What happened to the number 1 ranked PF recruit from 2010-2015?

2010: Jared Sullinger PF Columbus Ohio. 4th ranked national, 1st best PF, 1st best in the state of Ohio. Played 2 seasons at Ohio State (2010-2012). 1st round pick in 2012 NBA Draft (21st overall) by the Boston Celtics. 5 years in the NBA (4 with Celtics, 1 with Raptors). 172 games started (269 games played) out of 410. Averaged 10.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg, and 1.8 apg. Played overseas in China from 2017-2019. Currently a free agent, doesn’t play for any team.

2011: Anthony Davis PF Chicago, Illinois. 1st ranked national, 1st best PF, 1st best in the state of Illinois. Played 1 season at Kentucky (2011-2012), won NCAA Championship (2012 with Kentucky). 1st round pick in 2012 NBA Draft (1st overall) by the New Orleans Pelicans. 8+ years in the NBA (7 with Pelicans, 2 with Lakers). 546 games started (551 games played) out of 656+. 8x All Star (every year except Rookie Year), 2016-2017 All-Star game MVP, 4x All-NBA, 4x All-Defensive, 3x Block Champion, 2020 NBA Champion (with the Lakers). Averages 23.9 ppg, 10.3 rpg, and 2.3 apg. Currently starting PF for the Los Angeles Lakers, but currently injured with an Achilles injury.

Source: 247sports.com

2012: Nerlens Noel PF Tilton, New Hampshire. 1st ranked national, 1st best PF, 1st best in the state of New Hampshire. Played 1 season at Kentucky (2012-2013). 1st round pick in 2013 NBA Draft (6th overall) by the New Orleans Pelicans. 6+ years in the NBA (3 with 76ers, 2 with Thunder, 2 with Mavericks, 1 with Knicks). 195 games started (412 games played) out of 492+. Averages 7.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg, and 1.1 apg. Currently starting center for the New York Knicks.

2013: Julius Randle PF Dallas, Texas. 2nd ranked national, 1st best PF, 1st best in the state of Texas. Played 1 season at Kentucky (2013-2014). 1st round pick in 2014 NBA Draft (7th overall) by the Los Angeles Lakers. 6+ years in NBA (4 with Lakers, 2 with Knicks, 1 with Pelicans). 352 games started (432 games played) out of 492+. 1x All-Star (2021). Averages 17.1 ppg, 9.2 rpg, and 3.2 apg. Currently starting PF for the New York Knicks.

2014: Cliff Alexander PF Chicago, Illinois. 4th ranked national, 1st best PF, 2nd best in the state of Illinois. Played 1 season at Kansas (2014-2015). Undrafted in 2015. 1 year in NBA (1 with Trail Blazers). 0 games started (8 games played) out of 82. Averaged 1.3 ppg, 0.8 rpg, and 0.0 apg. Currently plays overseas for the Busan KT Sonicboom in Korea.

2015: Cheick Diallo PF Centereach, New York. 5th ranked national, 1st best PF, 1st best in the state of New York. Played 1 season at Kansas (2015-2016). 2nd round pick in 2016 NBA Draft (33rd overall) by the Los Angeles Clippers. 4 years in NBA (3 with Pelicans, 1 with Suns). 3 games started (180 games played) out of 328. Averaged 5.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and 0.4 apg. Currently plays overseas for the Avtodor Saratov in Russia.

From 2010-2015:

Drafted in NBA Draft (5): Cheick Diallo, Julius Randle, Nerlens Noel, Anthony Davis, and Jared Sullinger

Played in the NBA (6): Cliff Alexander, Cheick Diallo, Julius Randle, Nerlens Noel, Anthony Davis, and Jared Sullinger

Made an NBA All-Star team (2): Anthony Davis 8x and Julius Randle 1x

Currently on NBA Roster (3): Anthony Davis, Nerlens Noel, and Julius Randle

Currently playing overseas (2): Cliff Alexander and Cheick Diallo

Won NCAA Championship (1): Anthony Davis

Won NBA Championship (1): Anthony Davis

The top PF prospects from 2010-2015 are pretty accomplished in their post-college careers. Anthony Davis is considered one of the top players in the league today. Julius Randle has taken the league by storm as he might be leading the Knicks to a playoff berth this season. 3/6 of the top PF prospects played for Kentucky and 2/6 played for Kansas. Julius Randle and Nerlens Noel both start for the Knicks and Anthony Davis starts for the Lakers (when healthy). Only 50% of the top PF prospects from 2010-2015 are currently on NBA rosters, which is why the PF class from those years is not top tier, but definitely not a bad class because of Davis and Randle.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: