Yeah but, the 2003 class had DMC. LOL

Draft debate: Was '03 or '96 class superior?

Moved to draft forum.

2003 NBA Draft - Basketball-Reference.com

1996 NBA Draft - Basketball-Reference.com

I just thought it would be interesting to see how the '03 draft class is performing in this year's playoffs. The top 5 picks all made it to the post season, and Darko + Wade + Mello have been eliminated. Bosh will probably be a goner too. That means that LeBron will probably be the only one to get out of the first round.

Anyways, let's look at how they rank after normalizing for minutes (36).

Points per 36 (FGA)-
1) Mello- 22.9 (16.8 attempts)
2) James- 22.2 (16)
3) Wade- 20.9 (18.7)
4) Bosh- 16.4 (13.8)
5) Darko- 15.4 (8.5)

Points per FGA (includes FTs)-
1) Darko- 1.81
2) James- 1.39
3) Mello- 1.36
4) Bosh- 1.19
5) Wade- 1.12

Rebounds-
1) Bosh- 9.4
2) Mello- 7.4
3) James- 6.8
4) Darko- 5.6
5) Wade- 4.3

Assists-
1) James- 6.0
2) Wade- 5.6
3) Darko- 1.25
4) Bosh- 1.20
5) Mello- 1.00

Blocks-
1) Bosh- 1.6
2) Darko- 1.3
3) James- 0.6
4) Wade- 0.4
5) Mello- 0.0

Avoiding turnovers-
1) Darko- 0.6
2) James- 1.4
3) Bosh- 1.8
4) Mello- 3.3
5) Wade- 5.11 (ouch)

Avoiding fouls-
1) James- 1.8
2) Mello- 2.1
3) Darko- 2.9
T3) Wade- 2.9
5) Bosh- 3.0

Roland Rating-
1) James- 23.7
2) Darko- 11.1
3) Mello- 9.6
4) Bosh- 4.7
5) Wade- 1.1


Comments-
Lebron- He put up these numbers against the worst team in the playoffs (the Wiz). He is rebounding well and getting a lot of assists. His turnovers are very low for a young player, given how often the ball is in his hands. His 42% shooting percentage is not great.

Darko- Obviously stepped it up from his regular season and did it against a team that defends the PF well. He did a lot of things right, except he didn't rebound well and did not demand the ball enough. Shot 58% from the floor, but only took 8 shot attemps vs. 20+ for LBJ and Mello.

Mello- Scored well, and semi-efficiently for him, but was only getting 1 assist per game and was turning the ball over 3.5 times per game. He's the only one of the five who did not block a shot. In his defense, he was playing against a pretty tough team.

Bosh- He's scoring 1 point per 36 minutes more than Darko, yet he is taking 50% more shots. Very inefficient. However, he is a rebounding machine, is leading the group in blocked shots, and is passing well for a big man.

Wade- Don't mean to pick on the guy, cause he is obviously not 100%. Still, he was taking a ton of shots at a very low percentage and wasn't getting to the line. That is a killer combination. His turnovers were off the charts with 5.5+ per game. Assist to to ratio was about 1 to 1. Horrible. I'm not sure how you can have 5 to per game feeding Shaq, but he found a way.

__________________
"If I'm sitting there arguing with the officials, I'm giving an alibi for the team." MC