NBA Draft season is upon us. The 2022 Draft is taking place this Thursday as 60 new players will be chosen by teams and many more will be signed to two-way contracts. The Draft is how young talent enters the league. While there are 60 picks every year, there is only one player that can stand tall above the rest of his class and say he was the first player chosen ahead of everyone.
Some of the greatest NBA players have been 1st overall picks like LeBron James, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, and others. However, there are many players picked outside of the 1st spot that end up becoming all-time legends and out-performing the 1st pick from their class.
We have had many players go 1st in the last 10 years, but not all of them have performed equally. Some are still extremely young and have a lot of room to grow, but NBA on ESPN posed a question on its social media for fans to pick the best number one pick in the last decade. This resulted in a lot of memes about Anthony Bennett, but many broke down their top 10 and ranked the players.
https://twitter.com/Antho42412/status/1539425930040381440
Idk except Anthony Davis is 1st and Anthony Bennett is last.
— Will. 🏀🦅 (@WiLLns23) June 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/OlafNeverTakesL/status/1539423599437791232
AD, Kat, Zion, Simmons, Wiggins, Ant, Ayton, Cade, Fultz, AB
— Benjamin (@sirbroth) June 22, 2022
AD
Zion
Towns
Edwards
Wiggins
Simmons
Ayton
Cade
Fultz
Bennett
— latse (@ed_oji) June 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/DahlonegaMurray/status/1539424860048326658
some huge recency bias with Wiggins' rating 😉
— rick marsonet (@RMarsonet) June 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/BrandoStarkey/status/1539425370352406528
It is hard to rank these players but so far there has been a clear number one. Anthony Davis is entering his 10th season in the league and has been an MVP and DPOY candidate while being a perennial All-Star. Injuries have slowed his progress down, but he is one of two people on this list to have won a championship. The other is Andrew Wiggins.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Wiggins would challenge for spots 2 and 3, while the rest can be made up of how different people value the worth of the young talent in the draft. This tier would be made up of players like Deandre Ayton, Zion Williamson, Anthony Edwards, and Cade Cunningham. Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz have shown potential, but Fultz’s injury struggles and Simmons’ lack of development over the seasons have severely hampered their progress in the league.
Anthony Bennett is most definitely the worst choice on this list, as he is the only player to be out of the league, something he has been for a few years now.
