Almost nothing in basketball is more valuable than the number one pick in the draft. The number one pick is what dreams are made of. Fans look at the number one pick and see a franchise player. They see points and rebounds and highlights and defense. Anyone taken with the top pick in the draft is presumed to be a franchise savior. The number one pick will save the day. They will save the entire franchise.
But teams very rarely get the number one pick right. Drafting is hard, after all, and it’s much more finesse than science. There’s only so much teams can really know about 19 and 21 year olds on draft day, and for every surefire LeBron James at number one, there are plenty of Anthony Bennetts and Andrew Wiggins and Markelle Fultz’s to go around. So just who should have been the number one pick in each NBA draft the last 25 year?
So glad you asked. Let’s go through them all, one draft at a time. Knowing everything we know right now about a player’s career, who should have been the number one pick in each NBA draft from 1994 to present?
