Top 5 Best NBA Draft Classes Of The 21st Century. In the 21st century, the NBA drafted so many young talents with different strengths and styles of play — from a ball-handling maestro to a scoring virtuoso. Many great players rose to stardom but some were just plagued by injuries.

Today, we will rank the top 5 NBA Draft Class of the 21st century but we’ll exclude the 2017 and latter draft classes because some of them were not in their prime yet.

Top 5 Best NBA Draft Classes Of The 21st Century

5. 2001 Draft Class

Top Tier Players: Pau Gasol, and Tony Parker

Notable Players: Gilbert Arenas, Tyson Chandler, Joe Johnson, Mehmet Okur, Zach Randolph, and Gerald Wallace,

This group is good but not as great as the next 4 draft classes but it’s worth noting that two of its players were already locked in as future Hall of Famers, Pau Gasol (3rd overall) and Tony Parker (28th overall).

This group consists of 57 players and 24 of them played at least 10 NBA seasons. They accumulated a total of 11 championships: Tony Parker (4x), Pau Gasol(2x), Shane Battier (2x), Richard Jefferson (1x), Tyson Chandler (1x), Mehmet Okur (1x).

We ranked this class 5th on our list because it is filled with good role players. The only lackluster part of this group is the absence of a franchise player who can change the future of a team. The players that I mentioned above were all just cogs of their respective teams to win a championship while some were leaders of non-contending teams like Gilbert Arenas, and Joe Johnson.

4. 2008 Draft Class

Top Tier Players: Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, and Russell Westbrook

Notable Players: Ryan Anderson, Goran Dragic, Eric Gordon, Roy Hibbert, Serge Ibaka, Deandre Jordan, and Brook Lopez

There were 60 selections in the 2008 NBA draft and 3 of them became franchise cornerstones: Derrick Rose (1st overall, Chicago), Kevin Love (5th overall, Minnesota Timberwolves) and the most remarkable one is Russell Westbrook (4th overall. Seattle/Oklahoma).

Derrick Rose became the youngest player ever to win an MVP award but he failed to win or at least reach the NBA Finals because he was plagued by injuries. Kevin Love changed the status of the Minnesota Timberwolves from a non-playoff team to a playoff-contending team. He won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and is now in the twilight of his great career. Russell Westbrook is now in his prime being one of the two main men of the Houston Rockets. He won an MVP award in 2017 and is now competing for his championship along with James Harden.

The biggest highlight of this class is its incredible depth. Outside of the first 20 picks, there are many high-quality and decent role players who gave an impact on their respective teams. Some of them are Goran Dragic who became an all-star once and now a great back-up for his team, Roy Hibbert who became an all-star also and had a run as an exceptional defensive anchor, and Eric Gordon who won a sixth man of the year award and is still a threat because of his scoring capabilities.

3. 2011 Draft Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wbjWRnSsZE

Top Tier Players: Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Isaiah Thomas, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker

Notable Players: Nikola Vucevic

The 2011 Draft Class is full of talented players. This class has 60 selections and 6 of them became legitimate superstars. Maybe some of your favorite players are from this group.

The bad thing about this class is they drafted most of the best players of this class outside the top 10 and only Kyrie Irving (1st overall) and Kemba Walker (9th overall) are the only caliber players who drafted within. Most of them are merely average players who were mistakenly picked because of hype and some are dismantled by injuries.

The other great players like Klay Thompson have drafted 11 overall and Jimmy Butler on the 30th selection. Isaiah Thomas, who had a magnificent career with the Boston Celtics, was drafted as the last pick of the draft. This proves that the rankings can’t really tell whether a prospect will be a great player in the future or not

Undoubtedly, the greatest highlight of this class is Kawhi Leonard as he is now the greatest two-way player in this generation. He won two rings by leading the Spurs and the Raptors to the championship. He also won 2 Finals MVPs and a defensive player of the year award. If not because of his injury in the 2017 NBA playoffs, maybe they can beat or at least match the eventual champion Golden State Warriors that season.

2. 2009 Draft Class

Top Tier Players:  Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Blake Griffin, James Harden

Notable Players: Patrick Beverley, Danny Green, Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague

The 2009 NBA draft class was composed of some highly anticipated young prospects who have made a huge impact in the league. No one really expected that this class will produce a player that will change the pace of the game. For sure the teams who got high lottery picks, especially the Minnesota Timberwolves who had 5th and 6th overall, we’re really disappointed for passing Stephen Curry (7th, Golden State Warriors) in the draft. He’s arguably the greatest shooter of all time as he can shoot anywhere on the court.

This class is known as the class of the greatest guards as it produced the most skilled guards of this generation including Demar DeRozan (9th, Toronto Raptors), James Harden (3rd, Oklahoma City Thunder), and so on. Steph is a three-time NBA champion and two-time MVP while Harden also won an MVP award and a consistent championship contender. DeRozan also made a solid impact for the Raptors but later on, he was traded to San Antonio Spurs in exchange for dismantled superstar Kawhi Leonard.

Blake Griffin (1st, Los Angeles Clippers) became one of the franchise players of the Clippers team beside Chris Paul. Their tandem made the LAC called Lob City because of their unbelievable passing display. Jrue Holiday (17th, New Orleans Pelicans) and Jeff Teague (19th, Atlanta Hawks) both made a substantial part of their team being legitimate star players and a starter.

1. 2003 Draft Class

Top Tier Players:  Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade

Notable Players: Josh Howard, Chris Kaman, Kyle Korver, David West, Mo Williams

No doubt this is the best draft class not only in this century but since the legendary 1984 NBA Draft.  This is the year where LeBron James, the greatest player of this generation, was drafted. He was selected straight from High School and dominated the game ever since. Because of his superb physical gifts and durability along with his consistency, he’s now one of the greatest players of all time.

This draft is also the time where Carmelo Anthony (3rd overall, Denver Nuggets), Chris Bosh (4th, Toronto Raptors), and Dwyane Wade (5th, Miami Heat) were also drafted just after him. They were all NBA champions except Melo as he was stuck on the terrible franchise of New York Knicks after his impressive start with the Denver Nuggets.

It’s mind-boggling that 9 players from this class became all-star, two of them are second-rounders — Mo Williams (47th, Utah Jazz) and Kyle Korver (51st, New Jersey Nets).

Some other notable players are Chris Kaman (6th, Los Angeles Clippers), David West (18th, New Orleans Hornets), and Josh Howard (29th, Dallas Mavericks) who all became an all-star at least once in their career.