Can the 2013 NBA Draft Class Totally Redeem Itself?
The 2013 NBA draft class wasn't ever supposed to be a collection of superstar talent, but it also wasn't expected to be so historically awful. Futility was the name of the game for last year's rookies, who largely labored away in underwhelming fashion.
There were a few standouts, sure.
Michael Carter-Williams won Rookie of the Year while leading the charge for the Philadelphia 76ers, and a handful of other players appeared to be on the path toward long NBA careers.
Victor Oladipo certainly qualified as such for the Orlando Magic, while Mason Plumlee, Tim Hardaway Jr., Steven Adams, Nate Wolters, Gorgui Dieng, Ray McCallum and Tony Snell contributed in varying degrees despite coming off the draft board later in the proceedings.
Another Milwaukee Buck deserves a mention as well, as Wolters wasn't exactly the standard-bearer for the crop of first-year players suiting up for a team now seemingly inundated with young talent. That honor goes to Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose numbers were lackluster but still allowed him to display his massive potential.
All in all, though, the class was historically awful, and the overall product was too filled with negative production to earn any glowing reviews.
As Kevin Pelton described for ESPN (subscription required), it may not have been the worst rookie class ever, but it was still in the conversation:
"The saving grace for this season's rookies is the 2000 draft, once described by FreeDarko as leaving 'a legacy of ruin and evil.' That draft, which included busts Marcus Fizer, Darius Milesand Stromile Swift in the top five, produced at a rate 17.3 wins worse than replacement level by my wins above replacement player (WARP) metric as rookies -- a mark that's unlikely to ever be topped.
The 1990 draft (3.7 WARP as rookies) and 2007 draft (2.8) also were relatively weak, though they'd eventually yield superstars Gary Payton and Kevin Durant, respectively. But the 2000 draft had been the only rookie class since the ABA-NBA merger to leave the league worse off than if no rookies had played at all -- until now.
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Think about that. This is the second post-merger rookie class to be so bad that the NBA would have been filled with more talent if every single first-year player had spent the entire 2013-14 campaign on the bench.
Clearly, some redemption is needed.
Is it possible? Sure, as not every career's course is determined by the direction of the freshman season. If that were the case, plenty of superstars would have been doomed into perpetual obscurity due to a lack of immediate production.
But in the case of this 2013 class, redemption isn't just possible; it's likely.
New Situation for the No. 1 Pick
The headliner of any draft class is almost always going to be the No. 1 pick, and that's immediately problematic for 2013. After all, Anthony Bennett was the shocking selection of the Cleveland Cavaliers, inspiring reactions like this one across the basketball-watching nation:
"Woah," indeed.
Needless to say, it didn't work out.
Bennett somehow went 1-of-21 from the field during his first seven outings for the Cavs, trying way too hard to force up shots from the outside. He was historically awful at the beginning of the season, leading to this fantastic tweet from SB Nation in mid-January:
That's obviously not very good. Any time you're exceeding the standards of awfulness set by Kwame Brown and Michael Olowokandi, you're not exactly doing well for yourself.
At the end of his rookie season, Bennett was averaging just 4.2 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, shooting a putrid 35.6 percent from the field and 24.5 percent from beyond the arc. According to Basketball-Reference.com, he had a 6.9 player efficiency rating and produced minus-0.4 win shares for Cleveland.
But now, Bennett gets a completely fresh start. He's no longer plagued by a shoulder injury that hindered his development as a rookie. He's also as far removed from the spotlight as possible, playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves and taking a backseat to Andrew Wiggins, at least in terms of attention received from every source imaginable.
There's no longer any pressure to compete immediately, and that's the best news possible for Bennett, who seemed fazed by the bright lights in his first go-round. Plus, he showed up healthy and in great shape for Summer League, putting the athleticism and all-around skills that made him such an intriguing prospect in the first place on full display.
"It's definitely been a lot easier for me to run up and down," Bennett told NBA.com's Dane Mizutani at media day. "I played 20 minutes straight [at Dunks After Dark], and I didn't really have a problem with it."
It's a great sign for the young forward from UNLV, and his dedication should pay dividends during a sophomore season filled with significantly less pressure. But he's not the only one set to rebound from a tough rookie campaign.
No More Injuries
What do Otto Porter, Alex Len and C.J. McCollum have in common?
All three were top-10 picks in the 2013 NBA draft, but each of them also experienced significant injury-related setbacks heading into their first campaigns.
Porter, who was widely viewed as one of the most NBA-ready prospects in the weak class, suffered a hip injury before the start of the season. He wasn't able to debut until a Dec. 6 contest against the Milwaukee Bucks, but by then it was just too late.
If there's a bad part of the year to miss, it's the very beginning. Rotations are being formed by the coaching staff, and teammates are constantly developing on-court familiarity with one another. The adaptation process is already tough enough for a rookie, but having to dress in street clothes during the opening salvo of a season pushes them even further behind the proverbial eight ball.
As Michael Lee wrote for The Washington Post, this was quite problematic for Porter:
"Porter is in the unique predicament of having to overcome three huge hurdles in his first season. The hip injury meant he needed time to regain confidence in his body and develop his conditioning. He has had to overcome the usual hassles of being a rookie, adjusting to the nonstop grind of games and practices and the incredible talent and athleticism of the competition. He also has to prove he deserves to play over two players more familiar with the NBA and Wittman's system to gain significant playing time.
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Thus far, Porter's sophomore season already appears as though it will go more smoothly. He earned rave reviews for his exploits during Summer League, even making Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver's All-Summer League first team.
If the momentum carries over, that'll be great news for the Washington Wizards, especially as Porter starts to learn from Paul Pierce, one of this offseason's biggest acquisition and a veritable fountain of information, given his longstanding tenure in the NBA.
McCollum is in a similar situation.
As NBA.com's John Schuhmann noted, the Lehigh product was picked by his fellow rookies as the most likely Rookie of the Year heading into the 2013-14 season. That didn't exactly pan out as the first-year players thought—Carter-Williams wasn't even in the top five, by the way—but some of the blame has to fall on the shoulders of that pesky injury imp.
A broken foot sidelined the first-year combo guard for the opening six weeks of the regular season, and Terry Stotts' rotations were already established when he was able to play. Instead of helping out a struggling Portland Trail Blazers bench, McCollum bounced between the D-League and Rip City, failing to establish any sort of continuity.
Then there's Len, whose rookie season with the Phoenix Suns was disastrous. Ankle and knee injuries kept him out of the lineup for large portions of the year, leaving him unable to assert himself as a top-notch center prospect, despite Phoenix's obvious need for a post-up player.
A fractured pinky knocked him out of action this summer, but he's ready to go for training camp, which should allow him to start living up to his lofty potential. As Paul Coro details for AZCentral.com, the coaching staff seems excited about having the big man back:
"Len was out of shape for last year's training camp but enters this one having played in pickup games since late August.
[General manager Ryan] McDonough said Len has looked 'as good as I've ever seen him play.' He has looked more like the agile player they scouted at Maryland and has added strength since.
'He seems a little bit quicker so when he makes his moves or runs up and down the court, it looks a lot better,' [head coach Jeff] Hornacek said. 'That's hard work. He and Archie (Goodwin) are probably the hardest working guys on the team. That's how you get better.'
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For this trio of players, the 2014-15 season is essentially a second try at a rookie season, and that's saying nothing of Nerlens Noel, who sat out the whole campaign to rehab his torn ACL. Last year should be viewed as a false start, if you will, allowing for this campaign to emerge as a do-over. They're all being granted mulligans with their teams, even if the history books will always view 2013-14 as their rookie go-rounds.
And, of course, that's saying nothing of the continued growth from everyone else.
The standouts from last year's class are poised to continue building upon what they started. For example, Antetokounmpo looks more and more like a future star every day, and Plumlee will surely benefit from his experience with Team USA.
No one is expecting that this class will suddenly rival the best in NBA history. Frankly, it's unlikely that it ever becomes more than an average crop of collegiate and international products.
But it doesn't have to remain historically bad forever. Awful as 2013-14 was, this upcoming season is granting the now-sophomores a chance to redeem themselves, and it's an opportunity the players aren't likely to pass up.
