Plenty of people believe that drafting a top-5 draft pick assures teams a championship. That is debatable, especially knowing how those picks have fared in the last 10 years or so.
Although we’ve seen plenty of good players getting picked in the first five selections on draft nights, players with lower picks have thrived and led their teams to the promised land before the lottery picks.
Redditor “Duradello” did the research and found out that from 2008, only five top-5 picks have won the title. However, all of those players had something in their favor: being teammates with LeBron James.
With the upcoming Draft Lottery and every fanbase hoping they jump up to draft a star player, I was wondering how many of these “top” players have won a championship. As I was going back through the drafts, I was surprised to see that since the 2008 Draft, only 5 Top 5 Picks have won a championship, and they were all LeBron James’ teammates.
It’s not a secret that having LeBron James on your roster assures you at least play in the NBA Finals constantly. It happened with the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Los Angeles Lakers last year.
Bron won titles with each of these franchises, making these players NBA champions. We’re watching players like Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Jayson Tatum, and more top picks trying to lead their franchise to the championship.
This number will increase in the future with LeBron slowing down and these players taking over the association.
