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Throughout my life sometimes I just knew right. Shaq, Iverson, Duncan, LeBron, maybe AD, but for awhile now I'm not really confident in the number one guys.

Even next year with this guy who's supposed to be that guy, I'm not as confident as I was with shaq, Iverson, tim or LeBron. Not even AD to be honest.


I was more confident back in the day, is it just me

I know what you mean. It's a weird combination we have now, where prospects play less games that matter, and against inferior competition, but we have more access to all of it, more critical analysis from everyone, and all sorts of stats. If Iverson were a prospect today he would be criticized by people like so: "He's a freaking 5'11" 160lb non shooter that's 21 years of age. There's no way he should go #1. I wouldn't even draft him over the younger "Starbury." I honestly like Toney Delk better. He was automatic from three and 80% from the free throw line indicating that three point shot may be highly translatable."

don't really see the difference, Zion was in 2019 and he was the best prospect we've seen since LeBron. anyone saying they weren't confident in Zion is most likely lying.

also confidence levels last year in Mobley/Cade for me were sky high. pretty damn confident in Jabari this year as well.

also re: Duncan...came out as a senior. maybe that's why the confidence levels were high? other than that you named Shaq, AI, LeBron and AD.

i was also very young when AI was coming out but I doubt people were that confident in a 6-0 ft 150 lb score-first PG back then in the 90s.

It depends on the year. I though Luka was the best prospect since LeBron, in other years I've struggled (especially this year).

The type of guys you named don't grow on trees. If you notice the ones named weren't drafted every year, it was 92, 96, 97, 03, 12.

You mean you weren't sure about Anthony Bennett or Michael Olowokandi? Jk, there are few can't miss prospects and so much noise about potential draftees good and bad I think its just paralysis by analysis. At least for me anyways.

NotMyKawhi wrote:Throughout my life sometimes I just knew right. Shaq, Iverson, Duncan, LeBron, maybe AD, but for awhile now I'm not really confident in the number one guys.

Even next year with this guy who's supposed to be that guy, I'm not as confident as I was with shaq, Iverson, tim or LeBron. Not even AD to be honest.


I was more confident back in the day, is it just me

It does seem like the draft was a bit more predictable back in the 80s and 90s.

We did recently go through a stretch that lasted almost a decade where most of the best talents were drafted outside the top 5 (Curry, Kawhi, Butler, Giannis, Jokic, Gobert, PG, Lillard, Booker). Particularly MVP-level talents like Curry, Kawhi, Jokic and Giannis.

We might be coming back to an era where the best talents are predominantly selected in the top 5 though, with guys like Zion, Ja, Tatum, Trae and Luka. It will be interesting to see if it stabilizes, and whether or not the 2009-2015 stretch was merely an aberration.

NotMyKawhi wrote:Throughout my life sometimes I just knew right. Shaq, Iverson, Duncan, LeBron, maybe AD, but for awhile now I'm not really confident in the number one guys.

Even next year with this guy who's supposed to be that guy, I'm not as confident as I was with shaq, Iverson, tim or LeBron. Not even AD to be honest.


I was more confident back in the day, is it just me

I think this is selective memory. You seem to have forgotten:

Glenn Robinson (consensus #1 at the time) - taken over Kidd and Grant Hill
Michael Olowokandi (Vince Carter went #5 that year)
Joe Smith (consensus #1 for the most part - there were some that liked KG)
Kenyon Martin (most of this lottery was crappy)
Kwame Brown (not a consensus #1, Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler were also favorites)
Andrei Bargnani (i can't recall if he was consensus or not, think everyone was hoping for the next Dirk)
over that same time period.

clyde21 wrote:don't really see the difference, Zion was in 2019 and he was the best prospect we've seen since LeBron. anyone saying they weren't confident in Zion is most likely lying.

also confidence levels last year in Mobley/Cade for me were sky high. pretty damn confident in Jabari this year as well.

also re: Duncan...came out as a senior. maybe that's why the confidence levels were high? other than that you named Shaq, AI, LeBron and AD.

i was also very young when AI was coming out but I doubt people were that confident in a 6-0 ft 150 lb score-first PG back then in the 90s.

Iverson was the consensus #1 pick. I will say that I wasn't very confident though.