Rank these generational prospects

[azcatz11]

I’m only including prospects the past 20 years or so and I’m leaving Lebron off since everyone will have him #1.

I don’t think KD was considered generational (even in college) In my view, these are the only true generational prospects since 2003.

Greg Oden
Derrick Rose
Anthony Davis
Ben Simmons
Luka Doncic
Zion Williamson

The above are sorted by year and these are my rankings:

1. Oden
2. Davis
3. Doncic
4. Simmons
5. Williamson
6. Rose

I think Oden is the clear cut #1. I believe the rest have arguments for #2 except maybe Rose.

What do you guys think? Does anyone think any of the above are not generational or is this a solid list? Where do you rank them?

[NO-KG-AI]

Williamson
Oden
Davis
Doncic
Simmons
Rose

Is how I saw them after finishing college/entering the draft.

Williamson is the one I changed the most on after seeing him transition from HS to college. He'd have been probably behind Doncic or Simmons from what I saw up to that point. Even though he was a big kid, I truly underestimated how game changing his power was, and how deft and soft his touch was.

Oden's injury concerns compounded even more in college, but seeing him play dominant basketball and shoot free throws with his off hand with a hand injury all year was a big bonus to me. I did think KD was generational and and would have taken him over all the others(aside from Williamson), I was super high on him too, even though he was clearly behind Oden to me.

[jman3134]

Don't think you can put Doncic that high because he was not selected top 2. He was the best prospect in that draft class for sure (even at the time of drafting), but this is a little high without accounting for hindsight.

I would never have put Simmons that high. He couldn't shoot and he was not a winning player in college. Michael Beasley should make this list.

I would go with the following:

1. Greg Oden
2. Derrick Rose
3. Anthony Davis
4. Zion Williamson
5. Kevin Durant
6. Michael Beasley
7. John Wall
8. Blake Griffin
9. Kyrie Irving
10. Karl Towns

[clyde21]

i've been watching the draft closely since 2012 and tbh the only two guys that I thought were truly generational guys are Zion and AD. obviously hindsight 20/20 Luka belongs there as well because he's an offensive prodigy, but other than that I think the word generational gets used too loosely.

Mobley for me is next after those 3 guys in the next tier, and we'll see what happens with Wemby next year, tho not ready to call him generational yet..

[crows2]

Durant was seen as generational. Rose and Simmons weren’t.

Pre-draft I probably would’ve rated them:
1. Oden
2. Doncic
3. Durant
=4 Davis
=4 Williamson

[NO-KG-AI]

For my own measure, only Oden and Zion to me looked generational entering their draft. I wasn't sold on AD being an MVP level talent until his 2nd year when he took massive leaps as an offensive player. After college he looked way more like Dwight Howard without all the raw power than he did like a dude that could average near 30 a game for a championship team. I wasn't buying the "guard skills" yet as I remembered too many talesof big men who were "PGs in high school" but it never translated after that.

Doncic I liked more than Simmons and Rose, neither of whom I was very high on at all(Simmons more so than Rose, which is even more funny to me now, all the bagging I did on Rose as an MVP and a player, I'd take him a million times over Ben), and I thought he was for sure all star talent and a great offensive weapon, I never foresaw anything like what he became, and especially not that early.

[Duke4life831]

1. Zion
2. Oden

3. AD
4. KD

5. Rose

Like always only going to touch upon the college guys, so that is why no Luka for me and Im assuming this is trying to go by pre draft standards.

Zion and Oden stand apart in my opinion. Oden was basically seen as the next David Robinson. Really the only thing that couldve stopped him from being great was injuries, and sadly that is what happened. Zion was Zion, dont think I have to go into much deep dive onto this one haha.

AD was the college player of the year and DPOY. He was freakishly long and a good athlete. And if anyone else remembers that season, they had to make sure to mention that AD was a PG in high school who had a freakish growth spurt, so his offensive potential was sky high! But ya in all seriousness, he was a freak prospect.

If it wasnt for Oden, KD wouldve been the easy #1 pick. There were two big question marks with him though, 1 we had never really seen a player like that before so some found it hard to grasp what he would look like in the NBA. And 2, he was super skinny and especially back then when this was still only a few years after guys like Karl Malone was playing the 4, people were skepitcal if he could handle playing the 4.

5. Rose was viewed as a freak prospect. Honestly he just isnt as high as the other guys because he didnt have the same kind of physical profile as the other guys.

I didnt include Simmons because the whole Simmons being a generational prospect was 100% media narrative created. That was someone that dumb loud mouth talking heads started. But once you actually started listening to guys who actually break the prospects down and stuff. It seemed like it was 50/50 with those guys on who should get drafted #1 between Simmons and Ingram. I love me some BI, but if a good amount of well educated guys are split on if you should get drafted before BI, you aint a generational prospect.

[Big J]

You guys are forgetting how much hype there was around Wiggins when he was coming up. People legit thought he was going to be the next Kobe.

[Duke4life831]

You guys are forgetting how much hype there was around Wiggins when he was coming up. People legit thought he was going to be the next Kobe.

The hype coming out of high school was extremely high and if he were able to go straight to the draft right out of high school I think the hype wouldve been up there. But by the time he was done with his 1 year at Kansas, people still thought he was a great prospect but the generational tag wasnt being thrown around as much anymore. Not nearly as much as the other guys mentioned here.

[clyde21]

You guys are forgetting how much hype there was around Wiggins when he was coming up. People legit thought he was going to be the next Kobe.

1) no they didnt

2) his hype died down @ Kansas where he wasn't very good

3) he wouldn't even have gone #1 if Embiid didn't have injury concerns

[Big J]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

[Duke4life831]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

Ya but if we were to include the high school hype, we would start including guys like Harrison Barnes as well. I think its easier and a better discussion to keep it to guys who were viewed as generational prospects come draft night and entering the league.

[clyde21]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

[Big J]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

The OP didn’t say anything about this needing to be right before the draft though.

[clyde21]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

The OP didn’t say anything about this needing to be right before the draft though.

because it's assumed? we're talking about NBA prospects, not when players were 14.

[Big J]

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

The OP didn’t say anything about this needing to be right before the draft though.

because it's assumed? we're talking about NBA prospects, not when players were 14.

He was an NBA prospect when he was in high school though.

[azcatz11]

I'm honestly surprised pretty much everyone doesn't think Simmons was generational. Maybe I remember it differently (media spin?) but I thought he was considered that. Interesting discussion, thanks guys

[Duke4life831]

Well yea, I was obviously talking about his high school hype. He was considered generational back then.

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

The OP didn’t say anything about this needing to be right before the draft though.

I dont want to speak for AzCat, but Im pretty sure it was assumed that the discussion was generational prospects come draft time. Because whenever that discussion is had, that is usually the discussion. Its about who was viewed as a generational prospect by the time the draft came around.

The discussion becomes far more muddled when you expand it to anytime. Because again we would bring in guys like Barnes, Wiggins, Bates, Giles, and so on. Then you can have a discussion on how someone was viewed as a Soph, Junior and so on in high school. Its just a cleaner and better discussion to compare who were viewed as the generational prospects by the time they were going to get drafted.

[clyde21]

so was Bates two years ago, doesn't mean anything. by the draft no one thought Wiggy was a generational prospect. Parker and Embiid both had just as good of a chance to go #1 that class.

this is not the same thing as Zion or AD.

The OP didn’t say anything about this needing to be right before the draft though.

I dont want to speak for AzCat, but Im pretty sure it was assumed that the discussion was generational prospects come draft time. Because whenever that discussion is had, that is usually the discussion. Its about who was viewed as a generational prospect by the time the draft came around.

The discussion becomes far more muddled when you expand it to anytime. Because again we would bring in guys like Barnes, Wiggins, Bates, Giles, and so on. Then you can have a discussion on how someone was viewed as a Soph, Junior and so on in high school. Its just a cleaner and better discussion to compare who were viewed as the generational prospects by the time they were going to get drafted.

it also doesn't make any sense to include anyone that wasn't viewed generational come draft time. again, a guy like Emoni Bates two years ago was talked about like Wiggins was talked about in HS. does that mean we should include him on this list?

Wiggins was not generational, that much was clear the minute he got to Kansas.

[Duke4life831]

I'm honestly surprised pretty much everyone doesn't think Simmons was generational. Maybe I remember it differently (media spin?) but I thought he was considered that. Interesting discussion, thanks guys

Simmons being generational was much more of a First Take and talking head talking point with Simmons. A good amount of college guys had BI ahead of Simmons by the end of the season. Here is an article by the draftexpress guys about Simmons

http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Why-Ben-Simmons-Is-Not-The-Top-Prospect-in-the-2016-NBA-Draft-5390/

For those that dont want to read the article, this is how they start it off

"Long before some of the loudest but most uninformed voices anointed Ben Simmons the next LeBron James or Magic Johnson,, there was already a significant debate within NBA front offices about whether Simmons was even the consensus No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft."

Schmitz had Ingram #1 in that draft and a bunch of other more analytical and not so much talking heads had Ingram #1 or had it close. The Simmons being generational was a huge talking heads push for some reason.