Alex Len, Nerlens Noel remind us about the quirky yet fascinating 2013 NBA draft
Jan 27, 2016, 9:19 AM
Monitoring the Phoenix Suns and the Philadelphia 76ers as they squared off Tuesday probably wasn’t necessary. The Sixers won their second game against Phoenix this season with a 113-103 final, but we already knew enough about the two teams that own a combined 21-71 record.
They’re bad, they’re injured and they’re tanking.
But for those who stuck around to watch, there was something unique here. The game featured six players — three on each team — from the 2013 NBA Draft widely considered to be weak with talent. Who those players are said a lot about the difficulties in drafting, evaluating and evaluating the drafting.
Let’s first stick to the big men from that 2013 class.
No doubt, the biggest matchup between the Suns and Sixers was in the middle with 23-year-old Suns center Alex Len going at 21-year-old Nerlens Noel.
The fifth pick in that 2013 draft, Len scored 16 points, grabbed 12 boards and blocked two shots. His second double-double in a row and third double-digit scoring game would be more impressive had he not previously gone from mid-December to late-January with just a single double-digit scoring game.
Noel, picked a spot after Len, was likewise a potential first-overall pick had it not been for an ACL injury well before the draft. The lanky defender sat out his true rookie season but had a solid argument as a Rookie of the Year candidate in his return last year. He scored 14 points along with nine rebounds, three steals and three blocks against the Suns on Tuesday.
Two-plus years after their names were called on draft night, those two performances look promising when evaluating the rest of the 2013 field.
Run back through the big men in that class, and the Len and Noel picks don’t look bad with Utah’s Rudy Gobert so far the favorite for best big of that draft.
Twelfth pick Steven Adams is a solid bruiser for the Thunder already, while fellow lottery selection Kelly Olynyk is a Celtics role player of the floor-spacing variety. Twenty-first pick Gorgei Dieng has been hot and cold as a rebounding machine in Minnesota, while Joffrey Lauvergne of the Nuggets was the 55th pick and has come on strong this season. Portland’s Mason Plumlee, who went 22nd, has already become a solid defender in the NBA and oddly enough leads the class in total win shares to this point.
2013 picks ranked by total win shares.
Cody Zeller, selected just ahead of Len, has been solid as an athletic power forward but similarly to Len hasn’t yet found a bread and butter.
And by the way, coming into the draft, 26th overall pick Andre Roberson had better rebounding numbers than all of them. He’s now a shooting guard in Oklahoma City.
It’s been a crap shoot to say the least.
The surprise first overall pick, Anthony Bennett, is already on his third NBA team and averaging 1.6 points, 1.5 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per game (he’s only played in 12).
Second pick Victor Oladipo is growing into a versatile guard in Orlando, while other perimeter players like Otto Porter (3rd pick), Ben McLemore (7th), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (8th), Trey Burke (9th), Michael Carter-Williams, (11th) Giannis Antetokounmpo (15th), Dennis Schroder (17), and Allen Crabbe (31st) appear to have long NBA careers ahead of them.
The best player in the class, to this point, just might be 10th pick C.J. McCollum, who has become a 20-point per game combo guard for the Portland Trail Blazers.
On Tuesday, Archie Goodwin, the 29th pick who the Suns traded for on draft night (the deal allowed Golden State to select Nemanja Nedovic), led Phoenix with 26 points and six assists. His backup, 52nd pick Lorenzo Brown, has been a journeyman.
Meanwhile in Philly, undrafted 2013 entry Robert Covington scored 19 points for Philadelphia, and 34th overall pick Isaiah Canaan scored seven points in 10 minutes.
What’s the point after all that?
Given three years of evaluation, we can’t get close to nailing down one player who will become a perennial All-Star, let alone one for more than a year here or there.
So what’s the best way to evaluate that 2013 class?
Give us another three years.
