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?

Samaki Walker 1996 NBA Draft suit
Samaki Walker with one of the goofiest/best NBA Draft Day suits in 1996

The Grass is Greenest Where you Water

Where Are They Now? 2013 NBA Draft before Giannis Antetokounmpo - Business  Insider
Giannis getting drafted 15th in the 2013 Draft.

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

YearPickPlayerPos.NationalityTeamSchool
20132Victor OladipoSG/PG United StatesOrlando MagicIndiana (Jr.)
20143Joel EmbiidC CameroonPhiladelphia 76ersKansas (Fr.)
20151Karl-Anthony TownsC Dominican RepublicMinnesota Timberwolves
Kentucky (Fr.)
20152D’Angelo RussellPG United StatesLos Angeles LakersOhio State (Fr.)
20154Kristaps PorzingisPF LatviaNew York KnicksBaloncesto Sevilla (Spain)
20161Ben SimmonsPF
 Australia
Philadelphia 76ers
LSU (Fr.)
20162Brandon IngramSF United StatesLos Angeles LakersDuke (Fr.)
20173Jayson TatumSF United StatesBoston Celtics Duke (Fr.)
The 5th-10th pick hasn’t produced a single All-Star from the 2013-2017 NBA Draft.

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

YearPickPlayerPos.NationalityTeamSchool
201315Giannis AntetokounmpoPF GreeceMilwaukee BucksFilathlitikos (Greece)
201327Rudy GobertC FranceUtah JazzCholet Basket (France)
201441Nikola JokićC SerbiaDenver Nuggets
Mega Vizura (Serbia)
201513Devin BookerSG United StatesPhoenix SunsKentucky (Fr.)
201611Domantas SabonisPF LithuaniaOklahoma City ThunderGonzaga (So.)
201627Pascal SiakamPF CameroonToronto RaptorsNew Mexico State (So.)
201713Donovan MitchellSG United StatesUtah JazzLouisville (So.)
201727Bam AdebayoPF/C United StatesMiami HeatKentucky (Fr.)
A chart of every All-Star selected in the Top 10 from the 2013-2017 NBA Draft.

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.

I hope you enjoyed this article and took something from it! When you have some time, go give my podcast “The Benchwarmers and Burners” some love! You can follow the show’s Twitter and if you want to check out other great content, go follow Belly Ups Hoops and Belly Up Podcast. I promise you won’t regret it! Don’t forget to check out the other fantastic articles on the site.

About Author

Josh Lozano

Nice to meet you! My name is Josh Lozano, I'm a journalist/radio host based out of Vegas. I graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies. The only thing I love more than sports is sports betting! I dabble in all forms of athletics, but my bread and butter consistent of handicapping the NBA (YTD: 62% - 34/54 free picks on Twitter for 2019-2020 season). I've been covering sports professionally since 2015 where I wrote articles for different local newspapers. I got my start in radio working with Louisiana broadcasting legend, Tim Fletcher at 1130 AM the Tiger. I've interned at Vegas Stats & Information Network, a sports betting oriented live radio and television broadcast located inside Southpoint Casino. I currently host a Sunday morning on KUNV HD2 show covering all sports nationally and regularly give out free sport betting picks.

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