1: Even better number five his teammate at U and c
- 3:12Speaker 1: Vince Carter to the Raptors than definitely the two heavy hitters.
- 3:16Speaker 1: Number nine a draft night trade, Derk Novitski ends up
- 3:19Speaker 1: going to the Dallas Mavericks. The rest is history after that,
- 3:22Speaker 1: and same thing with Paul Pierce going to the Boston
- 3:24Speaker 1: Celtics at number ten. And I think when you look
- 3:26Speaker 1: now at this draft, it doesn't really hold up in
- 3:28Speaker 1: terms of the depth. There's definitely some heavy hitters with Dirk,
- 3:31Speaker 1: Paul Pierce, and the guys they just mentioned, And then
- 3:33Speaker 1: when you look at some of the later picks in
- 3:35Speaker 1: this draft as well, there's way more volatility at the time,
- 3:38Speaker 1: but you still had some really good picks, like you
- 3:40Speaker 1: ended up having Rookie Davis twenty one to the Hornets,
- 3:42Speaker 1: you had Al Harrington twenty five to the Indiana Pacers.
- 3:45Speaker 1: You even had some really good second round picks in
- 3:47Speaker 1: this strift as well, like Rashard Lewis to Seattle at
- 3:49Speaker 1: thirty two, Gatino Mobiley to Houston at forty one. And
- 3:53Speaker 1: this is going to be the range that we're going
- 3:54Speaker 1: to see some of those sleeper prospects in this year's class,
- 3:57Speaker 1: where you could see maybe Coopete go in this range
- 3:59Speaker 1: from Arizona. You can see maybe Jayden Quaien It's go
- 4:01Speaker 1: in this range, Alan Graves from Santa Clara, or maybe
- 4:04Speaker 1: even a Elik Thomas from Arkansas. So no disrespecting some
- 4:08Speaker 1: of these guys, but I think I feel better at
- 4:10Speaker 1: least with the unknown and just what we saw from
- 4:12Speaker 1: college basketball. But when I'm comparing it to the twenty
- 4:14Speaker 1: twenty six draft class, I feel better about aj Debonsa,
- 4:18Speaker 1: Darren Peterson, and Cameron Boozer being sure things at the
- 4:21Speaker 1: NBA bubble, then definitely Olo, will Kandy even like Baby
- 4:24Speaker 1: or Raffel friends going at this time because now, even
- 4:27Speaker 1: looking back on it, it wasn't a sure thing that
- 4:29Speaker 1: Derk Novisky coming over from Germany or Paul Pierce from Kansas.
- 4:33Speaker 1: We're going to be yeah, those sure things at the
- 4:35Speaker 1: NBA level, because if they were, they would have.
- 4:37Speaker 2: Gone in the top five.
- 4:38Speaker 1: But I do think when you're looking at the top
- 4:40Speaker 1: five prospects, or at least in this year's class, compared
- 4:42Speaker 1: to the top five picks in nineteen ninety eight, I
- 4:44Speaker 1: think twenty twenty six looks a lot better, at least
- 4:47Speaker 1: when you're talking about sure things at the next level.
- 4:49Speaker 1: And now let's jump to the two thousand and nine
- 4:51Speaker 1: NBA Draft, where a lot of these guys are still
- 4:54Speaker 1: playing today. This class has produced multiple Hall of Famers
- 4:57Speaker 1: and or at least will be in the Hall of
- 4:59Speaker 1: Fame when it's all said and done. So you went
- 5:01Speaker 1: Blake Griffin go number one overall, a sophomore out of Oklahoma,
- 5:05Speaker 1: and he ended up turning out to being a great
- 5:07Speaker 1: player in this league thirteen years.
- 5:09Speaker 2: One of the best dunkers of all time as well.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Definitely some volatility at number two with the team the
- 5:14Speaker 1: beat out of Yukon. But then you have one of
- 5:16Speaker 1: the best scorers of all time, James Harden going number
- 5:19Speaker 1: three to ok SE. This was towards the end of
- 5:21Speaker 1: OKC going Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden in
- 5:24Speaker 1: the top five. Tyreek Evans actually won Rookie of the
- 5:27Speaker 1: Year from this class. Sorry Tim Rolls fans, but they
- 5:29Speaker 1: did take two guards right ahead of Steph Curry, one
- 5:32Speaker 1: of the greatest shooters or the greatest shooter, but one
- 5:34Speaker 1: of the greatest players of all time. And then some
- 5:37Speaker 1: really good players outside of that like Demarta rozen number
- 5:40Speaker 1: nine to the Toronto Raptors, and then Drew Holliday just
- 5:42Speaker 1: still playing today at a high level, seventeenth overall to
- 5:45Speaker 1: the seventy six ers. I believe he's going to be
- 5:47Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer when it's all said and done.
- 5:48Speaker 1: Even Ty Lawson and Jeff Tigue, Darren Collison some really
- 5:51Speaker 1: good guards as a whole. Todge Gibson appeared on an
- 5:54Speaker 1: NBA roster this year. So this class has produced the
- 5:57Speaker 1: top end talent, but some really good depth at the
- 5:59Speaker 1: end of so taking a look at the AWS dashboard,
- 6:02Speaker 1: we could look back at James Harden's Draft Combine three
- 6:06Speaker 1: quarters sprint where he actually was one of the better
- 6:09Speaker 1: guards in this class. Yeah, James Harden was very quick
- 6:11Speaker 1: coming out of Arizona State.
- 6:13Speaker 2: He listed in at six foot.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Four, two hundred and twenty two pounds and ran a
- 6:17Speaker 1: three to one three three quarter sprint, which was one
- 6:19Speaker 1: of the best in this draft class. It was a
- 6:21Speaker 1: little bit behind guys that were speed guards like Tony
- 6:24Speaker 1: Douglas and Darren Collinson, but he was faster than guys
- 6:27Speaker 1: like Tyreek Evans and Jeff Tige, Drew Holliday as well,
- 6:30Speaker 1: which really doesn't feel like that today, and even Steph Curry,
- 6:33Speaker 1: who's more in the middle of the pack. James Harden
- 6:35Speaker 1: running a three to one three that would be kind
- 6:37Speaker 1: of comparable to Jacoby Gillespie in this year's class, Trevon Brazil,
- 6:41Speaker 1: he'd be smacked there in the middle, so he would
- 6:43Speaker 1: be right there at number ten. He was slightly quicker
- 6:46Speaker 1: than ag Debonza or even Daron Peterson, which it just
- 6:49Speaker 1: doesn't feel like that right now, but it just goes
- 6:51Speaker 1: to show you how quick James Harden was coming out
- 6:53Speaker 1: of Arizona State, even Cam carrs in this range, Bennett Sturtz,
- 6:57Speaker 1: Morris Johnson who tested out really well this year at
- 6:59Speaker 1: the Combine. So I feel like comparing this one to
- 7:01Speaker 1: two thousand and nine is in my similar opinion to
- 7:04Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six. It's really tough because you do see
- 7:06Speaker 1: some all time legends in this class. But I will
- 7:08Speaker 1: go back to what I said about nineteen ninety eight.
- 7:10Speaker 1: I feel more of a sure thing about the top five.
- 7:13Speaker 1: There was a lot of volatility with guys like a
- 7:15Speaker 1: Sheath the Beat and Working Rubio coming overseas, or even
- 7:18Speaker 1: Tyreg Evans. Even James Harden coming out of Arizona State,
- 7:20Speaker 1: there were definitely question marks about him as a prospect.
- 7:22Speaker 1: So I do feel better about this year's top five.
- 7:25Speaker 1: But when you do look at the generational value of
- 7:28Speaker 1: this class, will anybody reach the heights of Steph Curry?
- 7:31Speaker 1: It's going to be hard to say, or even James Harden,
- 7:34Speaker 1: But I think if you do take out Steph Curry
- 7:36Speaker 1: from the equation, this class can definitely go toe to toe.
- 7:39Speaker 1: But just adding in Steph when you're comparing the two,
- 7:41Speaker 1: which you have to do, I do think two thousand
- 7:43Speaker 1: and nine would be slightly better all time. But I
- 7:46Speaker 1: think the fact that we're having this conversation goes to
- 7:48Speaker 1: show you how stacked the twenty twenty six draft class
- 7:51Speaker 1: really is. So not Onan's hump to twenty eleven, because
- 7:54Speaker 1: at the time, I don't think anybody realized how good
- 7:57Speaker 1: this draft class was going to become, especially when you
- 7:59Speaker 1: look at the sleepers from this class. So you had
- 8:01Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, who didn't really play a ton of duke,
- 8:03Speaker 1: but he was the sure thing to go number one overall,
- 8:06Speaker 1: and he definitely turned out to be well worth the
- 8:08Speaker 1: number one overall pick, as he will make it to
- 8:10Speaker 1: the Hall of.
- 8:11Speaker 2: Fame one day.
- 8:11Speaker 1: Derek Williams and his freedom Tristan Thompson and Jonas Valenciunas
- 8:15Speaker 1: wrapping out the top five for some bigs definitely did
- 8:18Speaker 1: not look as good as maybe some of these other
- 8:20Speaker 1: draft classes. But if you remember, Derek Williams was an
- 8:23Speaker 1: absolute stud coming out of Arizona. But you definitely had
- 8:27Speaker 1: some great players outside, maybe even the top eight. Although
- 8:30Speaker 1: I think Bismack Biambo had a solid career. He's still
- 8:32Speaker 1: playing on the San Antonio Spurs in the Conference Finals.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Brandon Knight on the Detroit Pistons had a solid career,
- 8:38Speaker 1: but Kemba Walker might or might not make it to
- 8:40Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. But he had a great career
- 8:42Speaker 1: obviously a very talented Yukon player, won a national championship,
- 8:46Speaker 1: and he's one of the best Charlotte Hornets of all time.
- 8:49Speaker 1: And then how about at number eleven, Klay Thompson out
- 8:51Speaker 1: of Washington State turned into maybe the second best shooter
- 8:54Speaker 1: in NBA history next to Seth Curry. He ended up
- 8:56Speaker 1: winning four NBA Championships, and we'll also make it to
- 8:59Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. And then we saw a draft
- 9:01Speaker 1: night trade where the Indiana Pacers acquired George Hill from
- 9:05Speaker 1: the San Antonio Spurs, where the Spurs were able to
- 9:07Speaker 1: select Kawhi Leonard, who ended up winning twenty fourteen Finals MVP,
- 9:10Speaker 1: twenty nineteen Finals MVP with the Toronto Raptors. He'll make
- 9:13Speaker 1: it to the Hall of Fame as well. Where nobody
- 9:15Speaker 1: really expected Kawhi out of San Diego State to be
- 9:18Speaker 1: one of the best, maybe the best player from this
- 9:20Speaker 1: draft class turned out to be a very good sleeper.
- 9:23Speaker 1: And then some great players outside the top sixteen as
- 9:26Speaker 1: well like Emon Schumpert, a really good role player for
- 9:28Speaker 1: the New York Knicks and then for the Cleveland Cavaliers
- 9:31Speaker 1: during their title runs in the mid twenty tens.
- 9:33Speaker 2: Tobias Harris still playing.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Meaningful minutes for a sixty win team this year on
- 9:37Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons. Guys that had some solid careers. And
- 9:40Speaker 1: then you have at number thirty Jimmy Butler, somebody that
- 9:43Speaker 1: will also make it to the Hall of Fame. This
- 9:45Speaker 1: is an absolute steal at number thirty. Took him a
- 9:48Speaker 1: little bit time to get going. And yeah, this class
- 9:50Speaker 1: had some hard hitting sleepers like Kawhi Leonard at fifteen
- 9:54Speaker 1: and Jimmy Butler at thirty. Where these guys turned out
- 9:57Speaker 1: to be number ones on either a team that won
- 9:59Speaker 1: the finals or went to the NBA Finals.
- 10:02Speaker 2: They were elite defenders.
- 10:03Speaker 1: They were guys that could score high twenty point per
- 10:05Speaker 1: games on elite efficiency. When you look at this class
- 10:08Speaker 1: as wings sleepers, guys like Daland Swayn at Texas or
- 10:12Speaker 1: Isaiah Evans at Duke, they could definitely perform their value
- 10:15Speaker 1: if they ended up going in the mid twenties of
- 10:17Speaker 1: this draft. But there's that one wing sleeper that's definitely
- 10:20Speaker 1: rising up people's draft boards Cam Carr where it feels
- 10:23Speaker 1: like he could be the steal of this year's draft
- 10:25Speaker 1: for what he just did this past year at Bailor
- 10:27Speaker 1: and how he showed out at the twenty twenty six
- 10:29Speaker 1: draft combine. So when you compare the twenty twenty sixth
- 10:31Speaker 1: draft class to the twenty eleven draft class, it's really
- 10:33Speaker 1: hard to say that twenty twenty six will outperform twenty eleven.
- 10:36Speaker 2: I think what twenty eleven.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Has on its side is the depth and the top
- 10:40Speaker 1: end talent. The top end talent being Kybrie, Irving, Keba
- 10:42Speaker 1: Walker when he was at his peak, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard,
- 10:45Speaker 1: and Jimmy Buller. I think we could see some levels
- 10:48Speaker 1: of that in this year's class. But you also have
- 10:50Speaker 1: these sure think depth and guys that I even mentioned,
- 10:52Speaker 1: like the Morris Twins or Nikola Vucevic who went sixteenth
- 10:55Speaker 1: overall to the seventy six ers.
- 10:56Speaker 2: So I'm going to side with twenty eleven.
- 10:58Speaker 1: But like I said before, or the fact that we're
- 11:00Speaker 1: having this conversation, I wouldn't be totally shocked if twenty
- 11:03Speaker 1: twenty six ultimately did outperform twenty eleven in twenty years
- 11:07Speaker 1: from now. Now, let's go to the prospect of the
- 11:09Speaker 1: week powered by AWS, and that would be Cam Carr
- 11:12Speaker 1: for what he did this year at the Combine, And
- 11:14Speaker 1: like I said, what he did this year at Bailor,
- 11:16Speaker 1: he tested out extremely well at the Combine. He had
- 11:19Speaker 1: a thirty eight inch standing vertical weap, he had a
- 11:21Speaker 1: forty two and a half inch max vertical weak But
- 11:23Speaker 1: what really stood him out was the wingspan and his
- 11:26Speaker 1: three quarter sprint, because you could see he had one
- 11:28Speaker 1: of the better wingspans for somebody at his height in
- 11:30Speaker 1: this class. So when you're looking at the three quarter sprint,
- 11:32Speaker 1: Camcarr was sixteenth in this class out of seventy one players,
- 11:36Speaker 1: surrounded by a bunch of guards that definitely did not
- 11:38Speaker 1: have the same plus wingspan that he had. In this class,
- 11:41Speaker 1: he was a little bit slower than somebody like Aj Debontsa,
- 11:43Speaker 1: who's obviously maybe the consensus number one player right now
- 11:46Speaker 1: on some people's boards. So I don't think anybody else
- 11:49Speaker 1: helped out their draftstock more than Cam Carr in this
- 11:52Speaker 1: year's class. And who knows, maybe he could be this
- 11:54Speaker 1: year's Kawhi Leonard or Jimmy Butler. And lastly, let's compare
- 11:57Speaker 1: it to the two thousand and three draft class. Maybe
- 11:59Speaker 1: no as the greatest draft class of all time because
- 12:02Speaker 1: they have arguably the greatest player of all time going
- 12:04Speaker 1: in this class, Lebron James number one overall to the Caves.
- 12:07Speaker 1: Now it is crazy to look back on Darko Milicic's
- 12:10Speaker 1: going number two in between Lebron and Carmelo Anthony, who
- 12:13Speaker 1: just won a national title at Syracuse as a freshman
- 12:16Speaker 1: in that two thousand and three season. After Mellow, it
- 12:18Speaker 1: didn't stop there. Chris Bosh, a multiple time All Star,
- 12:21Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer, goes forward to the Toronto Raptors,
- 12:24Speaker 1: and then number five Dwayne Wade Adam Marquette little bit
- 12:26Speaker 1: of an older prospect and ended up winning Finals MVP
- 12:29Speaker 1: with the Miami Heat. Obviously won multiple more rings with
- 12:32Speaker 1: the heatles with Lebron James and Chris Bosh in the
- 12:35Speaker 1: twenty tens.
- 12:36Speaker 2: And that's just the top five.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Obviously, some great role players went after this, like Chris
- 12:40Speaker 1: Cayman six to the Clippers, Kirk Heimric seven, Texas's finest,
- 12:44Speaker 1: TJ Ford eight to the Milwaukee Bucks, and then even
- 12:47Speaker 1: Nick Koloson, who has this jersey retired by the OKC
- 12:49Speaker 1: Thunder at number twelve. Luke rittenau Were fourteen to the Sonics,
- 12:53Speaker 1: also gave some good moments in his career and it
- 12:55Speaker 1: didn't stop there. David West, one of the best players
- 12:58Speaker 1: from this draft class as well, was kind of the
- 12:59Speaker 1: number two with Chris Paul on those Hornets teams in
- 13:02Speaker 1: the two thousand he ends up going eighteenth overall. Borsteout,
- 13:05Speaker 1: one of the best role players of all time, goes
- 13:07Speaker 1: twenty one to the Atlanta Hawks, obviously known for his
- 13:09Speaker 1: time in San Antonio, Travis Outlaw twenty three to the Blazers.
- 13:13Speaker 1: Even Kendrick Perkins twenty seven at that time, turned out
- 13:16Speaker 1: to be a really good player for his shraft position,
- 13:19Speaker 1: and same with Lander Barbosa at twenty eight. But Williams
- 13:22Speaker 1: ended up going forty seventh in this class as well.
- 13:24Speaker 1: And then looking back on why Dwayne Wade, a little
- 13:26Speaker 1: bit of an older prospect, ended up going in the
- 13:28Speaker 1: top five at the Marquette.
- 13:30Speaker 2: His speed.
- 13:30Speaker 1: Obviously, his nickname in his career was flash because he
- 13:33Speaker 1: really was one of the quickest players of all time
- 13:36Speaker 1: going into the combine where he ended up running a
- 13:38Speaker 1: ten to five to six lane agility drill. On top
- 13:41Speaker 1: of him having basically a plus seven wingspan going from
- 13:43Speaker 1: six foot three and three quarters to six foot ten
- 13:46Speaker 1: and three quarters. He had a thirty one and a
- 13:48Speaker 1: half inch standing vertical leap, a thirty five inch max
- 13:51Speaker 1: vertical leap. He was a freakish type prospect for somebody
- 13:54Speaker 1: at a guard at this time. So if you compare
- 13:56Speaker 1: what Dwayne Wade did to this year, you have Billy
- 13:58Speaker 1: Richmond there at the top, Cam Carr, who we talked
- 14:01Speaker 1: about before as a sleeper in this class, and then
- 14:03Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade would have finished third right here. I had
- 14:06Speaker 1: of guys like Kingston Flemings, Brandon Bury's in this class,
- 14:10Speaker 1: and you could see there's definitely a gap between what
- 14:12Speaker 1: Billy Richmond did this year to Cam Carr at number two,
- 14:15Speaker 1: who we talked about a ton. So dayn Wade would
- 14:17Speaker 1: have finished right here in this range if he did
- 14:19Speaker 1: this Drail twenty three years later. So ultimately it's tough
- 14:22Speaker 1: to say that the twenty twenty six draft class will
- 14:24Speaker 1: end up being better than two thousand and three, just
- 14:26Speaker 1: with Lebron, Melo, Bosh and Wade and I don't think
- 14:29Speaker 1: it will, just because it might never be topped ever again.
- 14:32Speaker 1: But the fact that we're having this conversation just goes
- 14:34Speaker 1: to show you how elite this year's top of the
- 14:36Speaker 1: class really can be, but also the depth of this
- 14:38Speaker 1: class as well. Like I said, I don't think that
- 14:41Speaker 1: the top four in this class will unperform the top
- 14:44Speaker 1: four of Lebron, Mellow, Bosh, and Wade, but I think
- 14:46Speaker 1: we can get eighty, maybe ninety percent of the way there,
- 14:49Speaker 1: and I wouldn't be shocked if maybe somebody in this
- 14:51Speaker 1: year's class ends up being maybe the second best player
- 14:54Speaker 1: in the two thousand and three draft class if you
- 14:56Speaker 1: look back at their careers when they're all.
- 14:58Speaker 2: Said and done.
- 14:59Speaker 1: So, all in all, the twenty twenty six draft class
- 15:01Speaker 1: should be better than most of the draft classes that
- 15:03Speaker 1: we have seen maybe in the last ten years. Twenty
- 15:06Speaker 1: twenty one has definitely been the best draft class so
- 15:08Speaker 1: far in the twenty twenties, with guys like Kate Cunningham,
- 15:11Speaker 1: Evan Mobley, and Scottie Barnes.
- 15:13Speaker 2: I think twenty twenty six can.
- 15:14Speaker 1: Outperform that's the draft class, and even twenty eighteen as well,
- 15:18Speaker 1: which would definitely be a tough feat because that class
- 15:20Speaker 1: has Bukadancic, Jalen Brunson, and Shay Gilgess Alexander. So the
- 15:24Speaker 1: fact that we are lumping those in goes to show
- 15:27Speaker 1: you that these teams that lucked out on the lottery,
- 15:29Speaker 1: like the Wizards, the Jazz, the Grizzlies and the Bulls
- 15:32Speaker 1: really do have a chance at taking a franchise altering talent.
- 15:35Speaker 1: I think that this class can end up being better
- 15:37Speaker 1: than nineteen ninety eight, maybe even nineteen ninety six. It
- 15:39Speaker 1: will be tough to top twenty eleven, two and nine
- 15:42Speaker 1: to two thousand and three, but you never know with
- 15:44Speaker 1: how these guys' careers can end up going.
- 15:46Speaker 2: Thanks for watching.
- 15:47Speaker 1: This episode of the NBA Draft Board powered by aws
- 15:50Speaker 1: Awsai is how the NBA brings fans inside the game's