2021 NBA Draft Grades & Team Rankings, from 1 to 30
It’s not just who you pick but also who you didn’t, how you got there, and how it sets your team up for the future.
THE 2021 NBA DRAFT IS IN THE BOOKS, so it’s time to look back and process everything. It was a wild night, and though the first three picks went as expected, everything after that was unpredictable. Scottie Barnes was the surprise pick at 4 over Jalen Suggs. Josh Giddey made it all the way to 6. Josh Primo was one of the more shocking recent lottery picks at 12. We had a clear top tier, and everything after that was wild and crazy.
And now, we process it all and give out draft grades.
Draft grades are a silly concept, but we love them anyway. It’s too early to have any idea if these players will be good and insane to pretend we know how they’ll develop. We aren’t privy to interviews or injury red flags. Too often, “draft grades” end up as a second draft board. I like this guy, good grade, don’t like that one, bad grade. There’s no real point. It’s intellectually dishonest, and there’s little consideration of the process. The “winners” are always the teams with the best picks, because they had the most draft capital and took the “best” prospects. It’s a pointless process.
