sunsfn 3/18/2005 report

[sunsfn]

Updated: Mar. 18, 2005
2005 NBA Draft Top 10s

By Chad Ford, ESPN Insider


It's March Madness baby, which means it's time to do another comprehensive update of our Top 10 rankings by position.

The college crop is pretty solid. There are a few top underclassmen prospects like Chris Paul (Wake Forest), Marvin Williams (North Carolina), Rudy Gay (UConn), Andrew Bogut (Utah), Chris Taft (Pittsburgh), and Deron Williams (Illinois). But like this year, only a handful of the best prospects will be college seniors. Danny Granger (New Mexico) and Joey Graham (Oklahoma State) top the senior list.

After a record eight high school players went in the first round this year, scouts are saying 2005 will be the worst high school class in recent history. The six preps with the best shot of making the jump this year are Gerald Green, Martell Webster, Monta Ellis, Louis Williams, Shawne Williams and Andray Blatche. However, Green and Webster are the only guys with any real shot at the lottery at this point.

The Euro crop may be the strongest ever. A stunning 28 international underclassmen pulled out of the 2004 draft, fearing the high school crop would push them out of the first round. That left a gaping hole in last year's draft but also brought a promise that this year's crop could look pretty good.

While there will be three dominant 18-year-olds looking for promises, the strength of next year's international class is with the 19- and 20-year-olds. Familiar names like Martynas Andriuskevicius, Tiago Splitter, Kosta Perovic, Peja Samardziski, Johan Petro and Marko Tomas likely will be in again next year. They'll be joined by new and highly-touted prospects like Nemanja Aleksandrov, Fran Vazquez, Rudy Fernandez, and possibly Andrea Bargnani and Ersan Ilyasova.


The consensus top five? It hasn't changed much from this summer. Chris Paul, Marvin Williams, Rudy Gay, Andrew Bogut, Chris Taft, and Martynas Andriuskevicus have the most buzz right now. However, Deron Williams, Fran Vasquez, Danny Granger and Tiago Splitter are quickly gaining ground.


Top 10

TOP 10 POINT GUARDS
RankNameHt, Wt - AgeSchool/Country
1. Chris Paul 6-1, 195 lbs - Sophomore Wake Forest
2. Deron Williams 6-3, 210 lbs - Junior Illinois
3. Raymond Felton 6-0, 180 lbs - Junior North Carolina
4. Daniel Gibson 6-2, 190 lbs - Freshman Texas
5. Ronnie Brewer 6-7, 210 lbs - Sophomore Arkansas
6. Guillermo Diaz 6-2, 183 lbs - Sophomore Miami
7. Monta Ellis 6-3, 175 lbs - HS Senior Lanier High School (MS)
8. Mardy Collins 6-5, 205 lbs - Junior Temple
9. Jarrett Jack 6-3, 200 lbs - Junior Georgia Tech
10. John Gilchrist 6-3, 200 lbs - Junior Maryland

Best of the rest: Roko Leni Ukic, Croatia; Curtis Stinson, Iowa State; Daniel Ewing, Duke; Luther Head, Illinois; ; Chris Thomas, Notre Dame; Travis Diener, Marquette; Anthony Roberson, Florida; Aaron Miles, Kansas; Tim Smith, East Tennessee State; Jose Juan Barea, Northeastern; Ivan Koljevic, Serbia; Ender Arslan, Turkey; Marcelo Huertas, Brazil

Wait until next year: Uros Tripkovic, Serbia; Rajon Rondo, Kentucky; Marcus Williams, UConn; Sergio Rodriguez, Spain; Jordan Farmar, UCLA; Mustafa Shakur, Arizona; Justin Gray, Wake Forest; Bracey Wright, Indiana; Dee Brown, Illinois; Jeff Horner, Iowa; Taquan Dean, Louisville; Darius Washington Jr., Memphis; Churchill Odia, Xavier; George Tsintsadze, Russia; Cenk Akyol, Turkey


TOP 10 SHOOTING GUARDS
RankNameHt, Wt - AgeSchool/Country
1. Gerald Green 6-7, 210 lbs - HS Senior Gulf Shores Academy (TX)
2. Martell Webster 6-7, 235 lbs - HS Senior Seattle Prep (WA)
3. Marko Tomas 6-8, 210 lbs - 19 yrs Croatia
4. Rudy Fernandez 6-5, 200 lbs - 19 yrs Spain
5. Antoine Wright 6-7, 210 lbs - Junior Texas A&M
6. Rashad McCants 6-4, 200 lbs - Junior North Carolina
7. Francisco Garcia 6-7, 190 lbs - Junior Louisville
8. Nate Robinson 5-9, 190 lbs - Junior Washington
9. Louis Williams 6-2, 175 lbs - HS Senior South Gwinnet (GA)
10. Julius Hodge 6-7, 205 lbs - Senior North Carolina State

Best of the rest: Salim Stoudamire, Arizona; Hassan Adams, Arizona; Mickaël Gelebale, France; B.J. Elder, Georgia Tech; Nikolaos Zissis, Greece; Romel Beck, UNLV; Keith Langford, Kansas; Alan Anderson, Michigan State;

Wait until next year: Malik Hairston, Oregon; Jawann McClellan, Arizona; Costas Vassiliadis, Greece; Thabo Sefolosha, Switzerland; CJ Miles, HS senior; J.R. Giddens, Kansas; J.J. Redick, Duke; Roy Bright, Cincinnati; Rashad Anderson, UConn; Kelenna Azubuike, Kentucky; Von Wafer, Florida State; Matt Walsh, Florida; Brandon Roy, Washington; Brandon Rush, HS senior; Marko Belinelli, Italy; Vasily Zavoruev, Russia; Marcus Vieira de Souza, Brazil


TOP 10 SMALL FORWARDS
RankNameHt, Wt - AgeSchool/Country
1. Marvin Williams 6-9, 230 lbs - Freshman North Carolina
2. Rudy Gay 6-9, 218 lbs - Freshman UConn
3. Danny Granger 6-8, 235 lbs - Senior New Mexico
4. Nemanja Aleksandrov 6-10, 220 lbs - 17 yrs Serbia
5. Joey Graham 6-7, 220 lbs - Senior Oklahoma State
6. Andrea Bargnani 6-11, 225 lbs - 19 yrs Italy
7. Ersan Ilyasova 6-9, 220 lbs - 18 yrs Turkey
8. Adam Morrison 6-8, 215 lbs - Sophomore Gonzaga
9. Kennedy Winston 6-6, 230 lbs - Junior Alabama
10. Rodney Carney 6-7, 205 lbs - Junior Memphis

Best of the rest: Shawne Williams, HS Senior; Eddie Basden, Charlotte; Dijon Thompson, UCLA; Ryan Gomes, Providence; Sean Banks, Memphis; Jawad Williams, North Carolina; Quemont Greer, DePaul; Steven Smith, LaSalle; Omar Thomas, UTEP; Luka Bodganovic, Serbia; Milan Majstorovic, Serbia; Stefano Mancinelli, Italy; Zhu Fangyu, China

Wait until next year: Jeff Green, Georgetown; Juan Diego Palacios, Louisville; Jared Dudley, Boston College; Corey Brewer, Florida; Keith Brumbaugh, HS Senior; Damir Omerhodzic, Croatia; Regis Koundjia, LSU; Damjan Rudez, Croatia; Ricky Sanchez, Puerto Rico; Ivan Chiriaev, Russia; Dusan Sakota, Greece

TOP 5 POWER FORWARDS
RankNameHt, Wt - AgeSchool/Country
1. Andrew Bogut 6-10, 240 lbs - Sophmore Utah
2. Chris Taft 6-10, 250 lbs - Sophomore Pittsburgh
3. Martynas Andriuskevicius 7-3, 230 lbs - 19 yrs Lithuania
4. Fran Vazquez 6-10, 230 lbs - 21 yrs Spain
5. Tiago Splitter 6-10, 240 lbs - 19 yrs Brazil

Others to watch: Taj Gray, Oklahoma; Hakim Warrick, Syracuse; Shelden Williams, Duke; Charlie Villanueva, UConn; Ronny Turiaf, Gonzaga; Ike Diogu, Arizona State; Wayne Simien, Kansas; David Lee, Florida; Vladimir Veremeenko, Belarus; Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State; Andray Blatche, HS Senior; Al Hoford, Flordia; LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas; Sean May, UNC; Michael Harris, Rice; Linas Kleiza, Missouri; Paul Davis, Michigan State; Torin Francis, Notre Dame; Ekene Ibekwe, Maryland;Brandon Bass, LSU; Craig Smith, Boston College; Taylor Coppenrath, Vermont; Oleksiy Pecherov, Ukraine; Uros Slokar, Slovenia; Axel Hervelle, Belgium; Angelo Gigli, Italy; Miguel Marriaga, Venezula; Drago Pasalic, Croatia; Erazem Lorbek, Skipper Bologna (Italy)

TOP 5 CENTERS
RankNameHt, Wt - AgeSchool/Country
1. Josh Boone 6-10, 245 lbs - Sophomore UConn
2. Randolph Morris 7-0, 266 lbs - Freshman Kentucky
3. Johan Petro 7-1, 250lbs - 19 yrsFrance
4. Peja Samardziski 7-0, 250 lbs - 19 yrs Serbia
5. Kosta Perovic 7-2, 240 lbs - 20 yrs Serbia

Others to watch: Channing Frye, Arizona; Edu Hernandez, Spain;Luke Schenscher, Georgia Tech; C. J. Giles, Kansas; Mohammed Kone, Southern Idaho (JUCO); Martin Iti, Charlotte; Matt Nelson, Colorado State; Semih Erden, Turkey; Mile Ilic, Serbia; Marcin Gortat, Poland; Ante Tomic, Croatia; Tan Zhendon, China; Ioannis Bourousis, AEK (Greece); Dimitri Soklov, Russia; Pavel Mroz, Poland; Rob Rothbart; France.


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[coloradosun]

This is pretty funny;

Nate Robinson, 5'9" "shooting guard".

 

[Tank]

5. Antoine Wright 6-7, 210 lbs - Junior Texas A&M

WHOOP!
We'll finally get an Aggie in the NBA... Bout time... Although I do wish he would stay for his senior year, it's bittersweet for me

 

[PhxGametime]

I really like Antoine Wright - last year he had about two-three 3PTers made a game and numbers were nice, oops other than shooting PCT numbers.

I still wonder why Chad Ford has Nate Robinson listed as a SG? It's not like there aren't other score dominated PG's in the NBA. Robinson can actually make a pass here and there as well, he averages like 5 assists.



Granger is moving up his Draftboard Actually he's 1 of my top choices for Suns, this isn't good...

 

[coloradosun]

Bball

What is your take on Ricky Woods, SE Louisana. This guy surprised the hell out of me, very impressive package.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=12861

 

[PhxGametime]

What team did he play against and for any AZ fans here, was the game on Tv here? I really haven't watched many games, just taped them so far (I did watch some of the Danny Granger game, New Mexico and watching Duke right now). I read he averaged 18 PTS and 8 REB in Junior College last year on my book but he wasn't on top-10 list at any position.


I was about to watch UofA game but the Suns start soon, not that I watch Suns games live much but not sure if I have an unused Tv's to watch game on.


How was Nate Lofton on SE Lousiana? He's a 6'10 250 Senior that was picked pre-season to win POY... I need to find out when game was on, they usually show parts of each game?

 

[PhxGametime]

I think I might have some of that game on Tv - against Oklahoma State...

I probably won't watch it for some time though. I could go and try to catch a few minutes, if my tape ends soon - I can only tape 1st half of Duke game most likely.


Well the tape must not of finished, half just ended... I will try to watch as much as I can until gametime. That Duke game went quick, I missed a lot.

 

[PhxGametime]

I watched as much as I could and he's an athlete obviously, decent shot-blocker at 6'6, can score around hoop, runs court... but being a Junior, all you have-to look at is lack of an outside shot right now (at least in 3PTers, only 1 made) and he airballed only jumper I saw and he's coming back to College for Senior year? At least that's what I'd think?


I really liked some of his passes but he only averages .8 but a pretty good shot-blocker, that I was very impressed with... ability to get out on shooter, etc. He can score but at 6'6, he'd probably need to add jumper to his solid scoring around hoop. I was getting impressed in his game but I saw 1 3PTer made and it dashed my 2nd Round possiblities...

 

[coloradosun]

I watched as much as I could and he's an athlete obviously, decent shot-blocker at 6'6, can score around hoop, runs court... but being a Junior, all you have-to look at is lack of an outside shot right now (at least in 3PTers, only 1 made) and he airballed only jumper I saw and he's coming back to College for Senior year? At least that's what I'd think?


I really liked some of his passes but he only averages .8 but a pretty good shot-blocker, that I was very impressed with... ability to get out on shooter, etc. He can score but at 6'6, he'd probably need to add jumper to his solid scoring around hoop. I was getting impressed in his game but I saw 1 3PTer made and it dashed my 2nd Round possiblities...

For someone to be Marion's sub, he would be a good one. Your right his outside shooting is questionable but I always cringe when Marion takes a 3 point shot. The way he slashes to the hoop is Marionesque and that is what I like plus the fact he had lock down defense on Graham. Odds are he did not get enough exposure in the tournament and I would assume he would return for next season, look for him next summer.

Lofton got into foul trouble but he seemed to play like small power forward.