It's hard to believe that barely seven years have passed and already the 2003 NBA draft class looks like one of the best of all time. While this is largely due to the depth of the top five, we must not forget others such as David West, Mo Williams, Chris Kaman, Leandro Barbosa and Josh Howard.
Where are the Top Five now? How many points, assists and rebounds have they totaled? More importantly, with four out of the top five being quintessential "franchise players", what would have happened to Darko Milicic had the Pistons not had the Vancouver trade and some other lottery team had picked him?
In six and a half seasons, this is what the Top Five have statistically accomplished in the regular season:
Games Played (Minutes Played)
Lebron James: 539 (21,763)
Carmelo Anthony: 500 (18,202)
Chris Bosh: 498 (18,426)
Dwayne Wade: 458 (17,228)
Darko Milicic: 357 (6,127)
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For the Points, Rebounds, Assists I standardized everyone to 539 games (Lebron's Tally) and simply extrapolated the numbers based on the player's career average.
Points Rebounds Assists P+R+A
Lebron James: 14,997 3,794 3,734 22,525
Dwayne Wade: 13,678 2,618 3,577 19,873
Carmelo Anthony: 13,317 3,329 1,676 18,322
Chris Bosh: 10,835 5,060 1,182 16,627
Darko Milicic: 2,921 2,171 386 5,478
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The other two famous draft classes (1984 and 1996) had a Top Five of (Olajuwon, Bowie, Jordan, Perkins, Barkley) and (Iverson, Camby, Abdur-Rahim, Marbury, Allen). In terms of the first seven seasons, the only comparison is between '84 and '03. Bowie = Darko = Bust and Barkley = Bosh. The difference? Jordan had Six rings, Olajuwon had Two. Whereas only Dwayne has tasted championship success.
Still, it's scary to think where the four might end up statistically if each gets to play a full career (another 8-10 seasons). Sure shot Hall of Famers undoubtedly.
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