BOZICH: How The Recruiting Gurus Fared On NBA Draft Night
By Rick Bozich
Nerlens Noel was one of the few first-round picks in the NBA Draft who was ranked a Top 10 pick in high school.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Everybody has questions about the NBA Draft. I have questions, too. Why did Nerlens Noel slide from the first pick to the sixth? His knee. His interviews. His percentage of body fat. Did Sacramento get the best value by grabbing Ben McLemore of Kansas with the seventh selection? I vote, "Yes." Who is Livio Jean-Charles and did the Spurs draft him simply because Gregg Popovich wanted to take a trip to Europe? I vote, "Yes," again.
To all those, add one more: How do the recruiting rankings correspond to the way the names went on the board? I can't answer the first three, but I'll take a whack at number four: You'd be surprised.
Think about this: I looked at the final high school rankings over the last five seasons from Scout and Rivals. I wanted the numbers for where all the first-round picks were ranked when they left high school. This is what I found:
Top 10 guys: Four (Nerlens Noel, Shabazz Muhammad, Steven Adams and Anthony Bennett). Those are the Scout rankings. If you use Rivals, you can also add Reggie Bullock, who was ranked 10th in 2010.
Unranked guys: Six (Victor Oladipo, C.J. McCollum, Shane Larkin, Tony Snell, Tim Hardaway Jr, Andre Roberson. NOTE: A typo in my chart lists Oladipo in the 2011 class. He was 2010.)
Foreign guys: Nine. I won't bore you with all the names.
Three more guys were taken who were not ranked in the Top 50 in their classes.
Remember that when your favorite school either lands – or whiffs – with the next Must Have Prospect. Some guys peak when they're 17 years old. Others live in the gym or weight room and improve. Follow the rankings. Don't obsess over the rankings.
