With the 2013 NBA Draft in the rearview and pundits already predicting next year’s lottery selections, I thought it only appropriate to take stock of NBA draft’s of yesteryear. This season saw Anthony Bennett go first overall and next year Andrew Wiggins is projected as the top pick. Ever wonder how these two would stack up against other number one selections?
An eDraft exclusive series will look at answering that question along with about 29 more. We will take a look back through history and determine who was the best draft selection through each slot in the draft. We don’t stop with the first overalls, we will go pick by pick, year by year to to identify the very best selections of all-time.
Think you know who the best third overall selection in NBA draft history was? How about the best 23rd overall selection? Our look back will encompass each draft from the previous 40 years and we will continue our analysis until we reach the top. Our look back starts with the 30th overall pick.
The 30th overall pick is the last pick in the first-round and while this is true for today it wasn’t always this way. The league has expanded considerably since 1973 and as a result the 30th pick from the early years was in many cases an early second-round selection. To maintain some consistency throughout we are using the 30th overall selection as a starting point regardless of where it occurred in the draft.
The decision to crown a greatest 30th overall selection boils down to three players. David Lee, Anderson Varejao and Gilbert Arenas all have the distinction of being solid picks but only one can deemed the best. Both Lee and Varejao are good players who have eight years of NBA experience under their belts. Lee is showing promise of becoming a solid double-double guy while Varejao had a breakout year last season before being diagnosed with a heart ailment that ultimately sidelined him for the majority of the season.
As polarizing a figure as he was, Gilbert Arenas nets the honor as being the best 30th overall selection. While the end of Arenas’ career will forever be marred by a suspension for bringing a handgun into the locker room and allegedly threatening a teammate with it over a card game; his on-court production prior to that still stands. Arenas was a three-time all-star who retired with career averages of 20.7 ppg, 5.3 apg and 3.9 rpg. Arenas’ best seasons came in 2005-06 and 2006-07 as he finished fourth in league scoring and kept his averages up over 28 ppg over that span.
Give it another five years and the current Golden State Warrior Lee could easily supplant the former Warrior Arenas here; however, Lee needs to keep up his stellar play and earn a couple more all-star nods. The Dubs have something special in the works and the team’s success could elevate Lee’s status here. As it stands now Arenas’ numbers are still good enough to earn him the distinction of being the best 30th overall draft selection in the last 40 years of NBA drafts. Stay tuned as we continue our countdown to the top, next up the greatest 29th overall pick.