The 2003 NBA Draft revisited

[dirno2000]

Top name is the actual player drafted, bottom name is the player that should have been drafted in the opinion of ESPN stats guru John Hollinger


1) Cleveland
LeBron James
LeBron James Yes, Dwyane Wade had a very strong playoff performance, but let's get real. LeBron had a far better regular season than Wade, is two years younger, and is a guaranteed home run at the box office. Other than Kevin Garnett in 1995, he was the easiest No. 1 "do-over" pick of the past decade.

2) Detroit
Darko Milicic
Dwyane Wade It's crazy to think that Detroit won a championship in 2004, even though the Pistons passed on Wade and instead took a total non-factor in Milicic. Of course, if Wade were a Piston he may still be sitting at the end of the bench, waiting for a chance to play … kind of like he, James, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire did at the Olympics.

3) Denver
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony After a blazing hot rookie year, Anthony had something of a sophomore slump, but his scoring output from his first two seasons still is very impressive. That's especially true considering he entered the league as a teenager and would only be entering his senior year of college had he stayed in school.

4) Toronto
Chris Bosh
Chris Bosh Fans up north still are waiting for Bosh to add some upper body strength, but the rest of the package is in place. Bosh drew comparisons to both Kevin Garnett and Joe Smith when he was picked, and his career value seems destined to end up about halfway between his two wiry predecessors.

5) Miami
Dwyane Wade
Michael Sweetney Sweetney's name might surprise some, but he has a career PER of 16.6 and would have been starting much earlier on a team with more foresight than the Knicks. Right now he's a poor man's Zach Randolph, and still is young enough to take some steps forward.

6) L.A. Clippers
Chris Kaman
Marquis Daniels As an undrafted rookie, Daniels had the highest PER of any player from this distinguished class – better than LeBron, Carmelo or Wade. But he's older than those three, and his second pro season was mostly a wash thanks to a nagging ankle injury.

7) Chicago
Kirk Hinrich
Kirk Hinrich Hinrich's ranking might surprise some who would expect him to be No. 5, but his output has been more steady than spectacular. He's a good defender and runs the point well, but his career 39.2 percent shooting leaves a lot to be desired and he rarely gets to the basket.

8) Milwaukee
T.J. Ford
Josh Howard Dallas scored a major coup in the 2003 draft, grabbing the class's best defender in Howard with the 29th pick and then signing the undrafted Daniels soon after. The mystery is how the other 28 teams missed on those two – both played for four years at major programs and were their college team's star players.

9) New York
Michael Sweetney
Travis Outlaw The secret isn't out about Outlaw yet, but it will be soon. The 6-foot-9 wingman's per-40-minute production is too good to ignore – 16.1 points, 49.8 percent shooting, 2.0 blocks – and he's still only 20 years old. He could start as soon as this year, and once his jumper gets more consistent he'll be one of the league's better small forwards.

10) Washington
Jarvis Hayes
Darko Milicic I may have him way too high, or way too low. Based on production, Milicic is about the worst player in this draft. But so many general managers are still high on him that it's safe to say he'd be a lottery pick if the draft were held today, and watching him flick in 3-pointers during practices at the Finals made it easy to see why.

11) Golden State
Mickael Pietrus
Mickael Pietrus Golden State's 11th pick ends up with … Golden State. The French import has shown flashes at both ends, but still hasn't put it together for a full season, or even a full week. It would help if he could improve his shooting percentages – 42.3 percent from the field, 34 percent from the arc and 69.7 percent from the line – because he's athletic enough to become a defensive stopper.

12) Seattle
Nick Collison
Luke Ridnour Ridnour has proven he can run the point and can defend the position reasonably well, but he's surprisingly ineffective as a scorer. The Sonics' guard shot 40.8 percent over his first two seasons despite getting numerous open looks in Seattle's offensive machine.

13) Memphis
Marcus Banks
Nick Collison He's harder to evaluate because he only played one full season, having missed his rookie campaign with two bad shoulders. However, Collison shot 53.7 percent, rebounded well and held his own defensively, so if he can cut down on the rampant fouling (nearly one every five minutes) he should be a quality power forward.

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