The NBA Draft is the one time on the calendar where the teams at the bottom feel like they’re on top. And that’s because they are! The worst teams in the league are expected to get a franchise star, or at least, that’s the hope. There are plenty of examples of draft busts, but let’s be positive about the draft. Which teams saw their franchise change forever?
Right now, there is an interesting conversation for who is going first overall, which was won in the NBA Draft Lottery by the Washington Wizards. The top picks are, in some order, A.J. Dybantsa from BYU, Darryn Petterson from Kansas, Cameron Boozer from Duke, and Caleb Wilson from North Carolina. Most years, there aren’t four star-level prospects to choose from. It often turns out that way, but we don’t go into the draft with four top-level draft picks.
This list will go over the top picks who are working out the best. There is a level of projection with some, including one in particular.
10. Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves, 2020 NBA Draft
This might feel like too soon for Anthony Edwards to be on this list, but he’s already becoming one of the best players in the league, and he’s carried his team to playoff success. The Minnesota Timberwolves had the top pick after a tumultuous year that included losing fellow first-overall pick Karl Anthony Towns. They got a player to pair with him, at least, we thought that was the point.
Anthony Edwards was the clear top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, even with the questions that came due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the end of the college season. After a ho-hum rookie season (his only year under 20 points per game), he started to explode. He has grown every single year, increasing his scoring in each season of his career. He just hit his career high with 28.8 points per game.
He’s just under 40% from three in the past two seasons. In the playoffs, he’s known for stepping up his game. He has more 30 point playoff games before turning 22 than Kobe Bryant. This might be too much projection, but we really believe this is a player who will be on this list forever. Between him and Victor Wembanyama, they are the future for number-one picks.
9. Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 76ers, 1996 NBA Draft
We could go in a million different directions at the end of this list. There are 20 Hall of Famers who went first overall in the draft, and there are 14 number-one picks still active in the NBA. We went with Allen Iverson, which we understand will be a controversial pick. He came in the 1996 NBA Draft with a ton of baggage. He was the high school Virginia player of the year in both football and basketball before heading to Georgetown, but news of an altercation at a bowling alley led to his arrest and conviction, which was eventually thrown out by the governor.
While that was a controversy on a completely different front, his talent was undeniable. He is still the shortest number-one overall pick in league history, standing at 6’0. However, he plays much bigger than his stature. At Georgetown, Iverson scored just under 23 points per game and also won the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, showing his ability on both sides of the court.
Iverson was an immediate hit in the NBA. He averaged 23 points in his rookie season and would go on to average between 28 and 32 points in his prime. He led one of the worst teams to the NBA Finals in 2001, taking a supporting cast led by Aaron McKie against the dynasty Lakers. He’s at the top of one of the greatest draft classes of all time. The 1996 NBA Draft included Hall of Famers Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, and Steve Nash, on top of Iverson. His career sputtered a bit after he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, but his immense ability to take over a game single-handedly was unmatched, even by Bryant at the time.
8. Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers, 1958 NBA Draft
Okay, so the weirdest of early NBA Drafts forces this one to be explained. Elgin Baylor is on record as the top pick in the 1958 NBA Draft, but Guy Rogers was the first person chose as what was then called a territorial pick. Still, we go by the record books, and they list Baylor as going first overall that season.
He’s also the first number-one overall pick in the history of the league to make the Hall of Fame. And it was well deserving. We talk about “ahead of their time,” but Baylor was a man playing against boys in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of that, it’s hard to assess just how great he was. His 38.3 points per game in 1961-62 is behind only Wilt Chamberlain for the best mark in the history of the sport.
His credentials are mostly unmatched. He made the All-NBA first team 10 times, and he was the star of the Lakers’ move from Minnesota to California. The Lakers might not be the Lakers without him. Heck, they might have switched places with the Clippers. Okay, that’s aggressive, but they might not be considered one of the premium brands in the history of the sport if it wasn’t for Baylor’s dominance in the 1960s.
7. Shaquille O’Neal, Orlando Magic, 1992 NBA Draft
There are few players in the history of the league who peddle the dominance that comes with Shaquille O’Neal. He was built like what happens when all the members of the circus are rolled into one. He has superhuman strength with surprising agility for a man his size. He just looked like something we’ve never seen before, and we really haven’t seen anyone like him since.
The 1992 draft was interesting in that O’Neal was chosen over college superstar Christian Laettner and Alonzo Mourning. The Orlando Magic clearly made the right choice, even if it means he would eventually force his way to the Los Angeles Lakers. He started his career off right, winning the NBA Player of the Week in the very first week of his career. He’s the only player to do that.
In his third season, O’Neal won the NBA Scoring Title with over 29 points. He helped Orlando get to 57 wins and eventually, the NBA Finals. Losing there showed that he needed a little help. Eventually, O’Neal was traded to the Lakers, and he was an impossible force that could only be stopped by drama. The Lakers cruised to a three-peat, and O’Neal scored 30, 30, and 28 points per game during those seasons in the playoffs. After another Finals appearance with the Lakers, he was traded to the Miami Heat, where he won yet another title. The end of his career was interesting and basically an NBA road trip (he played for Phoenix, Cleveland, and Boston to end his career), but for the majority of his NBA life, he was untouchable, unless you sent him to the free-throw line.
6. Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Royals, 1960 NBA Draft
The claim to fame for Oscar Robertson is that he’s the first player to ever average a triple double in a season. He was the only person with that distinction for a long time. Russell Westbrook eventually joined him, and others joined him, as well. Still, Robertson doing it in this era was impressive, to say the least. Not only did he hit that mark, but he averaged more than 30 points per game while doing it.
Robertson also has an MVP under his belt, an NBA Championship with the Milwaukee Bucks, and 12 All-Star selections. And we all saw this coming. He was a monster in college, winning the national college player of the year award three times. He was insane at Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Royals kept him in his city. While he was technically a territorial pick, he is considered the number-one overall pick because the Royals also held that.
Robertson finished with 25 points and 9.5 assists per game in his career. He was one of the best facilitators in the history of the sport. He led the league in assists seven times, on top of leading the league in points in 1967-68. This was a player who could do it all, and he chose to use his skills to make his teammates better. Robertson would be dominant in any era, and he’d probably be one of the most popular players in the league if he played today.
5. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, 1997 NBA Draft
The 1997 NBA Draft was one of the first where we started to have a real conversation about tanking. Almost 30 years later, and we still don’t have the right answer on how to fix it. We digress, and let’s talk about how incredible Tim Duncan was as an NBA player. The San Antonio Spurs lucked into a dynasty builder, as David Robertson got hurt in 1996-97, opening the door for a complete tear down.
Duncan’s impact was immediate. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year, and by his second season, he was NBA Finals MVP. There are no better turnarounds in the history of the league. Going from picking first overall to winning a title in two seasons? That’s insane, and it’s because of how dominant the Spurs are.
Duncan was one of the most dominant and durable big men of his era. Duncan won championships in three different decades, taking home his first in 1999 and his last in 2015. In between, he won three more, giving him a total of five. He won back-to-back MVPs in 2002 and 2003, and he was a three-time Finals MVP. Heck, he was named one of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century, despite only playing three seasons in the 20th century. Duncan was a marvel, and he did it under the radar. In an era of social media rising and 24/7 news and sports networks, Duncan just got on the court and the team on his back to win games and championships.
4. Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets, 1984 NBA Draft
Hakeem Olajuwon has a lot of the same great attributes as Shaquille O’Neal, but he did it with such dominance and stamina that he is considered one of the best ever. Ever wonder why nobody ever talks about how the Houston Rockets blew it by not taking Michael Jordan and the focus is on the Portland Trail Blazers? It’s because they got one of the best ever with their own pick.
Olajuwon combined elite defense, advanced footwork, scoring versatility, and overall dominance in a way almost no center ever has before he showed up and since. He was a one-man wrecking crew both on offense and in the paint. He leads all players in NBA history with 3,800+ blocks, and he added 2,000 steals for good measure.
His footwork could get any player looking off balance, and he’s still one of the players that stars of today study to match his abilities. He famously won the two NBA Championships during the years when Michael Jordan was “retired” to play baseball, but most believe that Olajuwon was winning those titles no matter who was in the league. The 12-time All-Star has a list of accolades that would fill an entire room of trophies.
3. Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers, 1979 NBA Draft
The thing that’s getting players on this list is not only dominance but uniqueness in that dominance. Magic Johnson was the most versatile player in basketball. He was a star at all five positions. No, seriously, he at some point played all five positions on the basketball court, and he was unstoppable at every single one. He might be the best point guard in the history of the league, but he also started at Center in the 1980 NBA Finals.
At 6’9″, he had the size of a forward but the vision and creativity of an elite playmaker, allowing him to control games as a point guard that most with the skills to play that position could not. Most point guards avoid contact in the paint, but Johnson could still thrive off of it. His battles with Larry Bird were legendary, and he brought the Lakers into their next dynasty.
He helped lead the “Showtime” Lakers, a fast-paced team built around transition offense. It was the most exciting basketball we’ve seen in a long time. He’s another player in the five-championship club. He added three league MVPs and three Finals MVPs to his resume. Johnson is one of the best in the history of the league, and if he hadn’t lost a few years from the end of his prime, he might even be higher than that.
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks, 1969 NBA Draft
Kareem Abdul Jabbar won six league MVPs and six NBA Championships in his career. We can stop the write-up here, right? What more needs to be said? He was a superstar both individually and leading a team to the promised land. What’s most crazy is how long he’s stayed elite. He was one of the best players in the league for almost all of his 20 years in the league.
He was famous for so many things, but Abdul Jabbar’s skyhook is probably the most recognizable signature shot in the history of the league. It added a specialty to a career that was nearly unmatched. Truly, his statistics speak for themselves. Nobody has ever won as many MVPs as Kareem, and he made 19 All-Star Games. 19!!!!
On top of the offensive dominance, Abdul Jabbar was an 11-time All-Defensive team selection. When looking at what one expects from a number-one overall pick, this is a player who was drafted as Lew Alcindor, who was never anything less than great. He also won U.S. gold in 1996 because that was just another thing he wanted to add to his resume. Olajuwon might be the quietest “best of all-time” case, but he absolutely has one. Only one player has scored more points than him…
1. LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, 2003 NBA Draft
Four NBA Championships with three different NBA franchises. He won Finals MVP in every one of them. He also won NBA MVP four times, and he probably would have won three or four more if the voters didn’t have “fatigue.” 43,000 points and counting. A ridiculous 22 NBA All-Star appearances. If you strip bias from the record and focus on the statistics, there is no player ever as good as LeBron James. Of course, we don’t want the Jordan stans on our back, so we’ll stick with the moniker that he’s the best first-overall pick in NBA history. We can all agree there, right?
James is the biggest name in basketball since Jordan, and we saw it coming at the 2003 NBA Draft. The conversation was around his massive Nike contract and the fact that his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers got this “generational” choice. The 2003 draft was one of the best ever (if you’re not a Pistons fan) with Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh at the top. James was clear and away the best player, and it wasn’t particularly close.
There was never a choice like this. Cavaliers fans had a chance to have their hometown hero try to win in Cleveland, leave as the biggest villain in sports, and return to bring them the one thing that most fans have never experienced: a championship. The redemption story of James deserves its own list, but for now, let’s focus on the superstar that’s still playing despite being drafted the same year that Apple launched the iTunes store.
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