Yahoo Sports NBA contributor Tom Haberstroh takes a look at how the Lakers’ second round draft pick – selected 55th overall at this year’s draft – would beat the odds simply by playing more than a handful of games at the sport’s top level.
Video Transcript
I’m Tom Haberstroh.
And you’re watching the big number.
Today’s big number is seven.
That’s the media number of career games played by players drafted 55th through the 60th pick.
That’s something to keep in mind while we look at the Los Angeles Lakers selecting lebron james’, son, Ronnie James with the 55th pick in this year’s draft.
That’s right.
Seven games played total in their career.
Here are the facts from 1995 to 2020.
There have been 100 and 38 draftees selected between 55 and six, 45% of those players didn’t play a single game in the league.
Basically half the players in the brownie range never even made it in the NBA.
Yes.
Names like Manu Ginobli, Louis Scola and Isaiah Thomas have been picked that late in the draft, but those are extreme outliers like expecting every Davidson player will turn out to be Stephen Curry.
The median output of a 55th pick is seven games played.
The exact career of Grant Roller, the 56th pick in the 2020 draft who’s now playing in China.
Uh shouts to Grant Riler, by the way, giving Ronnie James, a guaranteed contract is one thing, but choosing him at 55th isn’t a stretch.
If Ronnie James even plays a dozen games next season, he’ll already have a longer career than expected in that range, as evidenced by that measly career games total of seven.
I’m Tom Haberstroh and that’s the big number.
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