The history of top 5 picks in the NBA Draft: Legends, All-Stars, and busts

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The history of top 5 picks in the NBA Draft: 1976-1985

Going all the way back to the beginning of the modern era shows exactly how misguided some of the expectations of a top-five pick can be. None of the 10 groupings saw the league go five for five in terms of future All-Stars or better. One of the classes (1976) actually yielded zero players who would go on to earn any such accolades.

This decade was not without hits. Of the 50 players selected in the various top fives, 11 of them eventually made it into the Hall of Fame.

Magic Johnson is sixth all-time in assists. Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time. Kevin McHale, Isiah Thomas, and more fill out the list of some of the forebearers for future stars.

Be that as it may, the group over the course of their career would average just 15.05 points, 6.14 assists, and 2.89 rebounds per game.

For as many all-time great players as there were in these classes, misses do indeed happen. Of the 60 players, 12 of them would play less than 500 games in their career. Doug McDermott has already eclipsed that many games in his career.

Some would argue that perhaps this is because this was before the dawn of what many would consider the golden age of the 1990s, so perhaps the next decade will be kinder to the analysis.

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