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Draft tiers.

jazzfan1971

Well-Known Member
Saw this posted on another board and thought it was worth sharing.

Excerpts from ESPN:
https://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft201 ... ects-tiers

"NBA teams watch prospects play thousands of hours of games. They go to practice. Go to camps. Hire guys from MIT to create statistical solutions. Work out players, give them psychological tests, do background checks and conduct personal interviews. And still, there is very little consensus.

Factor in the debate between taking the "best player available" versus "team needs" and the situation muddies itself further.

To make sense of all this, the past few years I've chronicled a draft ranking system employed by several teams called the tier system. In the tier system, teams group players, based on overall talent, into tiers. Then, the teams rank the players in each tier based on team need. This system allows teams to draft not only the best player available, but also the player who best fits a team's individual needs.

A more detailed explanation of how the tier system works can be found here:
https://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft201 ... ects-tiers

So what do the tiers look like this year? After talking to several general managers and scouts whose teams employ this system, here is how things are shaping up. Note that players are listed alphabetically in each tier.

Tier 1

Joel Embiid
Jabari Parker
Andrew Wiggins

Last year, we didn't have any player in this category. This category is usually reserved for guys who are sure-fire All-Stars or "franchise" players. Since 2009, only Griffin, John Wall and Davis have been ranked in this slot. This year, there are three players in Tier 1 -- as many as there have been in the last five years combined. All of them received Tier 1 votes from every GM, exec and scout I surveyed. So if there is any consensus out there, it's that there are three really great prizes in this year's draft.

Tier 2

Dante Exum
Aaron Gordon
Julius Randle
Dario Saric
Marcus Smart
Noah Vonleh

Last year, Tier 2 also was empty for the first time since I've been doing this column. That should tell you something about how poorly regarded last year's class was. Tier 2 is reserved for players who are projected as potential All-Stars by scouts. They are typical high lottery picks in a normal draft. In 2012, Bradley Beal, Harrison Barnes, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist all got the nod as Tier 2 players. In 2011, Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams were in this tier. This year, six players are here, which is a high number (as is the case with having three players in Tier 1). Two of these players -- Exum and Vonleh -- even got a couple of votes for Tier 1.

This is where the strength of the draft really shines, in my opinion. This means that NBA GMs, scouts and execs believe that there could be as many as nine potential All-Stars in the draft class, with three of them being franchise players. You have to go back more than a decade -- to the 2003 draft, where eight players ended up making an All-Star team -- to get a draft that loaded. While none of the players on the list are LeBron James-type players, there is incredible value here.

Tier 3

Gary Harris
Doug McDermott
Nik Stauskas

In 2013, we put the top six players in the draft in Tier 3: Nerlens Noel, Anthony Bennett, Ben McLemore, Alex Len, Victor Oladipo and Otto Porter. That means that all nine guys listed in Tier 1 or Tier 2 would have been drafted ahead of the top six players in 2013.
This tier is usually reserved for players who are projected as NBA starters in their careers. This year, this tier is a little on the small side. While there were a number of votes for various players for this tier, these were the only three who had a consensus. None of the Tier 3 players were voted on for Tier 2 status, and none of them were voted for Tier 4; that makes things pretty clean."
 
A tier system is very subjective. I'd say that Burke is a Tier 3 guy for sure. He'll definitely be a capable starter for years IMO.
 
Odd and surprising that Trey Burke wasn't even considered to be a Tier 3 player in 2013.

They don't rank players on a scale. So if Burke was tier 4 in their eyes he was tier four in any draft.

Also I don't know how Nik Stauskas is a better prospect than Burke. Neither Harris or McDermott for that matter.
 
Tier 4 goes to #20 as well. That's real deep. Plus I think there will be a lot of steals in this draft late lottery.
 
It's crazy how in 2013 it's probably one of the worst drafts since 2001 and now it 2014 it might be the best one since 2003.
 
They don't rank players on a scale. So if Burke was tier 4 in their eyes he was tier four in any draft.

Also I don't know how Nik Stauskas is a better prospect than Burke. Neither Harris or McDermott for that matter.
i think stauskas and mcdermott will be better players than trey
 
Everybody has an opinion. I think Trey is far superior to both. This is the great thing about sports and without such differing views there would be nothing to talk about.
i dont hate on the opinion that trey is better than them btw.

its pretty tough to definatively say who is better right now
 
Being a Gordon guy, my biggest fear is that both Exum and Gordon will be available and the Jazz will end up taking Exum. I like Exum but I don't know much about him so I am afraid of the unknown. I really do think Orlando will determine who the Jazz pick.
 
Tiers are pretty much what I have been claiming for weeks - i.e. that there is a top-3 and Exum and Vonleh are at top of the next level down. I'd put Randle at the very bottom of Tier 2, if not in Tier 3. And perhaps the same with Saric. As for McBuckets, I don't think he'll ever be a starter, but he'll be a great 6th man, so no biggie. Would have liked to see the definition of Tier 4. I think Tier 3 should be defined as starters for most of their careers. Tier 4 as backups or starters on weak teams. In that respect, I'd say Trey is kind of in the middle of Tiers 3 and 4. If he can't improve his shooting, he'll be a backup.

I'm not that big on Smart, but I'd be happy with Exum, Vonleh or Gordon. IMO, those three are very close. I LOVE Vonleh, but Gordon probably provides the Jazz with the most flexibility and fits a real position of need. If the Jazz are serious about bringing Tomic over, then drafting Vonleh would mean trading Kanter. Or you just forget about Tomic and keep Vonleh, Favors, Gobert and Kanter. Drafting Gordon also means the Jazz would have a fallback IF Hayward gets an offer that is too big to match.
 
It's crazy how in 2013 it's probably one of the worst drafts since 2001 and now it 2014 it might be the best one since 2003.
Yep. It's what has been projected all along. Embiid shot up, while Harrison fell out and decided to stay in school. And I guess Randle fell a tier. Other than that, not a whole lot of surprises from pre-season projections. I guess the only disappointment, if you can call it that, is the top-3 failed to live up to the "god-like" hype that had preceded them. They'll likely be multi-year all-stars, but none scream "superstar." We all saw their warts during the course of the college season.
 
Yep. It's what has been projected all along. Embiid shot up, while Harrison fell out and decided to stay in school. And I guess Randle fell a tier. Other than that, not a whole lot of surprises from pre-season projections. I guess the only disappointment, if you can call it that, is the top-3 failed to live up to the "god-like" hype that had preceded them. They'll likely be multi-year all-stars, but none scream "superstar." We all saw their warts during the course of the college season.

Well yeah when they are said to the next best prospects since LeBron, it is hard to live up to that kind of hype. It seems like the more years go by the harder and better criticism there is.
 
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