2005 NBA Draft Top 5s
By Chad Ford
Send an Email to Chad Ford Friday, September 24


Now that the summer tournaments are over, it's time to do our first comprehensive update of our Top 5 rankings by postion.

After a record eight high school players went in the first round this year, there's a chance no prep reaches that level next year. Scouts are saying 2005 will be the worst high school class in recent history. The three preps with the best shot of making the jump this year are Louis Williams, Andray Blatche and Gerald Green. However, Green is the only guy scouts are really excited about at this point.

So what will be the theme of next year's draft? Call it the Revenge of the Euros. A stunning 28 international underclassmen pulled out of the 2004 draft, fearing the high school crop would push them out of the first round. That left a gaping hole in last year's draft but also brought a promise that this year's crop could look pretty good.

While there will be three dominant 18-year-olds looking for promises, the strength of next year's international class is with the 19- and 20-year-olds. Familiar names like Martynas Andriuskevicius, Kosta Perovic, Peja Samardziski, Johan Petro and Tiago Splitter likely will be in again next year. They'll be joined by new and highly touted prospects like Nemanja Aleksandrov, Rudy Fernandez and possibly Oleksiy Pecherov.

The college crop is just so-so. There are a few top underclassmen prospects like Chris Paul (Wake Forest), Chris Taft (Pittsburgh), Marvin Williams (North Carolina) Rudy Gay (UConn) and Raymond Felton (North Carolina). But like this year, only a handful of the best prospects will be college seniors. Hakim Warrick (Syracuse), Joey Graham (Oklahoma State), Danny Granger (New Mexico State), Julius Hodge (North Carolina State), Ronny Turiaf (Gonzaga) and Wayne Simien (Kansas) are the only seniors who seem to have a great shot at the first round at this point.

The consensus top five? Chris Paul, Chris Taft, Marvin Williams, Rudy Gay and Martynas Andriuskevicus have the most buzz right now.

Today Insider give you our first updates ranking of 2005 NBA draft prospects by position.

Top 5: PG | SG | SF | PF | C

TOP 5 POINT GUARDS
Rank Name Ht, Wt - Age School/Country
1. Chris Paul 6-1, 195 lbs - 19 yrs Wake Forest
2. Raymond Felton 6-0, 180 lbs - 20 yrs North Carolina
3. Jarrett Jack 6-3, 185 lbs - 20 yrs Georgia Tech
4. Mustafa Shakur 6-3, 185 lbs - 19 yrs Arizona
5. Roko Leni Ukic 6-5, 185 lbs - 20 yrs Croatia


Others to watch: John Gilchrist, Maryland; Deron Williams, Illinois; Jordan Farmar, UCLA; Darius Washington, Memphis; Churchill Odia, Xavier; Ronnie Brewer, Arkansas; Chris Thomas, Notre Dame; Bracey Wright, Indiana; Travis Diener, Marquette; Anthony Roberson, Florida; Dee Brown, Illinois; Shannon Brown, Michigan State; Tim Smith, East Tennessee State; Juan Jose Barea, Northeastern; Rajon Rondo, Kentucky; Uros Tripkovic, Serbia; George Tsintsadze, Russia; Sergio Rodriguez, Spain; Cenk Akyol, Turkey; Ivan Koljevic, Serbia; Marcelo Huertas, Brazil.

TOP 5 SHOOTING GUARDS
Rank Name Ht, Wt - Age School/Country
1. Rudy Fernandez 6-5, 200 lbs - 19 yrs Spain
2. J.R. Giddens 6-5, 200 lbs - 19 yrs Kansas
3. Rashad McCants 6-4, 212 lbs - 21 yrs North Carolina
4. Francisco Garcia 6-7, 208 lbs - 20 yrs Louisville
5. Julius Hodge 6-6, 195 lbs - 21 yrs North Carolina State


Others to watch: ; Antoine Wright; Gerald Green, HS Senior; Hassan Adams, Arizona; Louis Williams, HS Senior; Brandon Rush, HS; Rashad Anderson, UConn; Malik Hariston, Oregon; Juwan McClellan, Arizona; Kelenna Azubuike, Kentucky; James White, Cincinnati; Nate Robinson, Washington;Matt Walsh, Florida; Marko Belinelli, Italy; Vasily Zavoruev, Russia; Marko Tomas, Croatia; Manuchar Markoishvili, Benetton (Italy); Marcus Vieira de Souza, Brazil.; Mickaël Gelebale, France

TOP 5 SMALL FORWARDS
Rank Name Ht, Wt - Age School/Country
1. Marvin Williams 6-9, 230 lbs - 18 yrs North Carolina
2. Rudy Gay 6-9, 218 lbs - 18 yrs UConn
3. Nemanja Aleksandrov 7-0, 225 lbs - 18 yrs Serbia
4. Sean Banks 6-8, 212 lbs - 19 yrs Memphis
5. Joey Graham 6-7, 220 lbs - 21 yrs Oklahoma State


Others to watch: Danny Granger, New Mexico; Kennedy Winston, Alabama; Luka Bodganovic, Serbia; Damir Omerhodzic, Croatia; Ryan Gomes, Providence; Jawad Williams, North Carolina; Regis Koundjia, LSU; Ersan Ilyasova, Turkey; Damjan Rudez, Croatia; Ricky Sanchez, Puerto Rico; Vladimir Veremeenko, Belarus; Ivan Chiriaev, Russia; Zhu Fangyu, China; Dusan Sakota, Greece.

TOP 5 POWER FORWARDS
Rank Name Ht, Wt - Age School/Country
1. Chris Taft 6-10, 250 lbs - 19 yrs Pittsburgh
2. Martynas Andriuskevicius 7-3, 230 lbs - 19 yrs Lithuania
3. LaMarcus Aldridge 6-11, 220 lbs - 18 yrs Texas
4. Oleksiy Pecherov 6-11, 220 lbs - 18 yrs Ukraine
5. Ronny Turiaf 6-10, 240 lbs - 21 yrs Gonzaga



Others to watch: Hakim Warrick, Syracuse; Wayne Simien, Kansas; Sean May, UNC; Andray Blatche, HS Senior; Charlie Villanueva, UConn; Andrew Bogut, Utah; Tiago Splitter, Brazil; Paul Davis, Michigan State;Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State; Torin Francis, Notre Dame; David Lee, Florida; Brandon Bass, LSU; Shelden Williams, Duke; Leon Powe, Cal; Ike Diogu, Arizona State; Craig Smith, Boston College; Taylor Coppenrath, Vermont; Uros Slokar, Slovenia; Miguel Marriaga, Venezula; Diego Brezzo, Argentina; Linas Kleiza, Missouri; Drago Pasalic, Croatia; Erazem Lorbek, Skipper Bologna (Italy); Andrea Bargnani, Italy; Fran Vasquez, Spain.

TOP 5 CENTERS
Rank Name Ht, Wt - Age School/Country
1. Peja Samardziski 7-0, 250 lbs - 19 yrs Serbia
2. Kosta Perovic 7-2, 240 lbs - 20 yrs Serbia
3. Randolph Morris 7-0, 266 lbs - 18 yrs Kentucky
4. Johan Petro 7-1, 250lbs - 19 yrs France
5. Luke Schenscher 7-0, 230 lbs - 21 yrs Georgia Tech


Others to watch: Marcin Gortat, Poland; Josh Boone, UConn; Mile Ilic, Serbia; Channing Frye, Arizona; Martin Iti, Charlotte; Matt Nelson, Colorado State; Ante Tomic, Croatia; Tan Zhendon, China; Edu Hernandez, Real Madrid (Spain); Ioannis Bourousis, AEK (Greece); Dimitri Soklov, Russia; Pavel Mroz, Poland; Rob Rothbart; France.

Who are the NBA's top ballhogs? We name 10
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Friday, September 24
Updated: September 24
1:04 PM ET


"Ballhog" is such an ugly word.

I mean, what was Paul Pierce really supposed to do after the Celtic front office pulled the rug out from under him? Let Marcus Banks dribble the whole time while Jiri Welsch shot the ball?

Of course not. But if you combine shots per game, assists per game and turnovers per game, you'll see that Pierce ranked among the league leaders whether it was his fault or not. Sure, if the NBA had some statistic for dribbling or individual time of possession, we would use those, too, to help determine which players were holding the ball the most often, but this is what we're left with.

And it doesn't change the fact that with the ball in his possession, Pierce either shot the ball 18.7 times per game, passed to a teammate which led to a bucket 5.1 times per game or turned the ball over 3.7 times per game.

If the Celtics were going to score, Pierce often had to grab the rebound, do most of the dribbling -- and shoot. That accounted for 27.5 impact possessions per game which would place him 7th on the list below of, for lack of a better term, ballhogs.

The negative connotation comes from the fact that while Pierce was compiling those 27.5 possessions in a series of dribbles, pump fakes and stutter steps, he scored 23 points per game. By comparison, Tim Duncan, who operates within a rigid offensive system with role players and a true point guard, scores 22.3 points per game while compiling only 22.8 such impact possessions.

Simply, Duncan requires less time with the ball to score.

But that comes as no surprise and neither should the fact that other high scoring players don't require a lot of ball time, either.

Peja Stojakovic, perhaps the best shooter in the game today, was the second highest scorer in the NBA last year at 24.2 points per game but had only 21 impact possessions per game. He comes off a lot of screens and had more than willing teammates who would pass him the ball for many catch and shoot opportunities.

Shaquille O'Neal, who used the first half of each possession grinding his way into position in the paint and the second half trying to pry the ball away from Kobe Bryant, averaged only 19.9 impact possessions per game.

Dirk Nowitzki, another catch and shoot guy who also benefitted from the Mavericks' up tempo style, averaged only 21.4 impact possessions per game while scoring 21.8 points per game.

Here's a list of guys who weren't so good at it last year.

1. Allen Iverson, Sixers
Stats: 34.5 possessions per game (23.4 shots, 6.8 assists, 4.3 turnovers)
Skinny: Has long been the poster boy for this type of statistic, even injured, with a new coach and rotating teammates.

2. Baron Davis, Hornets
Stats: 31.6 possession per game (20.4 shots, 7.5 assists, 3.2 turnovers)
Skinny: Reportedly, he's unhappy with the current Hornets' roster and might want out. Suitors should be wary. Once a player takes 582 three-pointers in 67 games while shooting 32 percent, it's hard to turn back.

3. Tracy McGrady, Rockets
Stats: 31.4 possessions per game (23.3 shots, 5.5 assists, 2.6 turnovers)
Skinny: He begged for the spotlight in Toronto and, after finally getting it in Orlando, he couldn't wait to fall under Yao Ming's shadow in Houston. Could very well be the most important individual adjustment in the NBA this year.

4. Stephon Marbury, Knicks
Stats: 29 possessions per game (17.1 shots, 8.9 assists, 3 turnovers)
Skinny: Empirical evidence that the US National Team didn't have a single true point guard in Greece.

5. LeBron James, Cavaliers
Stats: 28.1 possessions per game (18.8 shots, 5.9 assists, 3.4 turnovers)
Skinny: Had plenty of opportunities for B-roll for all of those commercials.

6. Vince Carter, Raptors
Stats: 27.7 possessions per game (19.9 shots, 4.8 assists, 3 turnovers)
Skinny: The salt here is that the Raptors were, by far, the worst scoring team in the NBA at 85.4 points per game and 41 percent shooting.

7. Paul Pierce, Celtics
Stats: 27.5 possessions per game (18.7 shots, 5.1 assists, 3.7 turnovers)
Skinny: See above.

8. Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves
Stats: 27.1 possessions per game (19.6 shots, 5 assists, 2.5 turnovers)
Skinny: No one on this list had fewer turnovers, not to mention the fact that he shot 50 percent from the field last year. You can call him a ballhog but you'd also have to call him the MVP.

9. Jason Kidd, Nets
Stats: 26.6 possession per game (14.3 shots, 9.2 assists, 3.1 turnovers)
Skinny: You don't lead the league in assists every year without being in complete control of the offense. It's just too bad this 38 percent shooter actually had to shoot the ball to keep defenses honest.

10. Kobe Bryant, Lakers
Stats: 25.8 possessions per game (18.1 shots, 5.1 assists, 2.6 turnovers)
Skinny: Somehow shoots a relatively decent percentage for the number of points he puts up and his assists numbers are admirable. But let's hold off on judgement until the Lakers become his exclusively in two weeks and all of his demons come to bear.

marbury too