NBA Draft- 2nd Round Picks Comparison

Comparing the Success of College Seniors to International Players drafted in 2nd round since 2000

Juan Carlos Navarro
Juan Carlos Navarro sits atop the list of good international NBA draft picks.

By James Blackburn

Notes About How This List Was Created

• Good pro means they played for 5 years or more in NBA and/or played/contributed significantly
• For draft years 2010-2011, I left off some Int’l and some seniors because there has not been enough time to evaluate them.
• A bad international player means he hasn’t played in NBA yet at all or hasn’t contributed, same with college senior. Or they played for a year or two, then they were out.
• 4-year guy means senior- no matter if they were a 4 or 5 year guy
• Some of my personal opinion is factored in as well about weather they are a good or bad pick- but my opinion is based mostly on the players stats, upside (if they are current pick- last 2 years), and how long played in NBA, if at all.

Results
Total Good Senior Picks: 51
Total Good International Picks: 17 (4 years of 1 good player picked and 3 years of 0 picks)
Total Bad Senior Picks: 82
Total Bad International Picks: 66

Out of all the picks that were graded (all were not, some players were considered a wash/even/not really good or bad), there were 133 college seniors drafted since 2000 in 2nd round that were graded by myself. 61% of these seniors picked were considered bad picks (may of not stayed long in league, if at all, or didn’t really contribute), leaving 39% of seniors drafted graded as a good pick. 83 international players were evaluated that were drafted in 2nd round of NBA draft since 2000. 79% of these players were considered bad picks, 21% were considered good.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a change with any group after 2005, which was the last year HS players could be drafted. Overall, the results give a slight edge to drafting college seniors over international players, with 39% having success over just 21% of players coming from Europe and overseas. But there are also more college seniors drafted 133 to just 83, so there is less room for error for international players. I will say this though, international players seem to be either star or bust (never even reaching the NBA/or America in that case), and very few in betweens, though there are a few. As with college seniors there seems to be more that fall into that middle category (neither star nor complete bust).

Last observation is that the best 2nd round senior picked in my opinion in last 10 years is probably a tie between Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, based on their years played in the NBA and their contributions on teams, including playoff teams. The best international player picked in my opinion was Luis Scola and Marc Gasol, who are both better players then the college seniors picked. Scola and Gasol are on the verge of being All-Star guys and are both major contributors for their respective teams. Its no accident or coincidence that Scola was a Spurs draft pick.

2000

Good Senior Picks (5)
1. Jake Voskuhl
2. Eddie House
3. Eduardo Najera
4. Brian Cardinal
5. Jason Hart

Good International Picks (1)
1. Marko Jaric

Bad Senior Picks (10)
2. Dan Langhi
3. AJ Guyton
4. Lavor Postell
5. Hanno Mottola
6. Chris Carrawell
7. Dan McClintock
8. Chris Porter
9. Sconnie Penn
10. Pete Micheal
11. Jaquay Walls

Bad International Picks (4)
1. Soumaila Samake
2. Olumide Oyedeji
3. Josip Sesar
4. Igor Rakocevic

2001

Good Senior Picks (4)
1. Brian Scalabrine
2. Loren Woods
3. Earl Watson
4. Jarron Collins

Good International Picks (0)

Bad Senior Picks (9)
5. Jeff Trepagnier
6. Damone Brown
7. Ken Johnson
8. Sean Lampley
9. Eric Chenowith
10. Ruben Boumtje Boumtje
11. Andre Hutson
12. Bryan Bracey
13. Alvin Jones

Bad International Picks (2)
1. Antonis Fotsis
2. Robertas Javtokas Lietuvos Rytas

2002

Good Senior Picks (6)
1. Dan Gadzuric
2. Matt Barnes
3. Lonny Baxter
4. Flip Murray
5. Darius Songaila
6. Rasual Butler

Good International Picks (2)
1. Juan Carlos Navarro
2. Luis Scola (Spurs Pick)

Bad Senior Picks (7)
1. Steve Logan
2. Robert Archibald
3. Vincent Yarbrough
4. Chris Owens
5. Jason Jennings
6. Tamar Slay
7. Corsley Edwards

Bad International Picks (5)
1. Milos Vujanic
2. Peter Fehse
3. Mario Kasun
4. Federico Kammerichs
5. Mladen Sekularac

2003

Good Senior Picks (8)
1. Jason Kapono
2. Luke Walton
3. Steve Blake
4. James Jones
5. Matt Bonner
6. Keith Bogans
7. Willie Green
8. Kyle Korver

Good International Picks (1)
1. Zaza Pachulia

Bad Senior Picks (4)
1. Travis Hansen
2. Derrick Zimmerman
3. Tommy Smith
4. Brandon Hunter

Bad International Picks (10)
1. Maciej Lampe
2. Sofoklis Schortsanitis
3. Szymon Szewczyk
4. Slavko Vranes
5. Sani Becirovic
6. Malick Badiane
7. Paccelis Morlende
8. Remon Van de Hare
9. Nedzad Sinanovic
10. Andreas Glyniadakis

2004

Good Senior Picks (2)
1. Royal Ivey
2. Chris Duhon

Good International Picks (1)
1. Anderson Varejão

Bad Senior Picks (13)
2. Jackson Vroman
3. Lionel Chalmers
4. Antonio Burks
5. Ricky Minard
6. Denard Robinson (Bobcats pick)
7. David Young
8. Justin Reed
9. Romain Sato- bad pick from Spurs- very surpising
10. Rickey Paulding
11. Luis Flores
12. Marcus Douhit
13. Blake Stepp
14. Rashad Wright

Bad International Picks (8)
1. Peter Ramos
2. Albert Miralles
3. Sergey Lishchuk
4. Ha Seung-Jin
5. Viktor Sanikidze
6. Vassilis Spanoulis
7. Christian Drejer
8. Sergei Karaulov-another bad Spurs pick

2005

Good Senior Picks (3)
1. Daniel Ewing
2. Ronny Turiaf
3. Ryan Gomes

Good International Picks (3)
1. Ersan Ilyasova
2. Roko Ukic
3. Marcin Gortat

Bad Senior Picks (4)
1. Robert Whaley
2. Orien Greene
3. Dijon Thompson
4. Lawrence Roberts

Bad International Picks (7)
1. Mickaël Gelabale
2. Erazem Lorbek
3. Uros Slokar
4. M. Andriuskevicius
5. Mile Ilic
6. Axel Hervelle
7. Cenk Akyol

2006

Good Senior Picks (3)
1. Steve Novak
2. Craig Smith
3. Ryan Hollins

Good International Picks(0)

Bad Senior Picks (6)
1. James White
2. Paul Davis
3. Bobby Jones
4. Denham Brown
5. Dee Brown
6. Hassan Adams

Bad International Picks (8)
1. Marcus Vinicius
2. Lior Eliyahu
3. V. Veremeenko
4. Yotam Halperin
5. Eden Bavic
6. Ejike Ugboaja
7. L. Mavrokefalidis
8. Damir Markota

2007

Good senior Picks (2)
1. Carl Landry
2. Aaron Gray

Good International Picks (2)
1. Kyrylo Fesenko
2. Marc Gasol

Bad Senior Picks (7)
1. Chris Richard
2. Derrick Byars
3. Adam Haluska
4. Reyshawn Terry
5. Stephane Lasme
6. Jared Jordan
7. Herbert Hill

Bad International Picks (6)
1. Stanko Barac
2. Renaldas Seibutis
3. Brad Newley
4. Sammy Mejia
5. Giorgos Printezis
6. Milovan Rakovic

2008

Good Senior Picks (3)
1. Sonny Weems
2. James Gist (Spurs Pick)
3. Joe Crawford

Good International Picks (4)
1. Nikola Pekovic
2. Omer Asik
3. Goran Dragic (Spurs pick)
4. Semih Erden

Bad Senior Picks (10)
1. Kyle Weaver
2. Sean Singletary
3. Patrick Ewing JR
4. Malik Hairston
5. Devon Hardin
6. Shan Foster
7. Darnell Jackson
8. Maarty Leunen
9. Sasha Kaun
10. Deron Williams

Bad International Picks (2)
1. Ante Tomic
2. Tadija Dragicevic

2009

Good Senior Picks (8)
1. Jeff Pendergraph
2. Dante Cunningham
3. Sam Young
4. Jon Brockman
5. Marcus Thorton
6. Danny Green
7. AJ Price
8. Lester Hudson

Good International Picks (2)
1. Jonas Jerebko
2. Nick Calathes- went to HS in USA

Bad Senior Picks (4)
1. Goran Suton
2. Jack McClinton
3. Robert Vaden
4. Robert Dozier

Bad International Picks (4)
1. Sergio Llull
2. Sergii Gladyr
3. Nando De Colo
4. Emir Preldzic

2010

Good Senior Picks (6)
1. Dexter Pitman
2. Andy Rautins
3. Landry Fields
4. Magnum Rolle
5. Luke Harangody
6. Jeremy Evans

Good International Picks (1)
1. Pape Sy

Bad Senior Picks (5)
1. Jarvis Varnado
2. Jerome Jordan
3. Stanley Robinson
4. Ryan Reid
5. Dwayne Collins

Bad International Picks (3)
1. Tibor Pleiss
2. Nemanja Bjelica
3. Paulo Prestes

2011

Good Senior Picks (1)
1. Chandler Parsons

Good International Picks (0)

Bad Senior Picks (3)
1. Justin Harper
2. Jon Diebler
3. Vernon Macklin

Bad International Picks (7)
1. Bojan Bogdanovic
2. Davis Bertans
3. Milan Macvan
4. Chukwudiebere Maduabum
5. Tanguy Ngombo
6. Adam Hanga
7. Ater Majok

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