Stock Up, Stock Down for the Maligned 2013 NBA Draft Class
The 2013 NBA draft got a bad rap coming out of the gate, albeit one that was somewhat deserved.
Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 pick, struggled mightily in his debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nerlens Noel didn't even suit up for the Philadelphia 76ers on account of a torn ACL he suffered as a freshman at Kentucky. The Rookie of the Year race came down to three shaky point guards on bad teams, two of whom missed significant time due to injury.
All of that (and more) colored what proved to be an unflattering picture of last season's first-years.
But, to paraphrase the late, great Al McGuire, the best thing about rookies is that they become sophomores. This year's group is no different, with most of the notable names from last year's crop making sizable strides toward the dependable pros they're likely to become.
Of course, not everyone has taken a second-year step. Some have pretty much held steady since Year 1. A few have slipped.
For the most part, though, the Class of 2013 is on the up-and-up. Let's take a moment to check in with some of the top prospects and gauge whether they've gotten better, gotten worse or held steady based on their performance thus far through the 2014-15 season compared to how they fared in 2013-14.
Stock Up: Anthony Bennett, PF, Minnesota Timberwolves
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If Anthony Bennett didn't hit rock bottom as a rookie in Cleveland, he sure came close. The UNLV product missed the first 16 shots of his pro career, fell into and out of then-head coach Mike Brown's rotation thereafter and finished the 2013-14 season averaging 4.2 points and three rebounds while hitting 35.6 percent of his shots.
Bennett was so bad that some, including CBS Sports' Ken Berger, wondered aloud why the Cavaliers refused to make him the highest draft pick to ever be relegated to the D-League:
"The point is, couldn't Bennett, 20, benefit from a developmental stint in a league where he could get consistent practice reps and meaningful minutes? Especially now, when the Cavs' acquisition of Luol Deng in Monday night's trade with Chicago presumably will push Bennett even further onto the fringe of the Cavs' rotation?
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Nowadays, Bennett's getting all the reps he needs with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It helps too that Bennett came into this season healthy and in much better shape after missing his first summer league (and most of the rest of the 2013 offseason) with a shoulder injury.
"It feels great," Bennett told Bleacher Report in early December. "Just going out there with a free mind, going out there and doing what I have to do."
So far, Bennett hasn't done a ton, though his 6.8 points (on 46.8 percent shooting) and 3.9 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game with the Wolves represent marked improvements over where he was just a year ago.
Stock Up: Nerlens Noel, PF, Philadelphia 76ers
2 of 10Like Bennett, Nerlens Noel had nowhere to go but up from last year to today, if only because he didn't log a single second during what would've otherwise been his rookie campaign. The Philadelphia 76ers opted for extreme caution with Noel, who'd torn his ACL while at Kentucky the season prior.
And, well, Noel's absence suited the Sixers' pursuit of a top draft pick anyway, so that route probably worked out for the best.
The Massachusetts native has begun to find his NBA footing, now that Sixers coach Brett Brown has begun to deploy Noel more regularly as a starter. In fact, Noel is fresh off arguably his best pro performance to date: 19 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks, including one particularly impressive rejection of Boston's Jared Sullinger (see above).
Granted, that breakout game came in an 18-point loss to the struggling Boston Celtics, but for Noel and the Sixers, every bit of sunshine counts amid another season of abject darkness.
Stock Neutral: Michael Carter-Williams, PG, Philadelphia 76ers
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As for the Sixers' other bright spot, Michael Carter-Williams, the reigning Rookie of the Year, remains far from going full supernova in Philly. He's grabbing more rebounds and dishing out more assists, but his decision-making—as both a shooter and a passer—remains somewhat suspect.
As a result, his shooting percentages have dipped across the board, and he's turning the ball over more frequently (4.8 times per game) than any of his NBA peers.
"His heart is in the right place, but he’s misjudging the defense," head coach Brett Brown told Grantland's Zach Lowe. "He’s going into fire, and that ends up hurting us."
As Lowe went on to illuminate, MCW, with his shaky jumper, has had a particularly difficult time operating out of the pick-and-roll—which is a problem in today's NBA:
"Carter-Williams hasn’t done well as the lead ball handler. He has shot a miserable 21-of-72 out of the pick-and-roll, and he has coughed it up on nearly 29 percent of the pick-and-rolls he has finished — one of the half-dozen worst marks in the league, both this season and last, per Synergy Sports.
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That being said, Carter-Williams is clearly a willing and able passer. Chances are he'd have a much easier time creating for himself and others if any of his teammates were potent enough from the perimeter to warrant defensive attention. It's no wonder, then, that Robert Covington, a noted sharpshooter (44.8 percent from three this season), has recently assumed a prominent role in Brown's rotation.
Well, that and Covington's poured in 18.4 points per game over his last seven.
The point is, the more Covington types with whom the Sixers can surrounding Carter-Williams, the better their point guard will be able to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in his game.
Stock Up: Victor Oladipo, G, Orlando Magic
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While Carter-Williams' Sixers remain in tanking purgatory, Victor Oladipo's Orlando Magic are just now finding their way out of the forest.
That, given the team's 10-17 record, says plenty about how bad things had been in Orlando in the aftermath of Dwight Howard's departure.
The Magic have been slightly better (7-11) since Oladipo returned from a facial injury suffered during the preseason, as has he. The Indiana product has ceded some of his on-ball duties to rookie point guard Elfrid Payton but has become a more efficient operator in the process. He's knocked down 47.4 percent of his shots, including 45.2 percent of his threes—the ninth-best mark in the NBA.
Even if/when those shooting percentages fade, Oladipo should remain an effective force at guard in Orlando, thanks to his defensive prowess and willingness to attack the rack on offense. Oladipo's career may never amount to superstardom, but if he continues to advance at his current rate, he could (and should) be an All-Star down the line.
Stock Down: Cody Zeller, PF, Charlotte Hornets
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As for Cody Zeller, Oladipo's former teammate at Indiana, he's shown some intriguing flashes for the Charlotte Hornets but not much more than that. Zeller's demonstrated more confidence in attacking the basket than he did as a timid rookie, though he still tends to get pushed around by his bigger, stronger, more experienced counterparts.
In truth, Charlotte may not be the best place for Zeller to develop into an interior threat. The Hornets already have Al Jefferson manning the middle and need all the help they can get creating space for the fulcrum of their floundering offense.
Zeller's doing his part, launching 44.4 percent of his shots between 16 feet and the three-point line and hitting 34.4 percent of them—a noted uptick over last season (27.3 percent) but still well below league-average (39.7 percent), per Basketball-Reference.com.
Zeller's managed to hang on to his starting spot since Marvin Williams returned from injury, though more performances like his 1-of-4 showing against the Cavs could result in Zeller's return to the bench in the Queen City.
Stock Up: Steven Adams, C, Oklahoma City Thunder
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It became clear last season that Steven Adams, the 12th pick in the 2013 draft, would supplant Kendrick Perkins as the Oklahoma City Thunder's starting center sooner or later. If nothing else, Adams had established himself as a live body, a mobile big willing to mix it up in the paint, whereas Perkins, still shy of 30, could barely amble up and down the court.
Adams finally got his shot at Perk's spot during the preseason, when Kendrick went down briefly with an injury, and hasn't let up since. The native New Zealander is scoring more points (7.6), shooting a better percentage from the field (.510) and grabbing more boards (6.8) than he did as a rookie.
But that's to be expected when a player sees his nightly workload increase by nearly 10 minutes on average and when said player can fill a more predictable role off the bench rather than hope for spare time off the pine.
Adams, though, has shown some improvement of his own. He had to earn that spot ahead of Perkins by setting sturdy screens and doing the dirty work alongside the likes of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Better yet, Adams is doing all that without fouling at the same prodigious rate he once did; according to Basketball-Reference.com, Adams is averaging fewer fouls per 36 minutes this season (4.4) than he did last (6.1).
Adams doesn't project as anything more than another member of OKC's supporting cast, but that's probably all the Thunder will need from their center to contend for titles so long as KD and Russ are in town.
Stock Up: Kelly Olynyk, C, Boston Celtics
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If Kelly Olynyk could defend like Adams can, he'd be entrenched as the Boston Celtics' starting center—and then some. As it stands, though, what Olynyk brings to the table is pretty darn good.
That is, his combination of size, skill and shooting. The 7-footer out of Gonzaga has hit more than half of his shots overall (51.1 percent) and better than 40 percent (41.1 percent, to be exact) of his three-point tries.
Trouble is, Olynyk's weakness on the defensive end—be it positionally, as a helper or cleaning the glass—has left Celtics head coach Brad Stevens with little choice but to bring him off the bench behind the longer, more athletic Tyler Zeller. What's more, Olynyk's shortcomings therein have left him vulnerable to foul trouble, with 5.5 infractions per 36 minutes to his credit so far this season.
Despite the demotion, Olynyk has remained a valuable contributor off Boston's bench. Anyone who can pile up a career-high 30 points as a reserve, albeit against the sad-sack Sixers, has the potential to outperform whatever expectations might otherwise accompany a No. 13 pick.
(And yes, I'm aware that Kobe Bryant was a No. 13 pick, and no, there's no suggestion here that Olynyk will ever be anything close to Kobe.)
Stock Way Up: Ben McLemore, SG, Sacramento Kings
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If you're able to peer through DeMarcus Cousins' illness-related absence, Rudy Gay's growth into a steady second star, Darren Collison's hot start to the season and, of course, Mike Malone's unceremonious dismissal, you just might notice how well Ben McLemore's been playing for the Sacramento Kings.
No longer does McLemore brick shots or misread situations with such alarming frequency. Instead, he looks far more like the athletic sharpshooter the Kings thought they were getting when they drafted him out of Kansas with the No. 7 pick in 2013. He's knocked down a sturdy 41.2 percent of his 4.3 three-pointers per game to date.
It certainly helps that McLemore gets such clean looks playing off of two scorers as adept on the interior as Cousins and Gay are. According to NBA.com, 62.7 percent of McLemore's looks have been without a defender within four feet of him, and 63.2 percent have come absent even a single dribble.
That's not to say, though, that McLemore can't finish inside. According to Basketball-Reference.com, McLemore's made 72.3 percent of his shots within three feet of the basket—better than Boogie's conversion rate, in fact (71.2 percent).
McLemore may not be the Ray Allen redux he was projected to be by some, but the kid's clearly got some serious inside-out skills, along with the sort of size and athleticism with which ideal shooting guards are infused.
Stock Down: Trey Burke, PG, Utah Jazz
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Trey Burke has long had "decent NBA backup point guard" written all over him. He's never been among the bigger, stronger, quicker or more athletic players at his position, but he's shown the ability to take care of the ball and run an offense.
That may not be particularly glowing praise for the Michigan product, though it sure beats the alternative. Simply put, Burke has been an abysmally poor shooter, knocking down just 36.5 percent of his shots and 30.9 percent of his threes.
In fact, according to Basketball-Reference.com, Burke's on track to become just the eighth player in NBA history to shoot under 37 percent overall and worse than 31 percent from three while attempting at least 11 shots per game.
Burke's struggles, combined with the Brooklyn Nets' supposed fire sale, have led some to believe that the Utah Jazz should pursue a former All-Star of theirs via trade.
"Utah needs a point guard," an Eastern Conference scout told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck. "There's the team for Deron Williams, seriously. Trey Burke is at best an average backup...They have enough talent to be .500 maybe, or better than they are. I think what's holding them back is point guard."
That's not a good sign for a guy who, just a year-and-a-half ago, was the ninth overall pick in the draft with plenty of collegiate national player of the year honors on his resume.
Stock Way Up: Giannis Antetokounmpo, F, Milwaukee Bucks
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Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't have the benefit of coming up through the American collegiate system. Instead, Antetokounmpo plied his trade in the lower division of pro basketball in Greece before the Milwaukee Bucks plucked him away with the 15th pick in the 2013 draft.
And boy, what a plucking that's proving to be. The Greek Freak has become a nightly League Pass favorite, filling highlight reels with his impossibly long strides to the hoop and fantastic finishes on the offensive end.
Not to mention the constant disruption caused by his gangly limbs and quick feet on defense.
All told, Antetokounmpo has become more aggressive on both ends as he's picked up the nuances of the NBA game. His field-goal percentage has shot up to 48.7 percent now that more than 70 percent of his attempts are coming within 10 feet of the rim, per Basketball-Reference.com, and he's getting to the free-throw line 1.6 times more per game.
"His foundation is getting stronger," Bucks coach Jason Kidd told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Charles F. Gardner. "He's understanding what he's capable of doing. He's still learning the game."
That's a scary thought when considering how good the 20-year-old already is and how much better he might be once he learns to harness the full power of his 6'11" frame.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter. All statistics current through games played on Dec. 15.
