I wanted to do a quick rundown on how I rank the players by position, since the previews weren’t always clear on that. The 30 players in bold are the top 30 and basically the ones I would assign to teams in round one if I were the GM of all the teams at the same time, whatever that means.
Point Guard
- John Wall
- Jeremy Lin
- Greivis Vasquez
- Dee Bost
- Ben Uzoh
- Armon Johnson
- Mikhail Torrance
This is John Wall and not much else. I like Lin quite a bit as a sleeper pick in round 2 and Vasquez as a good career journeyman, but other than that this group of PGs just isn’t up to par with recent years.
Combo Guard
- Eric Bledsoe
- Avery Bradley
- Jon Scheyer
- Willie Warren
- Devan Downey
- Andy Rautins
- Matt Bouldin
- Nate Rohnert
- Rodney Green
Not a wildly impressive group either. Bledsoe and Bradley still have some intrigue as highly-touted freshmen. Scheyer is an intangibles guy and Warren could become a pretty good scorer. But there’s no player here who should be considered before pick #20.
Shooting Guards
- James Anderson
- Xavier Henry
- Jordan Crawford
- Elliott Williams
- Dominique Jones
- Manny Harris
- Aubrey Coleman
- Scottie Reynolds
- Terrico White
- Sylven Landesberg
Not a bad group. I feel Anderson and Crawford are both undervalued going in and any of the top 5 are worthy of a post-lottery first-rounder.
SG/SFs
- Evan Turner
- Paul George
- Landry Fields
- Tyler Smith
- Lance Stephenson
- Marqus Blakely
Players who fit somewhere between SG and SF. They could end up playing either position, so I just separated them. Turner is the best player in the draft. Paul George is a player worthy of a top 10 pick and Landry Fields is a solid late first-rounder. This is a pretty strong group.
Small Forwards
- Wesley Johnson
- Gordon Hayward
- Tyren Johnson
- Darington Hobson
- Lazar Hayward
- Quincy Pondexter
- Devin Ebanks
- Stanley Robinson
My advice to any team thinking of taking Wes Johnson at 3 or 4 is: Draft the best big guy and go for another Johnson, Tyren, in round 2. There is some good quality here, but as a group this bunch is a tad overrated.
Combo Forwards
- Damion James
- Al-Farouq Aminu
- Luke Babbitt
- Trevor Booker
- Patrick Patterson
- Craig Brackins
- Charles Garcia
This is a strong group for this position. There’s a little bit of everything. James is a solid player. After him we have the project, Aminu; the gunner, Babbitt; the defender, Booker; and the team player, Patterson.
Power Forwards
- Derrick Favors
- Ed Davis
- Jarvis Vanardo
- Luke Harangody
- Derrick Caracter
- Dwayne Collins
- Gani Lawal
A decent group, but after Favors most of the buzz in the frontcourt has been around combo forwards and centers, rightfully so.
PF/Centers
- Greg Monroe
- Larry Sanders
- Ekpe Udoh
- Tiny Gallon
I decided to separate these guys from the centers or PFs. They’ll play both positions at the next level and I’m doing a lot of separating into groups and sub-groups this year, so this makes sense. I don’t see a dominating player in these four. Monroe could become one of those star role players, but that’s the high end for any of these four.
Centers
- DeMarcus Cousins
- Hassan Whiteside
- Cole Aldrich
- Daniel Orton
- Dexter Pittman
- Omar Samhan
- Solomon Alabi
- Hamady N’Daiye
- Brian Zoubek
- Jeff Foote
This is a class that has the potential to be legendary. It also has the potential to be very disappointing. If nothing else that should make this a fun group to watch over the years. Teams that pass on Cousins, Whiteside and possibly Orton eventually could come to rue this draft day. The centers seem to be the top foreign position also. As to where that group would rank here, I’d place them in the 5-10 range without putting too much analysis into it.
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