Lot's of young talent in the Northwest Division
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:01 am
After spending some time on the GB earlier today talking about the Northwest division, I went off and started compiling some stuff and posted something similar there. Since I spent so much time today on it (it was this or mindsweeper), I thought I'd share it here. Enjoy!
a couple of extra lists I made:
NW Division Players Under Age 30 by Year Drafted
2009: Harden (20), Rubio (19), Flynn (21), Lawson (22), Maynor (22), Claver (22), Mullens (21), Ellington (22), Cunningham (22) (2nd), Pendergraph (22) (2nd), Norel (22) (2nd), Mills (21) (2nd), Suton (24) (2nd), Matthews (23) (FA), Gaines (23) (FA)
2008: Westbrook (21), Love (21), Bayless (21), Koufos (21), Ibaka (20), Batum (21), White (23), Pekovic (23) (2nd), Weaver (24) (2nd), Jawai (23), Tomic (23) (2nd), Hardin (23) (2nd), Dragicevic (24) (2nd), Kaun (24) (2nd)
2007: Oden (22), Durant (21), Green (23), C Brewer (24), Fernandez (24), Afflalo (24), Kopponen (22), Fesenko (23) (2nd), Sessions (23) (2nd)
2006: Roy (25), LMA (24), Sefolasha (25), Pecherov (24), Balkman (25), Freeland (23), Millsap (25) (2nd), Hollins (25) (2nd)
2005: Deron (25), Webster (23), Graham (27) Petro (24), Gomes (27) (2nd), Miles (23) (2nd)
2004: Jefferson (25), JR Smith (24)
2003: Melo (25), Darko (24), Collison (29), Pavlovic (26) (hahaha), Korver (29) (2nd)
2002: Nene (27), Krstic (26), Boozer (28) (2nd)
1999: AK-47 (29)
NW Division players (including rights held) under age 30.
Age 19: Rubio
Age 20: Harden, Ibaka
Age 21: Durant, Westbrook, Love, Batum, Flynn, Bayless, Koufos, Mullens, Mills
Age 22: Oden, Ellington, Lawson, Maynor, Claver, Kopponen, Cunningham, Pendergraoh, Norel
Age 23: Green, Pekovic, Sessions, Fesenko, Freeland, Webster , CJ Miles, White, Matthews, Gaines, Jawai, Tomic, Hardin
Age 24: LMA, Brewer, JR Smith, Fernandez, Darko, Afflalo, Petro, Pecherov, Suton, Dragicevic, Kaun
Age 25: Roy, Melo, Deron, Jefferson, Millsap, Sefolosha, Balkman, Hollins
Age 26: Krstic, Pavlovic
Age 27: Nene, Gomes, Graham
Age 28: Boozer
Age 29: AK-47, Korver, Collison
It has been interesting to watch teams in our division horde first round draft picks over the past few years. Teams in our division have either duped Isiah Thomas into making bad trades (Utah), spent wildly on draft picks, women and booze (Portland) or have rebuilt their squads through trades and the draft (Oklahoma and Minnesota.) If each team had retained their own pick and not make any trades there would be only 25 picks made. As of today, the NW division has either made or holds the rights to a total of 36 #1 picks over the past 4 drafts and the coming 2010 draft:
2006: Roy, LMA, Sefolasha, Pecherov, Balkman, (Freeland)
2007: Oden, Durant, Green, C Brewer, Fernandez, Afflalo, (Kopponen)
2008: Westbrook, Love, Bayless, Koufos, Ibaka, Batum, White, (Pekovic*)
2009: Harden, (Rubio), Flynn, Lawson, Maynor, (Claver), Mullens, Ellington
2010: MN #2, NY #8 (UT), CHA #17 (MN), PDX #19, PHX #21 (OKC), OKC #22, UT #24 (MN)
Outside of a couple of players (I'm looking at you Stewie) most of those young guys have talent or hold enough promise to stick around the league for a while. Utah and Portland also had Ronnie Brewer and Sergio Rodriguez respectively up until recently. Plus some of the best recent selections in the second round (Millsap, Sessions) & rookie FA's (Matthews) play in the division.
Throw in other good players who were relatively recent picks Deron (2005), Al Jefferson & JR Smith (2004), Melo (2003), Nene & Boozer (2002) and the Northwest appears to be a loaded division for the forseeable future.
a couple of extra lists I made:
NW Division Players Under Age 30 by Year Drafted
2009: Harden (20), Rubio (19), Flynn (21), Lawson (22), Maynor (22), Claver (22), Mullens (21), Ellington (22), Cunningham (22) (2nd), Pendergraph (22) (2nd), Norel (22) (2nd), Mills (21) (2nd), Suton (24) (2nd), Matthews (23) (FA), Gaines (23) (FA)
2008: Westbrook (21), Love (21), Bayless (21), Koufos (21), Ibaka (20), Batum (21), White (23), Pekovic (23) (2nd), Weaver (24) (2nd), Jawai (23), Tomic (23) (2nd), Hardin (23) (2nd), Dragicevic (24) (2nd), Kaun (24) (2nd)
2007: Oden (22), Durant (21), Green (23), C Brewer (24), Fernandez (24), Afflalo (24), Kopponen (22), Fesenko (23) (2nd), Sessions (23) (2nd)
2006: Roy (25), LMA (24), Sefolasha (25), Pecherov (24), Balkman (25), Freeland (23), Millsap (25) (2nd), Hollins (25) (2nd)
2005: Deron (25), Webster (23), Graham (27) Petro (24), Gomes (27) (2nd), Miles (23) (2nd)
2004: Jefferson (25), JR Smith (24)
2003: Melo (25), Darko (24), Collison (29), Pavlovic (26) (hahaha), Korver (29) (2nd)
2002: Nene (27), Krstic (26), Boozer (28) (2nd)
1999: AK-47 (29)
NW Division players (including rights held) under age 30.
Age 19: Rubio
Age 20: Harden, Ibaka
Age 21: Durant, Westbrook, Love, Batum, Flynn, Bayless, Koufos, Mullens, Mills
Age 22: Oden, Ellington, Lawson, Maynor, Claver, Kopponen, Cunningham, Pendergraoh, Norel
Age 23: Green, Pekovic, Sessions, Fesenko, Freeland, Webster , CJ Miles, White, Matthews, Gaines, Jawai, Tomic, Hardin
Age 24: LMA, Brewer, JR Smith, Fernandez, Darko, Afflalo, Petro, Pecherov, Suton, Dragicevic, Kaun
Age 25: Roy, Melo, Deron, Jefferson, Millsap, Sefolosha, Balkman, Hollins
Age 26: Krstic, Pavlovic
Age 27: Nene, Gomes, Graham
Age 28: Boozer
Age 29: AK-47, Korver, Collison
