SoCalHoops NBA Draft News

A Quick & Dirty NBA Draft Breakdown:
How'd Everyone Do?--(June 27, 2002)

The NBA Draft for 2002 will took place yesterday and from where we sat it was one of the more unremarkable and most predictable drafts we can remember in a long time.  But statistically, it was interesting to see who went where and when they were drafted. 

SoCal Players Do Alright: It was a pretty good day for players from SoCal.  Getting drafted were Tito Maddox (Compton HS),   Casey Jacobsen (Glendora HS), Chris Jeffries (Washington Union HS),  Jamal Sampson (Mater Dei HS),  Randy Holcomb (SDSU and L.A. City College under coach Mike Miller--and remember, only three players with JUCO ties were drafted this year), Matt Barnes (UCLA), Dan Gadzuric (UCLA), Sam Clancy (USC),  Tayshaun Prince (Dominguez HS, Kentucky).  Others weren't so lucky, and neither Brandon Granville (Westchester HS and USC) and his teammate David Bluthenthal (Westchester HS and USC) were drafted, and neither was DeAngelo Collins (Inglewood HS).

College juniors fare best: Mike Dunleavy Sr., who drew criticism from college fans everywhere for suggesting that a player's worth in terms of NBA draft potential decreases the longer he stays in college may have been on to something..... There were 131 players in this draft all vying for 57 spots.  So how'd everyone do? 

The group that unequivocably did the best were the foreign early entries, the guys who have not played a minute in any U.S. college, and who don't speak much English.  There were 5 early entries and 100% of them were drafted,   3 in the first round and two of those were lottery picks.   Yes, the face of the NBA is changing.....

How did the college early entries do, the group which included Mike Dunleavy, Jr.?  Out of 37 college underclassmen,  they did best overall of any group which included players that went undrafted (i.e., everyone except the foreign early entries:  A full 57% of those who decided to leave college early were drafted,  and 13 of the 19 drafted got guaranteed money by going in the first round, with 6 taken in the second round.  Seven of the 13 drafted in the first round will get really big money, being taken by lottery picks.

Among the underclassmen who entered the draft and remained in on draft day these are the numbers:

2 of the 6 college freshmen who entered were drafted (33% of frosh, 5% of underclass, 1% of total draft pool)
6 sophs out of 12 who entered were drafted (50% of sophs, 16% of underclass, 4.5% of total pool)
11 juniors drafted out of 19 who entered (57% of juniors, 20% of underclass, 8.3% of total pool)

Of the 60 college seniors, only 8 of them went in the first round.  Only 1 was a lottery pick, the next to last at No. 12. The rest went in the second round and won't get guaranteed contracts.  Just 38% of the eligible college seniors who entered the draft were picked in any round.   Nope, it was not a very good year for the seniors.

There were 28 regular international players eligible in the pool (this doesn't include the early entrants).  Nine out of 25 were drafted, and only 1 was a lottery pick, but he had the No. 1 pick in the draft (Yao Ming).  If you include the early entry foreigners who were included in the draft, there were a total of 33 players in the pool, and 14 were selected, 42%.  Of the total number of players in the draft,  the foreigners picked represented just 10% of the players selected.    While it looks like the face of the NBA is changing and foreigners are accounting for more and more of those entering the NBA, 10% isn't really that big a jump, statistically speaking, but it does represent a trend of more foreign participation.

And the high school guys?  Not even worth talking about this year.  Only 1 out of four were picked, but when you consider this is the freakin' NBA, that's about what it ought to be....

We've put together a table below listing every player who was in the draft pool by category.  Those drafted in the first round are shown in red;  second round is shown in burgundy, and undrafted...well, you can figure it out.   And there were a lot more that went undrafted, just because of the sheer numbers involved and the fact that the draft now only goes 58 deep (actually only 57 this year because Milwaukee forfeited their first round pick).

Anyway, here's who was drafted and who wasn't.....And the most surprising thing that this table demonstrtes?  A player's chances of getting drafted dramatically increase if his name begins with the same letter or is next to that of another player who has been or will be drafted....

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