[whateverParticipant]

2008 lottery Re-do Actual Draft pick in parenthesis. This is my opinion based on their development until now, not on their potential.

1. Rose (1)

2. Westbrook (4)

3. Love (5)

4. Eric Gordon (7)

5. Brook Lopez (10)

6. Gallinari (6)

7. Beasley (2)

8. Agustin (9)

9. Hibbert (17)

10. Ibaka (24)

11. Mayo (3)

12. Batum (25)

13. Jordan (35)

14. Thompson (12) or Hickson (19)

Thoughts?

[Steven]

javale mcgee

george hill

couple guys up there.

and u pretty much have except id change a few spots.

[omphalosParticipant]

I wouldn’t put Augustin above too many of those people, and Steven is right, George Hill should definitely be somewhere in that list, he’s turned out to be a very solid, versatile player.

No love for Omer Asik?

[esperanzafleet69Participant]

rose

love

westbrook

lopez

gordon

beasley

gallanari

hibbert

mayo

ibaka

so on and so forth… you dont find big men like lopez and love every day…

EDIT: in fact id put hickson right above gallo…

[whateverParticipant]

Yes I totally forgot about George Hill I would put him somewhere between 8 and 11, my bad

[ItalyscoutParticipant]

great draft so far the best in the last 2-3 years

[TyroberParticipant]

 Robin Lopez went 14 to the Suns. He isnt the best player but he is still a 7 footer that hustles. I had forgotten how good the 2008 class was.

[Tha King2121Participant]

Batum is going to be nice Portland really good at devoloping players…hence Lemarcus Aldridge

[Tha King2121Participant]

Batum is going to be nice Portland really good at devoloping players…hence Lemarcus Aldridge

[Tha King2121Participant]

Batum is going to be nice Portland is really good at devoloping players…hence Lemarcus Aldridge

[tuck243Participant]

Its totally different from "Where are they now".   When a player is drafted you have to look at the whole scenrio a player was put in.  Case in point.  Who had a better rookie season? Love, Beasley, Westbrook, or Mayo? MAYO.. What happened to Mayo after that?  They obtained more people at his position and Zach Randolph.  He didn’t get his touches or shot attempts.  Me and this old head was conversing about this recently.  REPS, if a player doesn’t get in-game reps, he’s not going to be as efficent.  Jermaine O’Neal or T-Mac rings a bell?  Same with Mike Beasly, he wasn’t able to play his game in Miami without getting ridiculed.  So, before you start this non-sense on a stupid topic, look at the WHOLE picture.  Without this year, would Kevin Love be in your top 5?  LOL… Have you even watch K. Love this year?  

O… the convo with the old guy (knows basketball like no other, can tell you the ’82 Celtics starting 5 and all-stars, just a wizard of the game) we sometimes bump heads on a lot of things and he usually wins (he’s the only one to do it) but we were on the same path with this.  Russell Westbrook, although he’s a monster now, we both wondered if Jaryed Bayless would have been selected by the Sonics and Westbrook by Portland, would he be as good?  The answer we both had was NO.  We both felt if Bayless had that oppourtunity as Westbrook, we would be talking about him instead of Westbrook.  So, basically oppourtunity breeds success.  

[llperez]

Tuck, I have to disagree with some of your comments. For 1 I’m not sure why you think this is a stupid topic or who you are calling stupid directly. Obviously opportunity matters and at this early stage guys can still go up or down based on minutes. But 3 seasons in is a prety good time to start seeing how guys are gonna pan out as pros. I think you are underestimating the ball iq of guys here if you think we can’t evaluate players taking minutes and opportunities into consideration. And both you and your friend are wrong if you think bayless would have been better Westbrook. I have watched those guys since college and it’s been very obvious who the better player is and who had more upside coming out of school regardless of where he went and that’s Westbrook.

[tuck243Participant]

to the NFL.  Hear me out,  I was watching the ESPN special on whats the issue with drafting a NFL QB and its a hit or BUST.  Which if you look at the NBA draft its similar in that regard.  Steve Young made an interesting point when he said its the siuation you put guys in.  Some guys get no reps at all and when they do see it they shine, ie Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers.  Or some lose their confindence with getting knocked so much.  Now to merge the two, I never really got the "Why would you go to the NBA and sit on a bench" statement, until now.  These young players that is coming out unless they are THAT man, are unable to mentally take not being able to play consistent minutes.  If you are only getting 5 minutes a game, that mess with your rythm and mind.  You are talking about guys who are used to be a star their whole life brother.  This isn’t something that comes easy to them.

That comment about you watching Bayless and Westbrook in their college careers? What?  Westbrook didn’t play much his Freshman year and was the starting 2 his 2nd year.  More of a defensive ,athletic, RAW, player than anything else.  Bayless was a FRESHMAN.  Only one year of evidence, I would say you would need to go further than that brother.  Looking at the two and comparing them THAT year, you would be nuts to say Westbrook was better.  Westbrook started to gain ground during workouts.  That’s the whole reason the Sonics chose him was because of his defense and he worked out well for them.  During the beginning of the rookie workouts people had Bayless going to the Sonics, until they heard rumblings that Westbrook was higher on the Sonics board.  

You think if Bayless was handed the keys to the KINGS instead of Evans, he wouldn’t do just as much?

[tuck243Participant]

to say all this now, but this topic is stupid in my book.  This is like saying lets re-do the 2007 draft, who would you take first Durant or Oden?  Simple now huh?  But at that time it was and still will be Oden.  I’m sorry, it’s the truth.  Like the dude I worked with said, "Damn, we should have got Blake Griffin instead of John Wall".  What!?! It was 2 different drafts, it was impossible to get Blake.  "I’m just saying".  I never understood comments like this fantasy, la la land type crap.   

[aamir543Participant]

Gallinari ahead lopez. Hibbert and ibaka ahead augustin and Beasley, and Batum could fall anywhere form 7-13. Where is Goerge hill and Javale mcgee

[thunderbear82Participant]

 Turk, Don’t you think if they lost confidence in there first couple of years, then they didn’t have mental toughness to be a star quality player. You bring up steve young he was a back-up for years behind Montana and he still became a Star, and there is hundreds of examples of that happening in sports.

[llperez]

Watching Westbrook and bayless in college I had no doubt Westbrook would be the better pro. And while opportunity does count a lot you can’t honestly think it matters so much that it would keep an all NBA caliber of player like Westbrook from establishing himself and taking minutes andsurely you can’t think that bayless hasn’t gotten his fair share of opportunities himself. Bayless was never going to be better then Westbrook. And ifyou hate topics like this since it’s all based on speculation about how things might have gone differed then you must hate this while site cause the whole draft is speculation.

[conch88fParticipant]

 i would slide courtney lee at 14 ahead of either thompson/hickson

[Author]

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