Saturday, January 11, 2014

Every Draft Class Post 2003

The 2003 Draft Class is, unquestionably, the best of the last 15 years or so. Since then, they've been spotty, and there isn't really a consensus #1.

Here are some 15 man squads from every class since, because posting them on twitter is too difficult. My restrictions are thus, the player must have been drafted during the year in question. No undrafted players, no overseas signings, and they must be currently active players, when possible.


2004
Starting Lineup      
C- Dwight Howard
C- Al Jefferson
SF- Luol Deng
SF- Andre Iguodala
PG- Jameer Nelson

Bench
Centers- Anderson Varejao, Emeka Okafor
Forwards- Josh Smith, Trevor Ariza, J.R. Smith
Guards- Kevin Martin, Tony Allen, Ben Gordon, Devin Harris, Shaun Livingston


2005
Staring Lineup
C- Andrew Bogut
PF- David Lee
SF- Danny Granger
PG- Deron Williams
PG- Chris Paul

Bench
Centers- Andrew Bynum, Marcin Gortat
Forwards- Channing Frye, Martell Webster, Ersan Ilyasova, Marvin Williams
Guards- Jarrett Jack, Raymond Felton, Gerald Green, Francisco Garcia


2006
Starting Lineup
C- Andrea Bargnani
PF- LaMarcus Aldridge
SF- Rudy Gay
SG- J.J. Redick
PG- Rajon Rondo

Bench
Centers- Joel Freeland
Forwards- Paul Millsap, P.J. Tucker, Ronnie Brewer
Guards- Kyle Lowry, Thabo Sefolosha, Randy Foye, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, Daniel Gibson


2007
Starting Lineup
C- Marc Gasol
C- Al Horford
SF- Kevin Durant
SG- Arron Afflalo
PG- Mike Conley

Bench
Centers- Joakim Noah, Tiago Splitter
Forwards- Thaddeus Young, Carl Landry, Wilson Chandler, Corey Brewer, Jared Dudley
Guards- Ramon Sessions, Rodney Stuckey, Marco Belinelli


2008
Starting Lineup
C- Roy Hibbert
PF- Kevin Love
SF- Nicolas Batum
PG- Derrick Rose
PG- Russell Westbrook

Bench
Centers- Brook Lopez, Nikola Pekovic, DeAndre Jordan, Robin Lopez
Forwards- Danilo Gallinari, Ryan Anderson, Serge Ibaka, Jason Thompson
Guards- Eric Gordon, Goran Dragic


2009
Starting Lineup
C- Jordan Hill
PF- Blake Griffin
SG- James Harden
PG- Jrue Holiday
PG- Stephen Curry

Bench
Centers- N/A
Forwards- Taj Gibson, DeMar DeRozan, Chase Budinger
Guards- Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Tyreke Evans, Gerald Henderson, Patrick Beverley, Darren Collison, Ricky Rubio


2010
Starting Lineup
C- DeMarcus Cousins
C- Greg Monroe
SF- Paul George
SG- Lance Stephenson
PG- John Wall

Bench
Centers- Larry Sanders
Forwards- Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Patrick Patterson, Ed Davis, Al-Farouq Aminu
Guards- Eric Bledsoe, Evan Turner, Avery Bradley, Greivis Vasquez


2011
Starting Lineup
C- Nikola Vucevic
PF- Kenneth Faried
SF- Kawhi Leonard
SG- Klay Thompson
PG- Kyrie Irving

Bench
Centers- Jonas Valanciunas
Forwards- Chandler Parsons, Jimmy Butler, Tristan Thompson, Tobias Harris, Markieff Morris
Guards- Kemba Walker, Isaiah Thomas, Iman Shumpert, Alec Burks


2012
Starting Lineup
C- Andre Drummond
PF- Anthony Davis
SF- Maurice Harkless
SG- Bradley Beal
PG- Damian Lillard

Bench
Centers- Miles Plumlee
Forward- John Henson, Draymond Green, Jared Sullinger, Terrence Jones, Andrew Nicholson, Harrison Barnes, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Guards- Dion Waiters, Evan Fournier


2013
Starting Lineup
C- Steven Adams
SF- Giannis Antetokounmpo
SG- Victor Oladipo
PG- Michael Carter-Williams
PG- Trey Burke

Bench
Centers- Mason Plumlee
Forwards- Andre Roberson, Cody Zeller, Otto Porter, Tony Snell
Guards- Tim Hardaway Jr, Ben McLemore, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Nate Wolters, Matthew Dellavedova


Looking at this, I'm hard pressed to say that any one class is better than 2011 (or that any one class is worse than 2013. It is early, though)