Going over the centers has been somewhat of a revelation. I expected that I would be knocking both Thabeet and Mullens while bulding myself to a near freak out over the fact that no one seems interested in John Bryant. I thought I might even call this the worst center class ever. It isn’t. Both Thabeet and Mullens have a chance to become very good NBA players and I still like Bryant. What’s lacking in this class is depth. There just aren’t many players worth talking about after the top 3.
NBA Draft 2009: Power Forwards
The 2008-09 college basketball season saw a couple of historically great rebounding performances by Dejuan Blair and Blake Griffin, the top 2 players in this group. Here are the best rebounding seasons ever, or at least in the past 20 or so years, as measured by rebounds per 40 minutes by NCAA sophomore PFs:
NBA Draft 2009: Combo Forwards
This is the other half of the small forwards, or more accurately a 3rd group of forwards. The role they’ve been playing mostly in the NBA has been the PF in a small lineup. The NBA keeps veering smaller and quicker as teams deal with the perpetual shortage of good big men. This pushes PFs to playing more center and creates a role for players like this who used to be considered too small to play PF at the pro level.
NBA Draft 2009: Small Forwards
As a group the SFs have always been the toughest nut for me to crack. The other positions all seem to have a few stats I can look at to make a fairly simple (or so it seems at the time) call on a player’s prospect-worthiness. With SFs there’s really no hard-and fast rule. I just have to look at the entire picture and try to see something good.
NBA Draft 2009: Shooting Guards
Shooting guards can be placed into two basic groups. I’ll call these groups the Jordans and the Millers. The Jordans would be your basic do-it-all SGs. They score 20+ PPG, but they’re also capable of grabbing 10 rebounds or passing out 10 assists on any given night. They play strong defense and could likely play some SF or PG if needed. Current and recent Jordans include Kobe, Wade, Brandon Roy, Larry Hughes, Joe Johnson, Jerry Stackhouse, Eddie Jones, Jason Richardson, Mitch Richmond and Hersey Hawkins. In general these are good players to have on the team. The Millers are players who are primarily scorers. They also can pump in 20+ PPG fairly easily, but their numbers in rebounds, steals, blocks and often assists are lower than the typical SG. Such players can be useful, especially when they’re something like a 3rd wheel on a contending team. They tend to come up big in big moments, but are often invisible for long stretches of game. Millers also tend to be wildly overrated by analysts who look only at PPG. While they’re usually popular with their fan base, the last thing any fan should want is for a Miller SG to be their teams’ #1 player. Signing a Miller SG to a max contract is usually a path to a salary cap mess. A recent league rule that gave teams some salary cap relief was nicknamed the “Allan Houston rule” after one of the most typical Millers ever who at the time was getting paid a ridiculous amount of money from the Knicks. Current and recent Millers include Ben Gordon, Michael Finley, Rip Hamilton, Steve Smith, Houston, Cuttino Mobley, Hubert Davis, Renaldo Blackman and Michael Redd.
NBA Draft 2009: Combo Guards
I believe this is the 3rd or 4th year I’ve separated these combo guards. It used to be where I’d stick guards who just didn’t fit into one position or another. This year I’m limiting it to guards who are the size of a typical PG, but have played more like a SG. They’ve been scorers first and their history suggests they may have struggles playing PG. I do this mainly because that’s what this position has become.