Now that the draft is over — in a frankly, quite surprising, ten days — we can run some numbers. First up, let’s look at how many players were paid at each tier of ten dollars. I think the distribution won’t surprise anyone but we’ll try to tease some insights out of these numbers just the same.
The top fifteen players encompassed anyone that was bought at $90 or more. That list starts with Giannis Antetokounmpo and ends with Paul George. Those fifteen represent 3.85% of all players drafted.
Move down another tier to the $80+ guys and we get another 3.33% of the league, aka thirteen players, from Kawhi Leonard to De’Aaron Fox at the bottom end of eighty dollars.
Anyone over $70+ could be considered in the top ten percent of players. That’s barely touching the top forty players though, as Marvin Bagley and Buddy Hield were both bought at that number and were the 37th and 38th highest priced players, respectively.
If you paid for anyone over $40+, you can congratulate yourself on getting one of the top twenty percent of players -- roughly a top seventy-five guy. Of course, the names down here are not that outstanding, as we’re looking at Lonzo Ball, Hassan Whiteside, and Derrick Favors at the bottom range.
To get someone on the All-Star or potential All-Star level, you had to pay $60+ and get into D’Angelo Russell, Zach LaVine, and Jayson Tatum territory. Dropping down to $50 becomes a more mixed bag but the $50 and $60 tiers were roughly similar. That $50-60 range was twenty-five players, or roughly six percent of the league.
How many $1 players were there? Sixty-two of them, making up fifteen percent of our league. Anyone from Marcos Louzada Silva to Mr. Irrelevant, Duncan Robinson. For a dollar more, you could have upgraded to a Pat Connaughton or Trevor Ariza. And for $3 or $4, you could've scooped up a Jeff Green or Allonzo Trier.
Theoretically, the top one hundred and fifty players should be enough to fill out the starting five of each of our thirty teams. At the price of $20 per player, that would field an exactly even starting lineup. If you had gone that route, your team could have looked like (pick five): Andrew Wiggins, Joe Ingles, Jeff Teague, Bruno Fernando, Taurean Prince, Kevin Knox, Dario Saric, or Thaddeus Young.
And if you wanted to spend an even amount of the $300 on your entire lineup — $23 per player — that would have been the most equitable strategy possible. That thirteen deep would have been Dennis Schroder, Justise Winslow, Josh Okogie, Dennis Smith Jr., Jeremy Lamb, Tyler Herro, Robert Williams, Dwight Powell, Malik Monk, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and then Wiggins, Ingles, Teague. Is that a championship contender?
What we’re suggesting here then is this:
• LAL is made up of a near All-Star in Bam Adebayo ($70), one rising star and role player in Jonathan Isaac ($47), two fourth options in Spencer Dinwiddie and rookie De’Andre Hunter, and then four role player reserves in Tomas Satoransky, Alex Len, Robert Williams, and Jeff Teague. LAL also goes nine deep with $10+ guys, which is some nice depth.
• Or how about NOP, who has $88 invested in Kawhi Leonard, which is right around superstar status, plus a low end All-Star in D’Angelo Russell ($61). Eric Bledsoe is the third cog here and he serves as a great starter but won’t ever likely be considered star status. Danny Green is the $31 fourth option the Lakers, and Taurean Prince and his $20 is likely a role player and spot starter while Kelly Olynyk ($10) is a just a solid reserve. NOP also boasts five players in the $5-9 range, which gives them some variable but undependable depth.
• Last one. ORL is paying Andre Drummond as their cornerstone at $89, Clint Capela and Montrezl Harrell as high end starters and almost All-Stars with their $50+ each. And then Miles Bridges ($33) as a fourth option on their team, with Kyle Anderson and Jaylen Brown being paid mid-$20s for their NBA starter quality contributions. ORL then goes a total of a total of eight deep on useable pieces, ending with Norman Powell at $4.
Oh yeah, that is $196 invested in three centers, for an average of $65 per center. That even beats out MEM’s average of $52 for their five centers. If you need a lower end All-Star type pivot, you know who to call...
The top fifteen players encompassed anyone that was bought at $90 or more. That list starts with Giannis Antetokounmpo and ends with Paul George. Those fifteen represent 3.85% of all players drafted.
Move down another tier to the $80+ guys and we get another 3.33% of the league, aka thirteen players, from Kawhi Leonard to De’Aaron Fox at the bottom end of eighty dollars.
Anyone over $70+ could be considered in the top ten percent of players. That’s barely touching the top forty players though, as Marvin Bagley and Buddy Hield were both bought at that number and were the 37th and 38th highest priced players, respectively.
If you paid for anyone over $40+, you can congratulate yourself on getting one of the top twenty percent of players -- roughly a top seventy-five guy. Of course, the names down here are not that outstanding, as we’re looking at Lonzo Ball, Hassan Whiteside, and Derrick Favors at the bottom range.
To get someone on the All-Star or potential All-Star level, you had to pay $60+ and get into D’Angelo Russell, Zach LaVine, and Jayson Tatum territory. Dropping down to $50 becomes a more mixed bag but the $50 and $60 tiers were roughly similar. That $50-60 range was twenty-five players, or roughly six percent of the league.
Interestingly, the top half of all players draft — 195 out of 390 players — came in at exactly at the cut off for $10. That meant if you paid double digits for someone, they were about a top two-hundred selection and better than half the other guys around. Congrats to Zhaire Smith, Derrick Rose, and Tim Hardaway Jr.!
That top half of our players received $8,277 of the total $9,000 available league wide, or a whopping ninety-two percent. Dialing even further down, the top ten percent of players — the top forty players drafted — took home $3,526, or about forty percent of the money. Income disparity is tough isn’t it?Dropping down to the $5 to $10 range, there were about a hundred players drafted. $9 would net a bubble starter such as Tyus Jones, Harry Giles, Josh Jackson, or Reggie Bullock, but would mostly leave you looking at an off-the-bench guy. At five dollars we’re looking strictly at wild shots like Alen Smailagic, Stanley Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, and um, DeMarcus Cousins.
How many $1 players were there? Sixty-two of them, making up fifteen percent of our league. Anyone from Marcos Louzada Silva to Mr. Irrelevant, Duncan Robinson. For a dollar more, you could have upgraded to a Pat Connaughton or Trevor Ariza. And for $3 or $4, you could've scooped up a Jeff Green or Allonzo Trier.
Theoretically, the top one hundred and fifty players should be enough to fill out the starting five of each of our thirty teams. At the price of $20 per player, that would field an exactly even starting lineup. If you had gone that route, your team could have looked like (pick five): Andrew Wiggins, Joe Ingles, Jeff Teague, Bruno Fernando, Taurean Prince, Kevin Knox, Dario Saric, or Thaddeus Young.
And if you wanted to spend an even amount of the $300 on your entire lineup — $23 per player — that would have been the most equitable strategy possible. That thirteen deep would have been Dennis Schroder, Justise Winslow, Josh Okogie, Dennis Smith Jr., Jeremy Lamb, Tyler Herro, Robert Williams, Dwight Powell, Malik Monk, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and then Wiggins, Ingles, Teague. Is that a championship contender?
What we’re suggesting here then is this:
- $90+ nets you a superstar, a true franchise cornerstone. (15 players)
- $80+ would be close to a superstar but more of a secondary star type. (13)
- $60 to $70 is about All-Star if not All-NBA level (18)
- $40 to $50 is high end starter and near All-Stars but not quite (31)
- $30 is probably the third or fourth option on their team (30)
- $20 is a likely starter, but definitely role player (42)
- $10 is looking like a solid reserve (46)
- $5 to $9 will get you someone who probably gets minutes but could be all over the place in terms of production and potential (62)
- Any lower than $5 and you’re out of the top two hundred players… (133)
• LAL is made up of a near All-Star in Bam Adebayo ($70), one rising star and role player in Jonathan Isaac ($47), two fourth options in Spencer Dinwiddie and rookie De’Andre Hunter, and then four role player reserves in Tomas Satoransky, Alex Len, Robert Williams, and Jeff Teague. LAL also goes nine deep with $10+ guys, which is some nice depth.
• Or how about NOP, who has $88 invested in Kawhi Leonard, which is right around superstar status, plus a low end All-Star in D’Angelo Russell ($61). Eric Bledsoe is the third cog here and he serves as a great starter but won’t ever likely be considered star status. Danny Green is the $31 fourth option the Lakers, and Taurean Prince and his $20 is likely a role player and spot starter while Kelly Olynyk ($10) is a just a solid reserve. NOP also boasts five players in the $5-9 range, which gives them some variable but undependable depth.
• Last one. ORL is paying Andre Drummond as their cornerstone at $89, Clint Capela and Montrezl Harrell as high end starters and almost All-Stars with their $50+ each. And then Miles Bridges ($33) as a fourth option on their team, with Kyle Anderson and Jaylen Brown being paid mid-$20s for their NBA starter quality contributions. ORL then goes a total of a total of eight deep on useable pieces, ending with Norman Powell at $4.
Oh yeah, that is $196 invested in three centers, for an average of $65 per center. That even beats out MEM’s average of $52 for their five centers. If you need a lower end All-Star type pivot, you know who to call...