The Best NBA Draft Pick of the Century at Every First-Round Slot
You know the best No. 1 pick of the 2000s is LeBron James, and the best No. 7 pick is Stephen Curry. But for the other 28 first-round slots, there were many closer calls.
We've gathered the best of each of the 30 first-round slots here.
When two players were close, we usually favored the player with the higher peak, especially when that included better playoff performances. But we also considered their full resumes and how long they played at a high level.
No. 1 Pick: LeBron James (2003)
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The great No. 1 picks of the 21st century include Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards and several other stars.
This was still an easy choice, though.
James is arguably the greatest player in NBA history. His peak might fall short of Michael Jordan's, but his longevity makes up the gap in the eyes of some.
James is the NBA's all-time leader in points (regular season and playoffs). He's top five in regular-season assists (fourth) and playoff assists (second).
And somehow, against all odds, he's still going strong at 41 years old.
No. 2 Pick: Kevin Durant (2007)
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Similar to LeBron vs. his competition among No. 1 picks, Kevin Durant has lapped the field of No. 2 picks this century.
The two-time Finals MVP and one-time MVP will likely go down as one of the 15 greatest players in NBA history. Eighteen years into his career, the four-time NBA scoring champion is still putting up 26.0 points per game while shooting 52.0 percent overall and 41.3 percent from deep.
The Trail Blazers' passing on Durant was one of the biggest draft-day mistakes in NBA history. Greg Oden, the No. 1 pick in 2007, played in just three seasons. Durant is heading into his 19th in 2026-27.
LaMarcus Aldridge and Tyson Chandler were both No. 2 overall picks as well, but neither of them hold a candle to Durant. He's the runaway choice here.
No. 3 Pick: Luka Dončić (2018)
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The best No. 3 pick of the century brings us to our first spirited debate.
James Harden, Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum all have things Luka Dončić doesn't.
Harden and Embiid each have one MVP award, and Tatum has a championship—and more importantly, a championship as his team's best player.
But Dončić gets the nod anyway. He's been a better playoff performer than all three of them, especially Harden and Embiid.
And though Tatum has had more playoff success than Dončić, just look at their playoff numbers and ask yourself who is the better player:
Tatum: 24.2 PPG, 5.0 APG, .507 eFG%
Doncic: 30.9 PPG, 7.8 APG, .532 eFG%
That Tatum's Celtics beat Dončić's Mavs in the 2024 NBA Finals shouldn't have much weight in this debate. The Celtics' supporting cast was much better than the Mavs'.
No. 4 Pick: Chris Paul (2005)
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This is another close one, this time between Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul.
The best part of Westbrook's argument is his 2016-17 MVP award. He averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists that season. In comparison, Paul has never averaged more than 22.8 points in a season.
But Paul is a much more efficient scorer (.523 eFG% vs. Westbrook's .472), and he does an amazing job at suppressing turnovers (2.3 career average).
The efficiency gap actually widens in the playoffs, as Paul has a .537 effective field-goal percentage while Westbrook had a ghastly .441 effective field-goal percentage.
That's probably why most advanced stats favor Paul over Westbrook.
No. 5 Pick: Dwyane Wade (2003)
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The Miami Heat were sitting pretty in the 2003 NBA draft. They knew one of LeBron James, Darko Miličić, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade would fall to them.
Aside from the Detroit Pistons, who took Miličić at No. 2, every other team in the top five ended up with a Hall of Famer.
Wade had the second-best career of any 2003 draftee, finishing with eight All-NBA nods, three championships and one Finals MVP. He's pretty safely on the list of the five greatest shooting guards of all time.
Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Vince Carter were all taken with the No. 5 overall pick in the 1990s, but Kevin Love, De'Aaron Fox, Trae Young and DeMarcus Cousins are D-Wade's closest competition since the turn of the century. None of them even come close to topping him.
No. 6 Pick: Damian Lillard (2012)
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In hindsight, it looks silly that Damian Lillard fell to the sixth pick of the 2012 draft. But it was hard to know what to expect out of him coming out of Weber State.
Lillard dominated as a senior in college, averaging 24.5 points per game. But still, not many players from the Big Sky go on to have Hall of Fame-worthy careers.
Lillard has defied the odds with nine All-Star selections, seven All-NBA nods and a fifth-place ranking on the career three-point leaderboard. He got a well-deserved spot on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team as well.
Had Brandon Roy's knees not imploded, he could have given Dame a run for his money as a fellow No. 6 overall pick. Instead, Danilo Gallinari, Marcus Smart and Shane Battier are among the best finds at that slot other than Lillard.
No. 7 Pick: Stephen Curry (2009)
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This was another obvious choice.
Stephen Curry is often regarded as one of the top 10 players in NBA history. He holds the all-time career and single-season three-point records.
Curry is the only player to average at least 30 points in a season on 50-40-90 splits, which he did during his 2015-16 MVP campaign. He's led the Golden State Warriors, the team that drafted him, to four championships.
Julius Randle, Luol Deng and Harrison Barnes have all carved out long, productive NBA careers of their own after getting drafted at No. 7. None of them remotely compare to Curry, though.
No. 8 Pick: Franz Wagner (2021)
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It's shocking how poor the results have been for No. 8 picks this century. The three with the best cases for this spot are Franz Wagner, Rudy Gay and Jamal Crawford.
Gay was strongly considered after he averaged at least 17 points in 10 straight seasons. But Wagner has already topped 20 points per game two seasons in a row, and he's done so on better scoring efficiency than Gay had during his career.
Essentially, Wagner has already had a higher peak than Gay. And at just 24 years old, Wagner is likely to reach even higher peaks soon.
Crawford was a dynamite bench scorer, as evidenced by his three Sixth Man of the Year awards, but he never made an All-Star team. Wagner seems like a lock for one or more as long as he can stay healthy during the first half of a season.
No. 9 Pick: Amar'e Stoudemire (2002)
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This is another close call, with DeMar DeRozan and Andre Iguodala given consideration. But Amar'e Stoudemire gets the nod for having a higher peak than the others.
Stoudemire got MVP votes in five different seasons, including three in which he averaged at least 25 points. In two of those seasons, he shot at least 55.9 percent from the field.
DeRozan got MVP votes in three seasons, but what held him back is the fact that he has a negative plus/minus for his career.
Iguodala never got an MVP vote, but he got more consideration than you might think because defensive stars tend to be wildly underrated. The fact that he has a Finals MVP closed the gap as well, but Stoudemire's counting stats were too superior in the end.
No. 10 Pick: Paul George (2010)
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With all due respect to Joe Johnson, Mikal Bridges and Brook Lopez, this one wasn't close.
George has been a dominant two-way player for most of his 16-year career. He's made six All-NBA teams and four All-Defensive teams.
He's ninth in NBA history in three-pointers made, and he's averaged at least 2.0 steals in three different seasons, including leading the league in 2018-19.
The 36-year-old will hope to win his first NBA title with the Celtics during the 2026-27 season.
No. 11 Pick: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2018)
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Klay Thompson's total body of work, including four championships, gives him an argument for this spot.
But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's much higher peak gave him the nod.
Thompson has received MVP votes in just one season. SGA has won back-to-back MVPs and finished in the top five in the past four seasons.
When he retires, SGA will likely be the undisputed greatest No. 11 pick of all time, moving far past Thompson and Reggie Miller.
No. 12 Pick: Tyrese Haliburton (2020)
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The OKC Thunder got a steal when they landed Jalen Williams at No. 12 in 2022. But he's no Tyrese Haliburton.
The Pacers point guard is a ruthless combination of elite passing and efficient scoring. He also proved he's one of the league's most clutch players by making nearly every shot he took in the last minute of games during Indiana's 2025 Finals run.
Haliburton is probably the best draft pick the Kings have ever made, but the Kings found a way to mess up a good thing. Feeling the need to break up the Haliburton-De'Aaron Fox backcourt, they traded Haliburton and others to the Indiana Pacers for a package headlined by Domantas Sabonis.
Haliburton has since made two All-Star teams and two All-NBA teams in three full seasons with the Pacers.
No. 13 Pick: Devin Booker (2015)
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This was a difficult choice between Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker. They're both about the same age and Mitchell has more accolades, so it'd be reasonable to go with him.
But what gives Booker the edge here is the fact that he's been a more efficient playoff scorer. Here are their career playoff stats:
- Booker: 27.5 PPG, .541 eFG%, 5.2 APG
- Mitchell: 27.8 PPG, .512 eFG%, 4.4 APG
If Mitchell helps the Cavs get to the Finals next season, he'll likely overtake Booker for this spot.
No. 14 Pick: Bam Adebayo (2017)
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This was another easy call, as Bam Adebayo has separated himself from the competition.
He has three All-Star nods and six All-Defensive team selections, and his international resume isn't too shabby with two Olympic gold medals. He also recorded the second-highest single-game point total in NBA history against the Washington Wizards, for whatever that's worth.
Michael Porter Jr. (2018) is the closest challenger to Adebayo's claim to the No. 14 pick throne, and he has zero All-Star selections.
No. 15 Pick: Giannis Antetokounmpo (2013)
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This came down to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard (2011).
The strength of Leonard's argument is the fact that he has one more Finals MVP (two) than Antetokounmpo (one).
But what gave Antetokounmpo the nod is how long his peak has lasted. The Greek Freak has finished in the top four of MVP voting in seven of the last eight seasons, and he won back-to-back seasons at the end of the decade.
Leonard has finished in the top four of MVP voting just twice in his career and never actually won the award.
No. 16 Pick: Alperen Şengün (2021)
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With two All-Star selections himself, Nikola Vučević (2011) got some consideration here.
But Alperen Şengün got the nod because his peak is arguably higher than Vučević's peak, and Şengün isn't even in his prime yet.
Şengün averaged 20.4 points and 6.2 assists with the Houston Rockets in the 2025-26 season. Vučević has topped 20 points twice, but he's never topped 3.8 assists.
Expect Şengün to run away with this spot over time.
No. 17 Pick: Jrue Holiday (2009)
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Jrue Holiday's counting stats aren't the reason why he's the pick over Trey Murphy III (2021) for this spot. It's his impact.
Holiday was one of the best two-way guards in his prime, and his value showed itself the most in the playoffs.
In 2021, he helped lead the Milwaukee Bucks to their first title in 50 years. In 2024, he helped lead the Boston Celtics to their first title in 16 years.
It also doesn't hurt that he's a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
No. 18 Pick: David West (2003)
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From 2005 to 2011, David West was Chris Paul's primary pick-and-roll partner with the New Orleans Hornets.
They put up excellent numbers together.
Over that six-season stretch, West averaged 19.2 points and 8.0 rebounds. He was given two All-Star nods for his efforts.
His work with CP3 was enough to hold off JR Smith, the No. 18 pick of the 2004 draft.
No. 19 Pick: Zach Randolph (2001)
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Randolph was a double-double machine, recording 488 of them in his career. That's tied for 19th in NBA history.
He ended up with two All-Star selections, but it felt he could have had a few more. In five different seasons, Z-Bo averaged at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
The Trail Blazers are known for their big draft mistakes, but they deserve credit for being on this list twice with Lillard and Randolph.
Tobias Harris and John Collins may yet surpass Randolph, but Z-Bo is ahead of them for now.
No. 20 Pick: Jalen Johnson (2021)
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The 2021 draft was pretty strong at the top with Cade Cunningham (No. 1), Evan Mobley (No. 3), Scottie Barnes (No. 4) and Franz Wagner (No. 8) among the best picks, but the best value came from picks 16-20.
We already talked about Alperen Şengün at 16 and briefly mentioned Trey Murphy III at 17. They came just before Jalen Johnson, the biggest steal of the draft.
The Atlanta Hawks forward had his best season in 2025-26, averaging 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 (!) assists. He's still just 24 years old.
With Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Jameer Nelson lurking as Johnson's biggest competition at this draft slot, it's fair to call this race just about wrapped up for good.
No. 21 Pick: Rajon Rondo (2006)
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This is a tough choice between Rajon Rondo and Tyrese Maxey (2020).
Rondo entered the NBA when it was still common for teams to have true point guards. He scored when the game called for it, but otherwise, his job was to get everyone else involved.
Rondo did that as well as anyone. Among his accolades were three assists titles and two championships.
Nowadays, the NBA is filled with point guards like Maxey, who are looking to score more than pass. Maxey is a more dynamic offensive player than Rondo, but Rondo's offenses might have actually functioned better.
This is all to say that Maxey's peak is higher than Rondo's, but not so much higher that it fully closes the gap on Rondo's better resume. In a year or two, Maxey will likely take this spot, though.
No. 22 Pick: Jarrett Allen (2017)
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The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping Walker Kessler (2022) will eventually boot Jarrett Allen from this spot. But for now, it's not close.
Allen has been remarkably consistent in his career, averaging at least 10.9 points and 8.4 rebounds in each of the last eight seasons. He is a one-time All-Star and has received Defensive Player of the Year votes in three different seasons.
Kessler is bigger than Allen, a better rebounder and shot-blocker than Allen and has far more shooting range than Allen as well. However, after playing 74 games as a rookie, he's played only 127 over the past three seasons combined.
If Kessler can stay on the court, he has the potential—especially playing alongside Luka Dončić—to eventually overtake Allen here. That isn't guaranteed to happen, though.
No. 23 Pick: OG Anunoby (2017)
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Former Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri had a phenomenal two-year stretch in the NBA draft.
In 2016, the Raptors took Pascal Siakam with the 27th overall pick. The following year, they selected OG Anunoby with the 23rd pick.
Amazingly, the Raptors were so deep in the 2019 playoffs that they won the title with Anunoby injured.
They eventually traded Anunoby to the Knicks, and he showed the world what he was capable of with an incredible 2026 playoff run that resulted in the Knicks' first championship since 1973.
No. 24 Pick: Kyle Lowry (2006)
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Kyle Lowry was drafted by the Grizzlies before being traded to the Houston Rockets in 2009. He established himself as a quality point guard in Houston, but it wasn't until the Raptors traded for him in 2012 that he broke out.
In Toronto, Lowry was selected to six consecutive All-Star teams and won a championship in 2019. Basketball Reference has his Hall of Fame chances at 85.7 percent.
Andrei Kirilenko, Sam Cassell, Derek Fisher and Serge Ibaka were all No. 24 picks as well. All four had impactful NBA careers, but none reached the peak of Lowry in his Raptors days.
No. 25 Pick: Gerald Wallace (2001)
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This spot came down to Tony Allen (2004) and Gerald Wallace.
Allen was a better defensive player than Wallace, as supported by the fact Allen made six All-Defensive teams and Wallace made just one.
But Allen averaged over 10 points per game just once, whereas Wallace had a double-figure scoring average in eight consecutive seasons.
Wallace's offensive advantage outweighed Allen's defensive edge.
No. 26 Pick: Kevin Martin (2004)
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Payton Pritchard, Taj Gibson and George Hill received consideration here, but we went with the most consistent scorer of the No. 26 picks.
From the 2006-07 season to the 2014-15 season, Martin averaged 20.2 points per game.
He was never a good defender, and he didn't pass much (career average of 1.9 assists). But when you needed a bucket or a trip to the free-throw line, Martin was valuable in his prime.
No. 27 Pick: Pascal Siakam (2016)
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This is the last close call, and it's a doozy.
Rudy Gobert (2013) is one of the best defensive players of his generation. Some have argued that he's less valuable in the playoffs, but he poked holes in that narrative by outplaying Nikola Jokić in the first round of the 2026 postseason.
With that said, Pascal Siakam has a significant edge in playoff performance over Gobert.
Siakam helped lead the Raptors to a 2019 championship, and he was the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals MVP with the Indiana Pacers. His self-creation ability makes him incredibly valuable in half-court playoff settings, while Gobert is still extremely limited on offense.
No. 28 Pick: Tony Parker (2001)
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The San Antonio Spurs were known for finding draft gems, most notably Manu Ginóbili with the 57th pick of the 1999 draft. Two years later, they took Tony Parker late in the first round.
Those two helped the Spurs win four of their five titles.
Parker's resume is outstanding. He made six All-Star teams and four All-NBA teams, won a Finals MVP and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
With all due respect to fellow No. 28 picks Leandro Barbosa, Beno Udrih and Ian Mahinmi, they don't come close to Parker in this conversation.
No. 29 Pick: Derrick White (2017)
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Derrick White gets the nod here for having a championship and three All-Defensive nods since being traded from San Antonio to Boston.
This is also a good opportunity to talk about how many 2024 U.S. Olympians are featured here.
Here is the full list of the U.S. men's team that won gold in Paris:
No. 1 picks: LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis
No. 2 pick: Kevin Durant
No. 3 picks: Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum
No. 7 pick: Stephen Curry
No. 12 pick: Tyrese Haliburton
No. 13 pick: Devin Booker
No. 14 pick: Bam Adebayo
No. 17 pick: Jrue Holiday
No. 29 pick: Derrick White
Eight 2024 Team USA players made our list, and the most they possibly could have gotten is nine.
No. 30 Pick: Jimmy Butler (2011)
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Jimmy Butler's resume speaks for itself.
He has six All-Star selections and five All-NBA nods. He has five All-Defensive selections, a 2023 Eastern Conference Finals MVP award and an Olympic gold medal.
Desmond Bane (2020) and Peyton Watson (2022) are among the other great No. 30 picks this century, but no one comes close to Butler.
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