The Best Draft Class Ever?: the case for 2003

This topic contains 12 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by IndianaBasketball 16 years, 5 months ago.

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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 9:05am #12351

C.C._Okeke
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The Case for 2003
“We are all witnesses.”

This is the slogan that has been beat about the heads of NBA fans this postseason as Nike extols the virtues of LeBron James. Though “King James” is the most high-profile member of the 2003 draft class he certainly is not the only star. For all the hype (much of it deserved: 2006 All-Star MVP, 2006 league MVP runner-up) that has surrounded James’s first postseason appearance, more needs to be said of his classmates.
No. 3 pick Carmelo Anthony has been a key part of the renaissance his team has enjoyed as he has led the Nuggets to three straight playoff berths.
No. 5 pick Dwyane Wade was just named Finals MVP and lead the Miami Heat to their first NBA championship.
Speaking of renaissances, what about the Clippers who finally ended their playoff drought this year thanks in large part to the awkwardly talented Chris Kaman, selected with the sixth pick in ’03 out of Central Michigan.
Let us also not forget the dynamic third year duo that Phoenix possesses in Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa. Barbosa has proven to be a lightning fast scoring machine well-suited for the run-and-gun Suns and the French-born Diaw was named this year’s most-improved player.
Still out West is Dallas forward Josh Howard who very quietly has turned out to be quite a nice pick for the Mavericks who took him with the last selection in 2003’s first round.
Though it may seem odd to think of leadership just three years into someone’s career, three point guards have turned out to be the workhorses of their teams. It wasn’t too long ago that Kirk Hinrich (No. 7, Chicago), T.J. Ford (No. 8, Milwaukee) and Luke Ridnour (No. 14, Seattle) were lounging out on the quad.
Forgotten in basketball Siberia is the raw talent of Chris Bosh. Bosh (No. 4) is probably the best young player no one knows about, having completed his third year in Toronto ranking in the NBA Top 15 in 13 categories (http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chris_bosh/index.html).
Finally, there is the second member of the 2003 draft class that owns an NBA title – Darko Milicic. The Serbian version of Sam Bowie had the honor of riding the coattails of the Detroit Pistons to a championship ring before being shipped off to Orlando. At just 20 years old, Milicic still has plenty of time to prove that the hype that got him selected second overall was deserved.
Sure the other classes have had more time to pad their résumés but the Class of 2003 is well on its way to earning the distinction of being the best draft class ever and we are all witnesses.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nbadraftclass/
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 9:23am #251135

td8118
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Not even close, the best draft class in history…..crazy too that its the best with a bust at 2 overall
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 9:31am #251137

llperez
i would take 1996 and 1984 over this one to be honest. Even if you labeled jordan, kobe and lebron a wash so they just canceled each other out. 96′ had way more depth and two other mvp’s in nash and iverson while 84 had mvp’s in olajuwon, barkley and a great pg in stockton. 2003 can’t maesure up in either depth or number of greats at the top.
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 9:47am #251145

llperez
if someone disagrees, tell me why you disagree…
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 10:07am #251151

llperez
all-stars from the 1996 draft in their first 7 seasons:
Allen Iverson
Shareef Abdur Rahim
Stephon Marbury
Ray Allen
Antoinne Walker
Kobe Bryant
Peja Stojakovic
Steve Nash
Jermaine Oneal
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
all-stars from the 2003 draft in first 7 seasons:
Lebron James
Carmelo Anthony
Chris Bosh
Dwyane Wade
David West
Josh Howard
Add in number of mvp’s and hall of famers and it’s very hard to argue for the 2003 class being better then 1996. Of course there is still time to go, but at this point 1996 has far more depth and accomplishments.
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 10:24am #251154

arman
mo williams was all star to…. in ten-15 years we’ll see which was the best draft class and i think that 03 has potential to be the best draft class ever
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 1:25pm #251191

sheltwon3
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2003 draft was mostly top heavy
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 1:47pm #251199

llperez
if you compare the top of the two drafts:
kobe vs lebron= tie. lebron may pass him, but kobe still has a lot of good ball in him and should bounce back from his recent down play when his finger heals. Add in 4 titles.
wade vs iverson=tie. A prime iverson was every bit as good as anything wade has done so far. Iverson also won an mvp and probably should of had two.
carmelo vs nash=nash. Two mvp’s and one of the greatest pg’s ever, it think he get;s the nod.
Bosh vs Ray allen=tie. Allen will go to the hall of fame and was a 25-5-5 player in his prime. Bosh has room to improve, but he has work to do to be on allen’s level, but we’ll go with tie.
Now after the top 4 are taken into account, I can’t see any possible way you could argue the rest of the 2003 class being better then the rest of 1996’s. Abdur rahim was a 20-10 guy for 10 seasons. Peja was a top 5 mvp candidate one year. Oneal was an olympian and franchise big man before injuries. Walker was the number one guy on boston and a constant triple double threat.Marbury was 20-10 and his skill is overshadowed by his off the court attitude and lack of team success.
I think people forget how deep that draft was, and i’m not even including guys like camby, fisher, ilgauskas and kerry kittles who were all starters on good teams for many years.
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:21pm #251218

JBickart14
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96 nd 84 drafts were way better than 03
03 has possible potential
but the other 2 are accomplished and is proven to the league…how good will lebron nd melo b if they never win a ring…seriusly rings mean ALOT
malone would b better than duncan ifd he won one but he couldnt lead his team all the way
so he’s not
D wade the only one that has proven anything other than lebrons MVP
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:30pm #251224

IndianaBasketball
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As of right now… I’d have to go with ’96 too. Then ’84 followed by ’03.
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:39pm #251227

IndianaBasketball
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Another player to throw in the ’96 draft is Ben Wallace, who went undrafted out of Virginia Union.
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:58pm #251241

thunderforthewin
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the thing i like about the 03 draft is that you got heaps of quality players in the 2nd round (Williams, Walton, Korver etc.)
i’m not sure ’84 and ’96 could match the 2nd round of ’03
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Posted on: Wed, 01/27/2010 - 4:15pm #251248

IndianaBasketball
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’96 had a few solid 2nd round choices… Othella Harrington, Shandon Anderson, Jeff McInnis and Moochie Norris just to name a few. You can even throw Malik Rose in there.
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