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The players picked 12-17 in last years draft will be very good and maybe even great NBA players. Thad Young, Julian Wright, Al Thornton, Rodney Stuckey, Nick Young, and Sean Williams will all become starters and will have better careers than the players picked 6-11.....Yi Jianlian, Brewer, Wright, Noah, Hawes, and Law. Show me a draft where there were better players at 12-17 than the 2007 draft.

I don't really agree, 6 - 11 have an equal good chance of becoming good to great players

Artest93 wrote:I don't really agree, 6 - 11 have an equal good chance of becoming good to great players

For 2007 I think 12-17 was better than 6-11. I think every player picked 12-17 will be a starter (with the possible exception of Sean Williams), but 6-11, I can almost guarantee that Acie Law won't be a starter, and even though Brewer's starting a fair bit right now, I still have trouble seeing him as a regular starter a few years down the road - his offense as a LONG way to go, even if his d is pretty good. Yi is a bit overhyped as well, I'd be somewhat surprised if he's still starting 2 or 3 years from now.

Anyways, for a better 12-17, just look at the 1996 draft:


12. Vitaly Potapenko - OK, a weak start, but he was a starter for a couple seasons, and just look at the next 3. . .

13. Kobe Bryant - enough said

14. Peja Stojakovic - at the peak of his career, he was getting serious MVP consideration (finished 4th in MVP voting in 03/04, funnily enough reight behind Jermaine O'Neal, who finished 3rd in MVP voting that same year)

15. Steve Nash - see Kobe

16. Tony Delk - scrub, but we finish strong with . . .

17. Jermaine O'Neal - is going through a rough patch in his career, but had a solid 6 consecutive years of dominance on both ends of the floor (01/02 through 06/07)


I will take 2 all-time greats (Kobe and Nash), two solid stars (Peja and JO), and two role players (who still played 610 and 545 NBA games a piece) over 5-6 starters any day of the week.

ponder276 wrote:Anyways, for a better 12-17, just look at the 1996 draft:
I will take 2 all-time greats (Kobe and Nash), two solid stars (Peja and JO), and two role players (who still played 610 and 545 NBA games a piece) over 5-6 starters any day of the week.

OP GOT SERVED!

Yeah that 1996 class is nice but I didn't get served......yet. Let's see what Thad Young and those guys do.

I agree, I think the 12-17 players taken in 07 will be better than 6-11.

Thad Young, Rodney Stuckey, Nick Young, Brandon Wright, Al Thorton, Yi Jianlian (by default) all have all star potential. Julian Wright, Joakim Noah and Sean Williams all have potential to be great starters. Corey Brewer, Acie Law and Spencer Hawes have the potential to be great role players.

My reordering of the 07 draft from 6-17 looks something like this
6. Thad Young
7. Al Thorton
8. Brandon Wright
9. Rodney Stuckey
10. Nick Young
11. Julian Wright
12. Joakim Noah
13. Yi Jianlian
14. Sean Williams
15. Acie Law
16. Spencer Hawes
17. Corey Brewer

To go even further.....4-11 isn't as good as 12-19......

Conley
Green
Yi
Brewer
Wright
Noah
Hawes
Law

vs

Thad Young
Julian Wright
Thornton
Stuckey
Young
Williams
Belinelli
Crittendon


I would take that 2nd group in a heartbeat.

I think its too early to tell really

[quote="ponder276"][/quote]

You're taking this off of one year. Hawes, Noah, BWright and Yi have all shown flashes they could end up being great players. The jury is still out on Law and Brewer, again its only been a year

Artest93 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



You're taking this off of one year. Hawes, Noah, BWright and Yi have all shown flashes they could end up being great players. The jury is still out on Law and Brewer, again its only been a year

Indeed, it's just an opinion, and I can easily be wrong. I do think Noah will be a very good 2-way center, Brandan could be come Chris Bosh lite (likely VERY lite, but he should be at least a serviceable starter), and Hawes shows a lot of promise as well. I'd probably take Noah/BWright/Hawes over Thad/Young/JWright (although it's very close), but I'd easily take Stuckey/Thornton/SWilliams over Yi/Law/Brewer.

Obviously it's still too early to predict accurately, and we won't know which "section" of the draft is truly better for a few more years, but I'd personally take 12-17 by a small margin over 6-11.

I think you'd have to start including #20 Wilson Chandler, who's shown he could be a very good complete package player in the future.

11 AC Law is killing the first group. lol why not compare #5-#12 vs #13-#20? #1-12 vs #13-24??? My point is its kinda ridiculous grouping players like this.

after one year all I could definitely say is C. Brewer and Law went too high, THad Young should have gone higher.

It is somewhat arbitrary... and yet an interesting observation.

Those midrange picks have yielded some terrible picks the last few years with people biting on "upside" over basketball talent.

2007 definitely seems to stand out in that regard...especially because you have to go back more than a decade to find a comparable outcome.

Drafting is not a science, but I think that particular range is much more difficult to discern the talent from the fluff.

-bob- wrote:11 AC Law is killing the first group. lol why not compare #5-#12 vs #13-#20? #1-12 vs #13-24??? My point is its kinda ridiculous grouping players like this.

after one year all I could definitely say is C. Brewer and Law went too high, THad Young should have gone higher.

The Hawks are shockingly bad with high draft picks:

2007:
11 - Acie Law
12 - Thad Young
13 - Julian Wright
14 - Al Thornton
15 - Rodney Stuckey
They pick in a "can't miss" section of the draft, but reach and pick Acie.

2006:
5 - Shelden Williams
6 - Brandon Roy
7 - Randy Foye
8 - Rudy Gay
Again, a can't miss section of the draft, but they still somehow end up with a **** player, who was supposed to go way lower.

2005:
2 - Marvin Williams
3 - Deron Williams
4 - Chris Paul
No explanation needed

CarolinaCash wrote:The players picked 12-17 in last years draft will be very good and maybe even great NBA players. Thad Young, Julian Wright, Al Thornton, Rodney Stuckey, Nick Young, and Sean Williams will all become starters and will have better careers than the players picked 6-11.....Yi Jianlian, Brewer, Wright, Noah, Hawes, and Law. Show me a draft where there were better players at 12-17 than the 2007 draft.

I'd definitely take

pg: Rodney Stuckey
sg: Nick Young
sf: Thad Young/Juilan Wright
pf: Al Thornton
c: Sean Williams

over

pg: Acie Law IV
sg: Corey Brewer
sf: Brandan Wright
pf: Yi Jianlian
c: Joakim Noah/Spencer Hawes

Now and 5 years from now. It still amazes me how draft time hype supercedes actual talent come June.

i couldnt agree more... 12-17 is def better.

Thaddeus Young was the steal of the draft.

Dont sleep on Julian Wright, I think hes gonna come up huge as Peja declines in New Orleans

Rodney Stuckey, Al Thornton and Thaddeus Young made the NBA All-Rookie teams. None of the 6-11 draft picks were selected.

1st team: Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Al Horford, Al Thornton, Luis Scola.

2nd team: Rodney Stuckey, Jamario Moon, Thaddeus Young, Juan Carlos Navarro and Carl Landry.

I know they are "rookies" but 3 of the top ten rookies aren't actually from the 2007 draft class.

ponder276 wrote:

-bob- wrote:11 AC Law is killing the first group. lol why not compare #5-#12 vs #13-#20? #1-12 vs #13-24??? My point is its kinda ridiculous grouping players like this.

after one year all I could definitely say is C. Brewer and Law went too high, THad Young should have gone higher.

The Hawks are shockingly bad with high draft picks:

2007:
11 - Acie Law
12 - Thad Young
13 - Julian Wright
14 - Al Thornton
15 - Rodney Stuckey
They pick in a "can't miss" section of the draft, but reach and pick Acie.

2006:
5 - Shelden Williams
6 - Brandon Roy
7 - Randy Foye
8 - Rudy Gay
Again, a can't miss section of the draft, but they still somehow end up with a **** player, who was supposed to go way lower.

2005:
2 - Marvin Williams
3 - Deron Williams
4 - Chris Paul
No explanation needed

Lol its amazing to me how bad some of these GM's are....

^To be fair, Acie Law was highly regarded before the draft and many teams were interested in him. Atlanta just got to him first.