[Plonnikas]

1. Houston

Actual Pick: Yao Ming
ESPN Pick: Amare Stoudemire

If you want to know why NBA execs keep picking so many high schoolers, just check out these lists. Stoudemire, LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett ended up being the best players in their draft class. Rashard Lewis, Jermaine O'Neal, Al Jefferson and Josh Smith all rank very high as well, and none were lottery picks. Stoudemire was a shaky Rookie of the Year choice over Yao in 2002-03, but since then has cemented his status as the 2002 Draft's best player with a 26.0 point per game eruption in '04-05.

2. Chicago

Actual Pick: Jay Williams
ESPN Pick: Yao Ming

The top overall pick has lived up to his billing, more or less, making the All-Star team each season while providing some of the most bizarre interview translations in NBA history. He's taken some unfair criticism for not becoming a top-tier superstar, but the question is whether he's hit his ceiling yet – figuratively, that is, not literally.

3. Golden State

Actual Pick: Mike Dunleavy
ESPN Pick: Carlos Boozer

The 35th overall pick by Cleveland, Boozer turned out quite a bit better than the Cavs' first-round choice (Dajuan Wagner at No. 6). He's shooting 52.6 percent for his brief career while averaging nearly a double-double, which is almost enough to make us forget about that whole bait-and-switch deal he did on Cleveland.

4. Memphis

Actual Pick: Drew Gooden
ESPN Pick: Tayshaun Prince

Prince's statistical output doesn't match Drew Gooden's, but that doesn't take into account his defense … or Gooden's. Prince is one of the best defensive players in basketball, while Gooden often loses interest at that end of the floor. Thus, Prince's D makes him the fourth-best player in this draft – a steal considering Detroit picked him 23rd.

5. Denver

Actual Pick: Nikoloz Tskitishvili
ESPN Pick: Drew Gooden

Gooden has been traded twice and has seemed to annoy every coach he's had. However, he's averaged double figures at every stop while evolving into one of the league's better rebounding forwards. That's enough to make Gooden the No. 5 pick on this list.

6. Cleveland

Actual Pick: Dajuan Wagner
ESPN Pick: Nene

The Nuggets drafted Nene at No. 7 (via the Knicks), which doesn't seem so bad until you realize that means they passed on Amare Stoudemire … twice. Nene is a decent player with unusual quickness for a big man, but he has made almost no progress since his rookie season.

7. New York

Actual Pick: Nene
ESPN Pick: Nenad Krstic

Another excellent pick by Thorn at No. 24, Krstic's first season in New Jersey (10 ppg, 49.3 percent shooting), shows the Vlade Divac disciple has a bright future. But he won't move up the list unless he rebounds more.

8. L.A. Clippers

Actual Pick: Chris Wilcox
ESPN Pick: Dan Gadzuric

Taken with the pick before Boozer, the Bucks got a second-round steal in the skinny center. He's split time with others at the pivot, but his rebounding and blocks numbers (15.1 and 2.4 in 2004-05) per 40 minutes are through the roof.

9. Phoenix

Actual Pick: Amare Stoudemire
ESPN Pick: Caron Butler

Butler had a very promising rookie year in Miami (15.4 ppg, 1.8 steals), and matched it with L.A. last season. But the season between the two was dreadful, and Butler's 41.8 percent career shooting tells us his offensive game still has plenty of holes to patch up.

10. Miami

Actual Pick: Caron Butler
ESPN Pick: Luis Scola

Scola is one of the best players in Europe but should be a San Antonio Spur next season. Taken with the No. 56 pick, he could prove to be as big of a steal as Manu Ginobili was three years earlier. But we won't know until he shows up in the States.

11. Washington

Actual Pick: Jared Jeffries
ESPN Pick: Mike Dunleavy

A number of the high picks in this draft were horrific busts: Tskitishvili at No. 5, Wagner at No. 6, and Marcus Haislip at No.13, for instance. In that light, taking Dunleavy with the third overall pick doesn't seem that egregious an error. On the other hand, the Warriors have been starting him for three years to try to justify the pick and have been getting some very mediocre production for their efforts.

12. L.A. Clippers

Actual Pick: Melvin Ely
ESPN Pick: Chris Wilcox

Wilcox has decent per-40-minute numbers for his career (16.4 pts, 9.0 reb), and he's still only 23. Of course, Amare Stoudemire is the same age, just finished destroying the league this season, and was taken one pick after Wilcox. Hey, that's why they're the Clippers.

13. Milwaukee

Actual Pick: Marcus Haislip
ESPN Pick: Darius Songaila

Songaila is the last player of any quality to come from this draft. After Songaila, it's strictly role players with limited offensive value. Boston took him at No. 50, then traded him to Sacramento a year later, before Songaila had ever played an NBA game. And Rick Pitino wasn't even running the team when it happened.