The NBA Draft is a spectacle and time-honored tradition of watching walking teenage giants don their funky suits as they eagerly wait for their name to be called. From the booing fans to the crying parents, the draft allows the league’s bottom feeders an opportunity at injecting their team with some much-needed talent. Fans are hoping that they land a franchise savior who will instantly turn their team into a winner. Just like how the third overall pick of the 2018 draft, Luka Dončić, has ascended himself into an MVP candidate in his second season. Or how the Rookie of the Year and second overall pick of the 2019 draft, Ja Morant, turned the Memphis Grizzlies into a fringe playoff team in just his first year.
Fans have their fingers crossed that after a regular season full of constant losing, their silver lining is they’ll end up as winners on draft night. But what if I told you that this is only a misconception? That you don’t need a Top 5 or even a Top 10 pick in the NBA draft to land a superstar talent?
The Grass is Greenest Where you Water
A big stigma with the NBA Draft is that unless you are picking in the Top 10, your draft pick won’t amount to anything more than a role player. I argue that while you might have an easier chance at finding a superstar talent with a higher pick, it isn’t a necessity. Players get selected higher for a multitude of reasons that aren’t related to their talent. Sometimes it can be from media hype, positional need, or just personality fit. At times, having a higher pick makes a team lazy when it comes to scouting. Instead of doing their due diligence and scouting overseas or looking at smaller universities, they get tunnel vision and stick to the blue-chip programs and March Madness highlights. Teams neglect looking outside the box. They conform and succumb to the outside pressure of needing to draft the names that everyone has already heard of.
From the years 2013-2017, the Top 10 draft picks in those drafts have produced a total of eight All-Stars. Those players are listed below.
NBA Draft: All-Stars Drafted in the Top 10
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos. | Nationality | Team | School |
| 2013 | 2 | Victor Oladipo | SG/PG |  United States | Orlando Magic | Indiana (Jr.) |
| 2014 | 3 | Joel Embiid | C |  Cameroon | Philadelphia 76ers | Kansas (Fr.) |
| 2015 | 1 | Karl-Anthony Towns | C |  Dominican Republic | Minnesota Timberwolves | Kentucky (Fr.) |
| 2015 | 2 | D’Angelo Russell | PG | United States | Los Angeles Lakers | Ohio State (Fr.) |
| 2015 | 4 | Kristaps Porzingis | PF |  Latvia | New York Knicks | Baloncesto Sevilla (Spain) |
| 2016 | 1 | Ben Simmons | PF |  Australia | Philadelphia 76ers | LSU (Fr.) |
| 2016 | 2 | Brandon Ingram | SF | United States | Los Angeles Lakers | Duke (Fr.) |
| 2017 | 3 | Jayson Tatum | SF | United States | Boston Celtics | Duke (Fr.) |
That list consists of mostly household names from players who attended prominent basketball schools. We expect the basketball factories like Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas to produce top talent. The only outside the box player in this list would be Kristaps Porzingis, who Knick fans booed relentlessly on draft night.
What’s most interesting from this list, is the fact that not a single All-Star came from the 5th-10th pick of the draft. The talent all of a sudden didn’t dry up after the fourth pick because there are plenty of All-Stars selected outside of the Top 10. So what happened? I argue it goes back to teams becoming complacent with their higher picks and not scouting properly. Seven of the eight All-Stars on this list are selected with a top-three draft pick. The chances of landing that franchise savior are significantly higher with a top-three draft pick, but as I said before it isn’t a requirement by any means.
From the years 2013-2017, there have also been exactly eight All-Stars drafted outside of the Top 10. Below I have listed the players.
NBA Draft: All-Stars Drafted Outside the Top 10
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos. | Nationality | Team | School |
| 2013 | 15 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | PF |  Greece | Milwaukee Bucks | Filathlitikos (Greece) |
| 2013 | 27 | Rudy Gobert | C |  France | Utah Jazz | Cholet Basket (France) |
| 2014 | 41 | Nikola Jokić | C |  Serbia | Denver Nuggets | Mega Vizura (Serbia) |
| 2015 | 13 | Devin Booker | SG | United States | Phoenix Suns | Kentucky (Fr.) |
| 2016 | 11 | Domantas Sabonis | PF |  Lithuania | Oklahoma City Thunder | Gonzaga (So.) |
| 2016 | 27 | Pascal Siakam | PF | Cameroon | Toronto Raptors | New Mexico State (So.) |
| 2017 | 13 | Donovan Mitchell | SG | United States | Utah Jazz | Louisville (So.) |
| 2017 | 27 | Bam Adebayo | PF/C | United States | Miami Heat | Kentucky (Fr.) |
All the teams drafting between the 5th-10th had every opportunity to select any of these eight players on this list. Players like Nikola Jokić even got passed up twice. When you read the list of schools, many of them are either overseas leagues or non-bluechip schools like New Mexico State.
You have Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, and Donovan Mitchell who did attend traditional college powerhouses but were still drafted out of the Top 10 because they didn’t have the same hype following them that their teammates had. You can excuse why Jokić, who was playing in Serbia where NBA teams don’t have the same type of easy access to him as they would have to say a Lonzo Ball. But NBA teams had the opportunity to watch the Bam and Mitchell but instead let still let them slip away. Also, it’s worth noting that seven out of eight players on this list are still on their original team compared to the top list where only four out of eight still are. You have a better chance at keeping your All-Star if you got him later in the draft.
Final Thoughts
I understand that the All-Star accolade is not the true benchmark of whether a player is good or not. I just wanted to use it as an easily digestible way to compare how talent is drafted. There are plenty of amazing players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Zach LaVine, and Malcolm Brogdon who haven’t made an All-Star team that were drafted outside of the Top 10. They only reinforce my argument. I know a lot of us are still giddy off the NBA Draft high. But please remember that even if your team didn’t get a Top 10 pick, they still might find themselves with a Top 10 talent.
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