In Hindsight: 2002 Basketball Recruiting

Carmelo Anthony was the stud. Brandon Roy was the sleeper. How does it look six years later?

by Scott Powers

Ed's note: The Nuggets and Blazers lock it up tonight, creating a SF battle between Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Roy, two of the NBA's most dynamic young players. Six years ago, one was massively recruited, one not so much. We look back, via multiple experts. Here's a position breakdown of the top 2002 recruits for ya.

Scout.com national recruiting direct Dave Telep sat in his office and opened his final 2002 high school basketball player rankings, pausing for a few seconds.

"I haven't looked at this a long time," Telep said. "This is a hell of a class. My gosh. What a great crop. Holy cow. I didn't realize how good this bunch is."

It's a class that produced Olympians Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Amer'e Stoudemire and Deron Williams.

It made up the key components of the 2005 national championship game with North Carolina landing Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants while Illinois got Dee Brown, James Augustine and Williams from the class.

It had depth, too. Brandon Roy and Randy Foye were in no one's top 30, but became lottery picks.

"This class would stack in this millennium as one of the better classes in this era," All Star Sports' Bob Gibbons said.

More than six yeas have past since premier recruiting analysts Van Coleman (Hoopmasters), Gibbons and Telep last ranked the 2002 class. Given a chance to look back, they found they were right about some guys, wrong about others and even completely missed on a few.

THE NO. 1 SPOT

Coleman, Gibbons and Telep all chose a different player to head their respective lists.

Coleman went with Oak Hill Academy's Carmelo Anthony.

"I thought he was so versatile," Coleman remembered. "He did so many things. Stoudemire didn't have the actual offensive game and post skills like he does. He was a raw talent. Carmelo Anthony could take over a big game and lead a team to a national title. He did it twice, once in high school and once in college."

Gibbons placed Anthony second. Felton from Latta High School in South Carolina was his guy.

"Your son was the No. 3 pick in the draft. Don't you have bigger fish to fry?"

"He just impressed me with his ability to push down the floor and really dominate games from the point guard position," Gibbons said. "He was like how Tywon Lawson became. He was just a jet on the floor."

Telep had Anthony second and Felton third. Stoudemire was his No. 1.

"Stoudemire still to this day to me was the most explosive and quickest guy from block to block I've seen in my time doing this," Telep said. "He played like he was shot out of a cannon. He was amazing."

Telep did run across Anthony's mom during his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets, and she still hadn't forgotten where her son had been in the rankings.

"She said, 'You want to change that ranking of my son now?'" Telep said. "I'm thinking, 'Man, your son was the No. 3 pick in the draft. Don't you have bigger fish to fry?'"

THE MAJOR MISS

It was Deron Williams who no one saw coming.

Even on his own high school team, Williams had to take a backseat. It was The Colony's Bracey Wright who everyone was raving about.

"(Wright) had the accolades because he scored the points, but he scored the points off the assists from Williams," Gibbons said. "In high school, he was a superb athlete, but he looked outstanding because he was playing off the abilities of Deron Williams in reality. I must admit I would like to reverse those rankings."

Gibbons ranked Wright at No. 12 and Williams at No. 36, which is actually the best of any of the scouts.Coleman had him at 49, and Telep placed him at 56.

"I wasn't sold on him as a straight point guard," Telep said. "In retrospect, it was a pretty distinguished class of point guards, a pretty high level crop of guys. That would probably be the most distinguishable miss—Deron Williams at 56."

ROY AND FOYE

Deron Williams was the biggest shock of the class, but Randy Foye and Brandon Roy aren't too far behind.

Foye was ranked 77 by Coleman, 46 by Gibbons and 37 by Telep. Roy was 64 by Coleman, 55 by Gibbons and 36 by Telep.

None of the analysts had any idea that they would both become lottery picks, but Telep does come out looking the best from where he had them.

"Those were two guys I just really liked," Telep said. "They were interesting ones for me. I saw Randy Foye very late in high school career. Brandon Roy: I just knew he was really talented and I would probably have had him higher, but I wasn't sure if his knee was going to hold up."

THE MISTAKES

Jason Fraser and DeAngelo Collins both found spots in Coleman's and Telep's top 10. Fraser had a rough career at Villanova due to early injuries. He played four seasons, but was only a contributor in the end. Collins entered the 2002 draft after a problematic high school career, wasn't selected and has since bounced around from the D-League to overseas.

"DeAngelo is a mistake I won't make again," Telep said. "He had too much struggle off the court. That part counts for me more now than in 2002. I fast forward six years, and I know why he didn't make it."

For Gibbons, his bust was Brad Buckman at No. 8. Buckman went to Texas, where he had a so-so four-year career, then played a year in the D-League and is now overseas.

"It's a very inexact science, if you want to call it a science," Gibbons said. "You're seeing kids at the high school level when they're at their best or not at their best. You just have to go with what you see. No one can accurately predict. You can do a job at good rating them as seniors in high school. To go beyond that at the next level, there's so many variables."

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