ESPN's D.R.A.F.T. Initiative says:
But Insider's D.R.A.F.T. Initiative (Data-Related Analysis For Truth) crew has been poring over draft data for months, analyzing draft picks and their subsequent careers, and we've arrived at a surprising conclusion: The NBA draft isn't that big a deal. That's because, in any given year, there isn't enough talent to give many teams any hope of landing a star, let alone a reliable backup.I consider that a load of baloney. Look, teams that don't succeed are either lazy or just plain stupid when it comes to the draft. Even now, teams have gotten to the point that the second round, especially late in the round, has become a place for lazy teams to stock pile foreign talent, in the hope that they'll mature in a few years and come over here and make it big. The dynamics of the draft changed in 1989 when it went to 2 rounds and it's changed even more as time has gone on but NOT because there's a dearth of talent on the court but because there's a dearth of talent in the front office. Let's look at 1989-1993, a 5 year period at the beginning of the 2 round draft.
The first thing you need to know is that I took all the player who were drafted in 1989 and later and removed all players who were drafted previously and may have debuted years after they were drafted. I only wanted to deal with players who were drafted OR went undrafted and debuted from 1989 onward. I grouped players in 3 groups: drafted in the first round, drafted in the second round and undrafted but debuted that year. Now, a player may have been drafted in 1989 but debuted in 1993 but for the purposes of the study, he was considered in the 1989 group. First off, let's take a look at what happened for the first 5 years of their careers:
Code:
Explanation of terms:
Year - Draft year
Num - Number of players (1st group is 1st round picks, 2nd group is 2nd round picks and 3rd group is undrafted players)
Sea - Seasons played
SPP - Seasons played per player
Gm - Games played
GPP - Games player per player
Min - Minutes played
Mpg - Minutes per game
Reb - Total rebounds
Rpg - Rebounds per game
Ast - Total assists
Apg - Points per game
Pts - Total points scored
Ppg - Points per game
Code:
| **************************************************************************************** |
| Year Num Sea SPP Gm GPP Min Mpg Reb RPg Ast Apg Pts Ppg |
| 1989 27 117 4.3 7239 268.1 180080 24.9 29988 4.1 19581 2.7 78977 10.9 |
| 1989 21 51 2.4 2614 124.5 52784 20.2 7567 2.9 6192 2.4 22567 8.6 |
| 1989 24 44 1.8 1110 46.3 15004 13.5 3136 2.8 919 0.8 5333 4.8 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1990 27 121 4.5 7338 271.8 173108 23.6 33585 4.6 15206 2.1 74734 10.2 |
| 1990 25 86 3.4 4255 170.2 69102 16.2 11660 2.7 6536 1.5 27783 6.5 |
| 1990 22 51 2.3 1571 71.4 17936 11.4 3729 2.4 963 0.6 6201 3.9 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1991 25 112 4.5 7100 284.0 176279 24.8 34708 4.9 18279 2.6 73790 10.4 |
| 1991 18 51 2.8 2330 129.4 37660 16.2 4645 2.0 4441 1.9 13816 5.9 |
| 1991 19 43 2.3 1827 96.2 31383 17.2 5317 2.9 2836 1.6 12805 7.0 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1992 27 129 4.8 8205 303.9 223928 27.3 40952 5.0 18627 2.3 103386 12.6 |
| 1992 20 52 2.6 2411 120.6 44387 18.4 8029 3.3 3555 1.5 15300 6.3 |
| 1992 21 48 2.3 1699 80.9 24137 14.2 3973 2.3 2355 1.4 7733 4.6 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1993 27 118 4.4 7378 273.3 190087 25.8 30417 4.1 17453 2.4 82541 11.2 |
| 1993 16 43 2.7 2024 126.5 39217 19.4 5824 2.9 4318 2.1 15480 7.6 |
| 1993 22 62 2.8 2388 108.5 45294 19.0 8408 3.5 3824 1.6 14698 6.2 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
The first thing that you'll notice right away is that the 1st round picks far outdistance their 2nd rounders and those that went undrafted. 2nd round picks have an advantage over undrafted players as well but over the years, that advantage has gone back and forth as far as the first 5 years. Now, from year 6 to year 10, things look a lot different:
Code:
| **************************************************************************************** |
| Year Num Sea SPP Gm GPP Min Mpg Reb RPg Ast Apg Pts Ppg |
| 1989 19 83 4.4 5138 270.4 147054 28.6 22666 4.4 15994 3.1 64683 12.6 |
| 1989 8 30 3.8 1705 213.1 44586 26.2 6124 3.6 4464 2.6 17751 10.4 |
| 1989 7 22 3.1 773 110.4 12430 16.1 2081 2.7 609 0.8 3753 4.9 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1990 19 74 3.9 3879 204.2 104138 26.8 20553 5.3 8805 2.3 43470 11.2 |
| 1990 19 59 3.1 2924 153.9 61539 21.0 11658 4.0 4554 1.6 23571 8.1 |
| 1990 8 23 2.9 953 119.1 15899 16.7 2948 3.1 647 0.7 4552 4.8 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1991 19 78 4.1 4539 238.9 120755 26.6 22833 5.0 11239 2.5 46621 10.3 |
| 1991 7 31 4.4 1451 207.3 29449 20.3 4122 2.8 3069 2.1 10048 6.9 |
| 1991 6 15 2.5 581 96.8 9625 16.6 1312 2.3 1300 2.2 3663 6.3 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1992 22 99 4.5 5676 258.0 153784 27.1 27439 4.8 12185 2.1 63398 11.2 |
| 1992 6 23 3.8 1096 182.7 23877 21.8 5636 5.1 1348 1.2 7878 7.2 |
| 1992 5 13 2.6 371 74.2 6076 16.4 592 1.6 624 1.7 2270 6.1 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1993 19 82 4.3 4679 246.3 132005 28.2 23500 5.0 11738 2.5 54727 11.7 |
| 1993 7 24 3.4 1411 201.6 37653 26.7 4307 3.1 4723 3.3 14882 10.5 |
| 1993 9 34 3.8 1808 200.9 42260 23.4 6647 3.7 3579 2.0 13131 7.3 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
First round picks stay around a lot longer than any of the others and while 2nd round picks and undrafted players are close as far as number of seasons, in most years, 2nd round picks are still producing at a much higher rate (even today). Now, how about their careers from years 11 to 15:
Code:
| **************************************************************************************** |
| Year Num Sea SPP Gm GPP Min Mpg Reb RPg Ast Apg Pts Ppg |
| 1989 14 45 3.2 2352 168.0 56262 23.9 9360 4.0 6067 2.6 21123 9.0 |
| 1989 5 16 3.2 881 176.2 22649 25.7 2786 3.2 1825 2.1 8415 9.6 |
| 1989 3 5 1.7 148 49.3 2461 16.6 286 1.9 164 1.1 701 4.7 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1990 11 34 3.1 1673 152.1 43721 26.1 7562 4.5 4708 2.8 17191 10.3 |
| 1990 9 29 3.2 1530 170.0 31669 20.7 6456 4.2 2348 1.5 10481 6.9 |
| 1990 3 9 3.0 366 122.0 5553 15.2 1194 3.3 189 0.5 1664 4.5 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1991 10 34 3.4 1944 194.4 40923 21.1 8079 4.2 3190 1.6 11811 6.1 |
| 1991 4 6 1.5 135 33.8 1786 13.2 199 1.5 208 1.5 391 2.9 |
| 1991 1 3 3.0 70 70.0 913 13.0 92 1.3 157 2.2 256 3.7 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1992 16 53 3.3 2944 184.0 70409 23.9 13557 4.6 5760 2.0 26817 9.1 |
| 1992 2 8 4.0 530 265.0 14162 26.7 3403 6.4 726 1.4 4144 7.8 |
| 1992 1 1 1.0 12 12.0 180 15.0 15 1.3 29 2.4 41 3.4 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
| 1993 13 40 3.1 1881 144.7 42215 22.4 6877 3.7 4523 2.4 16471 8.8 |
| 1993 4 9 2.3 458 114.5 8653 18.9 951 2.1 898 2.0 2865 6.3 |
| 1993 6 18 3.0 807 134.5 15303 19.0 2020 2.5 1036 1.3 4399 5.5 |
| **************************************************************************************** |
When it comes down to it, 1st round picks still outperform the rest of their peers and 2nd round picks outperform undrafted peers, as well. Now, as the years go on, this may not be true because of the stashing of foreign players. Now, I'm not as big on foreign players as Chad Fraud and his Kool-Aid drinkers so pardon me if I feel that the numbers will start to favor the undrafted players because the stashed foreign players just don't cut it. David Stern's decision to age limit players has had the unintended consequence of the one and done in college and after Jennings, I expect to see more of his peers head to Europe, where they can get the year out of the way AND get paid a hell of a lot more than if they were in the D-League or college. Look, you can take their side and say that the draft isn't that big of a deal or you can join me in saying that it is but only if you're willing to put in the work.People talk about the Clippers as being snake bitten but the fact is that they are one of the laziest organizations in the NBA and it's no surprise that they're one of the worst teams year in and year out while the Spurs are one of the best and while they may not draft high each year, they find little gems in the second round that others seem to overlook.
I'm sure that if I broke it down by lottery pick that I could show more separation but it's quite clear that the draft is far more important that ESPN wants to make it out to be and that's because they don't seem to want to look past the draft and into the guys that enter the league outside of the draft. If they'd stop drinking the Hollinger Kool-Aid, they might find truth instead of baloney.