While seemingly not as strong as the previous year, the 2009 Draft is still impressive. So far only Blake Griffin (picked #1) has made an All-Star game, but James Harden (#3), Tyreke Evans (#4), Ricky Rubio (#5), Stephen Curry (#7), Brandon Jennings (#10) and Ty Lawson (#18) all have to be considered legitimate candidates to make the team in the upcoming few years.
What is striking about this draft in the ample supply of quality point guards available: Rubio, Curry, Jennings, Lawson, Jrue Holiday (#17), Jeff Teague (#19), Eric Maynor (#20), Darren Collison (#21), Roddy Beaubois (#25) and Toney Douglas (#29) were all picked in the first round. A few of these players might flounder, but still that is an impressive list of point guards for a single draft.
Griffin, despite injury problems, has lived up to the hype as the first selection. Hasheem Thabeet (pick #2) has been an utter bust, and his selection looks terrible because Harden, Evans and Rubio immediately follow him. For the second straight year, we have a draft that seems very strong in the top five.
Tyler Hansbrough (#13) and Taj Gibson (#26) are the other two players from this first round that have provided excellent value. Clearly, especially with all the point guards, round one has excellent depth, and this carries on into round two.
The second round of 2009 is impressively solid: Dante Cunningham (#33), DeJuan Blair (#37), Jonas Jerebeko (#39), Jodie Meeks (#41), Marcus Thornton (#43), Chase Budinger (#44) and Danny Green (#46) have all provided excellent value for where they were selected. Likewise, Wes Matthews went undrafted and has been a fine player.
So 2009 has very impressive depth, particularly at the point guard position. Whether it is to be remembered for that or its top heaviness has yet to be determined. A rough approximation of the top ten players from 2009, with their actual selection number in parenthesis:
1. Blake Griffin (1)
2. James Harden (3)
3. Ty Lawson (18)
4. Stephen Curry (7)
5. Ricky Rubio (5)
6. Tyreke Evans (4)
7. Brandon Jennings (10)
8. Jrue Holiday (17)
9. Taj Gibson (26)
10. Marcus Thornton (43)
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