What are the best draft classes in each MLB, NFL, NBA, and which is best draft class ever in all?

1948_Swell_Robinson

I was curious to see what is the best statistical draft class ever in each sport, and ultimately the best draft class ever in ALL the sports. I limited it to the top ten contributors in each draft class so as to weight the top of the class more heavily, while also going down a little bit to get some depth. Not every sport has the same draft dynamics, so 10 spots seemed to be a good number to nail down the impact of each draft class.

I also used each sport's current all inclusive method to evaluate players; Weighted career value for NFL, WinShares for basketball and WAR for baseball. Each stat has its limitations, but each also does a decent enough job in giving value to each aspect of the game, and for each positions' contributions to their respective sport.

Keep in mind that MLB didn't start their draft until 1969, and the NFL and NBA had small draft classes prior to 1969 as well, so basically it boiled down to the years from 1969 to present, although the last ten years won't show for another ten years.

Here are the top three statistical drafts in MLB history with the player and their WAR listed:

1985
Bonds 162
Randy Johnson 101
Palmeiro 72
Larkin 71
Smoltz 69
C. Finley 58
Will Clark 56
Grace 46
Justice 40
Surhoff 35
TOTAL WAR 710

1989
Bagwell 80
F. Thomas 74
Thome 73
Olderud 58
Kent 56
Giles 51
Knoblauch 45
Salmon 41
HOffman 28
Vaughn 27
Total WAR 533

1971
Schmidt 106
Brett 88
K. Hernandez 60
Tanana 57
Guidry 48
Rice 47
Rhoden 35
Flanagan 25
Mumphrey 22
Cromartie 16
Total WAR 504

NBA and their WinShares:

1984
Jordan 214
Stockton 207
Barkley 177
Olajuwon 162
Thorpe 106
Perkins 105
Willis 82
Cage 75
Kersey 69
RObertson 52
Total 1,249

1996
Kobe 172
Allen 145
Nash 129
Iverson 99
Stojakovic 83
Camby 81
Marbury 78
Rahim 71
Ilgauskas 66
O'Neal 66
Total 990

2003
Lebron 250
Wade 120
Melo 108
Bosh 106
West 86
Karver 73
Pachulla 52
Hinrich 52
Diaw 51
Collison 45
Total 943

NFL and Appx weighted career value:

1983
Marino 145
Elway 140
Matthews 138
Kelly 103
Green 103
Dent 98
Ellard 97
Craig 95
Mcklenburg 93
Dickerson 92
Total 1,104

1985
Rice 160
Bruce Smith 152 *fixed
Doleman 114
Cunningham 109
Reed 98
L. Brown 97
Greene 93
Childress 90
Herschel 78
Lachey 77
Total 1,068

2001
Brees 167
LT 129
Wayne 116
S. Smith 102
J. Smith 101
Hutchinson 94
Vick 92
Seymour 91
Light 89
C. Johnson 85
Total 1,066.

Which class do you think is the best in each sport and the best overall in all the sports?? How does the statistical ranking change when you add awards won, HOF players(and possible future HOF players still to come), overall impact on their sports and the american sports landscape?

Tabe

I dunno about an entire sport but the single best draft by any team ever is the 1989 Detroit Red Wings. In the same draft, they got:

Nicklas Lidstrom - the best defenseman of the last 50 years (sorry Ray Bourque fans) - HOF
Serge Fedorov - HOF
Vladimir Konstantinov - even better than Lidstrom, career cut short by injury but HOF-level
Dallas Drake - 1000+ NHL games (most outside of Detroit - used as trade bait)
Mike Sillinger - 1000+ NHL games
Bob Bougner - 600+ NHL games (none with Detroit though)

spacehayduke

84 NBA, it had Jordan in it, all that matters. HST 84 was a spectacular group.

thisistheshow

Sorry, maybe a dumb question.. Who is Moss in 85?

I like the way you set this up @1948_Swell_Robinson

thisistheshow

That top four in the NBA 84 is quite formidable.

1948_Swell_Robinson

@thisistheshow said:
Sorry, maybe a dumb question.. Who is Moss in 85?

I like the way you set this up @1948_Swell_Robinson

Supposed to be Bruce Smith. My brain must have had Randy Moss stuck in my head when I was looking at his draft class, and I typed him in lol.

erikthredd

Its hard to find a better NBA draft than in 1984.
Seven league MVP's (Jordan 5,Hakeem,1,Barkley 1)
Eight Finals MVP's (Jordan 6,Hakeem 2)
Four DPOY's (Alvin Robertson 1,Jordan 1,Hakeem 2)
All Time Assist Leader (Stockton)

1948_Swell_Robinson

@thisistheshow said:
That top four in the NBA 84 is quite formidable.

Has the best elite star power with '83 FB right there.

I was surprised to see that statistically the 1985 Baseball draft was the best. It dwarfed the second and third place totals in its sport by a bigger percentage than the 1984 NBA did to its second and third place competitors.

1983 Football class has seven HOFers for the most.

1948_Swell_Robinson

@erikthredd said:
Its hard to find a better NBA draft than in 1984.
Seven league MVP's (Jordan 5,Hakeem,1,Barkley 1)
Eight Finals MVP's (Jordan 6,Hakeem 2)
Four DPOY's (Alvin Robertson 1,Jordan 1,Hakeem 2)
All Time Assist Leader (Stockton)

I was going to add all those breakdowns into it, but wanted to see how others viewed it.

In your same line of thinking I keep circling back to 1985 baseball class and they are loaded with total MVP and Cy Young awards too. Bonds is divisive though.