2011 vs. 2000 drafts

2000. I definitely think 2000 was a freak year in draft history, and will be the weaker draft. It was such a poor draft by volume, and while this draft may lack star power, I have to believe it will be better as a whole. You seem to answer that 2000 will be stronger, which is contradicting the question you asked in the first place, but Michael Redd, Kenyon Martin and Brian Cardinal (I’ll throw in Mike Miller, Jamal Crawford and Hedo Turkoglu), are not exactly unbeatable icons for players in this draft. Their could indeed be some nice role players, and I expect the ROY race will be much better than the one in 2000, which Mike Miller took home.

If you do not remember, Marc Jackson, the 37th pick in the 1997 draft, was for a while the odds on favorite for the ROY. He never matched his rookie year numbers of 13.2 ppg and 7.5 rpg (in 48 games) again. I have a feeling their are a nice number of guys in this draft that will turn into solid role players, that the top of the draft will not produce close to as many busts and that Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams could indeed both end up being better than Kenyon Martin. The guys you use as examples are not exactly the best and brightest of the NBA, and all that needs to happen is for one player to get set up on the right team and they could win a ring, like Brian Cardinal. The Custodian played 37 minutes in 9 play-off games for Dallas this year. He provided nice energy, fouled the $hit out of some people, but it is not like someone from this draft could not play the same, or even more of a role if they get put on the right team.