HotelVitale wrote:ImHeisenberg wrote:Illmatic21 wrote:If you put the prospects from the last ~5 years into the same draft, it would go:
Davis - Consensus National POY, led his team to a title
Rose - led his team to championship game
Griffin - Consensus National POY, 1st team All-American, averaged 23/14
Wall - 1st team All-American, SEC POY
Wiggins - Big 12 "freshman" of the year, 2nd team All-American, flopped in tourney
Parker - 1st team All-American, flopped in tourney/second half of the season
Embiid - injured
Where's Anthony Bennett on that list!?!
Illmatic, I remember Rose being less touted than Wall, probably below where Wiggins was at too. Wall was quicker and faster than Rose and had a much better handle (though Rose ended up developing his mid-range game, ft drawing, and floater much quicker in the end). Like Wiggins, people thought Rose was good in college but they were able to see the potential greatness his elite athleticism could do in the more open NBA game. But Wiggins had the bigger hype--Rose wasn't even the #1 HS prospect that year, let alone the #1 in five years like Wiggins--and he had better size so he had more draft buzz around him.
You're right, Wall was probably more touted than Rose. However Rose had an exceptional college season, dominated the NCAA tourney and barely lost the national championship game. So teams were much higher on him going into the draft, he was seen as a can't-miss franchise player.
Now Wiggins had more hype than any HS prospect in recent history, save Lebron and maybe Greg Oden. But that hype has died down considerably after his first college season. He didn't do anything of note at Kansas, and is now seen as more of a risk/project than a surefire superstar.
All these other guys boosted or maintained their stock in college, Wiggins hurt his. So if they were coming out in the same draft, Wiggins wouldn't inspire as much confidence as Rose, Wall, Griffin, etc.
