NBA Draft 2021: Evaluating overall strengths and weaknesses of draft class

With the NBA Draft Combine set to take place next week in Chicago and the infamous ping-pong balls about to decide the fates of teams picking in the lottery, NBA Draft season is about to heat up. The 2021 draft class has been one of my favorites in the past few years, so here is a broad overview of some of the strengths and weaknesses of this group.

Strength: Talent 

In my eyes, this is a very strong draft class from top to bottom. It starts with Cade Cunningham, who’s certainly a deserving top prospect and is on par with some of the better ones in years past. But Evan Mobley is also an awesome prospect, who would likely go one in some other years. From there, the rest of the consensus top-five (Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga) is also impressive.

All five would have had a strong case to go No. 1 in last year’s draft. While the rest of the lottery is comparable to most other lotteries, I really like the depth in this class. The top-40 or so prospects have a good chance to stick in the right situations, and there are some intriguing players in the 50’s and 60’s.

Whether a team is looking to take an upside swing, a draft-and-stash, or a more ready now veteran, there are plenty of options. In last year’s never-ending draft cycle, I often came away less impressed with a prospect when doing a deep dive, but that is rarely the case this year.

The international group is pretty on par with recent international classes and isn’t really a strength or weakness. There’s been an average of three international players taken in the first round of the past four NBA drafts and this year, expect right around three to be picked in the first round. Josh Giddey, Usman Garuba, and Alperen Sengun seem like locks, while Roko Prkacin and Filip Petrusev (who played college ball at Gonzaga prior to a year overseas) both have a shot at landing in the first round.

Weakness: Experience

Overall, this is a pretty young group of players, stemming from a talented freshman class. On my board, the top 16 players are underclassmen, while I have just four upperclassmen in my top 30 and nine in my top 50.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as younger players tend to have more room to grow, but for good teams looking to improve right away, there isn’t a ton of experience.