The Confidential

ACC in the NBA: 2013 Draft Recap

The 2013 NBA draft is complete.  There were some surprises.  There were some disappointments.  But what is done is done.  Representatives of the various ACC schools did quite well in the draft.

Here are the pertinent results (we will not explain the trades that led to players ending up where they were “drafted”).  The first round selections with ACC ties:

• Maryland’s Alex Len was the first player with ACC ties to be drafted, being selected with the 5th pick by Phoenix.
• Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams was the next player with ACC ties to be drafted, joining Nerlens Noel in Philadelphia.   He was selected 12th.
• MCW was immediately followed by Steven Adams from Pitt, who was drafted by Oklahoma City.
• Miami’s Shane Larkin went #18 overall to the Atlanta Hawks.
• The Utah Jazz selected Gorgui Dieng, from Louisville, with with 21st selection.
• The Brooklyn Nets had a busy day making a huge trade for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and then selected Mason Plumlee from Duke with the 22nd selection.
• The suddenly-competitive Los Angeles Clippers invested a 25th overall pick on Reggie Bullock from North Carolina.

So, that is 7 of the first 30 picks having ACC ties.  With 7 picks on foreign players, nearly 1/3 of the first round of the NBA draft (7/23) was college players from the USA with ACC ties.  And it was one player from each of seven different schools.  Interesting.

The second round was much less ACC-centric.  Erick Green from Virginia Tech went to the Utah Jazz with the 46th overall selection.  Ryan Kelly from Duke went to the Los Angeles Lakers with the 50th pick.  Lorenzo Brown from North Carolina State went to the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 52nd overall pick.  Peyton Siva from Louisville went to the Detroit Pistons with the 56th overall pick.  It should also be noted that Georgia Tech deserves credit for Glen Rice, Jr., being drafted #35 overall by the busy Philadelphia 76ers.

Again, with 13 foreign players drafted, 47 picks were devoted on USA products.  Of those 47 picks, 12 had ACC ties.  So more than 25% of the NBA draft was pertinent to the ACC.

For more on the NBA draft, see here.