Originally Posted by
CDu
Duval wasn't in the same tier as Banchero. Banchero is a top-2 guy. Duval was in the next tier (he was 5th in his class). And Duval was still pretty darn good. But that next tier offers a bit more risk, at least as freshmen. Guys like Tre Jones (for example) wasn't uber-elite as a freshman either. It's the top-3 where we've not really missed in the era of the one-and-dones. The only miss was Reddish, and some of that was perhaps a function of being pushed out of his preferred role by Barrett and Williamson. But other than that, it's Irving, Rivers, Parker, Okafor, Tatum, Bagley, and Barrett. That's a phenomenal hit rate. If you expand to the next tier (#4-8ish), you add Carey, Williamson, Tatum, Ingram, Carter, and Tyus Jones, with just the one additional sort-of miss with Duval.