I hate when people say comments that are completely unfounded. Comments I heard this year were that this was a four player draft (Wall, Turner, Favors, and Cousins) from no less than 10 different people. Really? Last year was supposedly a two-player draft (Blake Griffin and Rubio). 2008 was a three player draft (Beasley, Rose, and to a lesser degree Mayo). 2007 was a two-player draft (Durant and Oden). Meanwhile, teams unfortunate enough to be outside of the “locks” managed to pick up Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez, Stephon Curry, and Brandon Jennings among many others. Meanwhile, the teams that drafted Marvin Williams, Jordan Hill, Joe Alexander, Brandon Wright, Mike Conley, Adam Morrsion, Tyrus Thomas, Shelden Williams, Patrick O’Bryant, Emeka Okafor, Shaun Livingston, Rafael Araujo, Darko, Mike Sweetney, Jarvis Hayes, Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Drew Gooden, Nikoloz Tskitishvilli, Dajuan Wagner, Chris Wilcox, Kwame, Eddy Curry, Eddie Griffin, Sagana Diop, Rodney White and everyone from the class of 2000 were considered top 10 talents and have done little (Okafur) to nothing (Morrison) in the NBA. The truth is as much as people write about the draft and as much as ESPN pretends to know everything, we know nothing.

To further prove this point, let’s look at NBA draft grades immediately following the draft:

2003
Pistons – A+ (Darko, Carlos Delfino, and Andres Gliniadakis)
Knicks – A- (Mike Sweetney, Maciej Lampe, Slavko Vranes)
Hornets – C+ (David Weest & James Lang)
Magic – A (Reece Gains, Zaza Pachulia, Keith Bogans)

2004
Hawks – B (Josh Childress & Josh Smith)
Celtics - B (Al Jefferson, Delonte West, and Tony Allen)
Bobcats – A (Emeka Okafor & Bernard Robinson)

2005
Knicks – C (David Lee, Channing Frye, and Nate Robinson)
Lakers – Incomplete (Andrew Bynum, Ronny Turiaf, and Von Wafer)
Celtics – A+ (Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green)
Kings – A (Francisco Garcia)
Houston – A (Luther Head)
Seattle – A (Johan Petro and Mickael Gelabale)
Heat – A (Wayne Simien)

2006
Celtics – B- (trade for Ray Allen, Big Baby)
Bulls – B (Noah and Aaron Gray)
Pistons – C (Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo)
Rockets – C (Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry)
Grizzlies – A- (Mike Conley)
Phoenix Suns – B—(traded Rudy Fernandez for $$$, Alando Tucker, and DJ Strawberry)
Seattle Supersonics – B (Kevin Durant and Jeff Green)
New York Knicks – A- (Wilson Chandler and acquiring Zach Randolp)

2007
Bulls – A- (Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Selfalosha)
Clippers – B (Paul Davis & Guillermo Diaz)
Bucks – B (David Noel & Damir Markota)
Nets – B (Marcus Williams, Josh Boone, Hassan Adams)
Kings – B (Quincy Douby)
Raptors – A- (Andrea Bargnani, PJ Tucker and Edin Bavcic) Jazz – B- (Ronnie Brewer & Paul Milsap)

2008
Heat – A+ (Michael Beasley & Mario Chalmers)
Bucks – B (Joe Alexander and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute)
Spurs – C (George Hill)
Jazz – A- (Kosta Koufos)

2009
Bobcats – B+ (Gerald Henderson)
Mavs – B- (Rodrigue Beaubois & Nick Calathes)
Golden State – Inc (Stephon Curry)
Grizzlies – A- (Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll, Sam Young)
Wolves – C+ (Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, and Wayne Ellington)
Hornets – B- (Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton)
Knicks – B+ (Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas)
Suns – A- (Earl Clark and Taylor Griffin)

The lesson here is that we should maybe give players at least a half season in the league (minimum) before we decide whether or not “said” player is going to be a bust or a star. A knock on Wes Johnson is that he didn’t even average 16 points per game in college. Neither did Jeff Green, Rudy Gay, Andre Iguodala, Joe Johnson, Darren Collison, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Greg Oden, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rajon Rondo, Trevor Ariza, Deron Williams, David Lee, Zach Randolph, Jason Richardson, or Mike Miller. I’d be pretty excited about having any one of those guys on our team right now.

The other knock is that he’s old. He’s 18 whole months older than the sure thing Evan Turner. Here’s a list of “old” players coming out of college (seniors) or in the case of Carl Landry – like Wes Johnson – a 23-year old junior: Danny Granger, Darren Collison, George Hill, Shane Battier, Aaron Brooks, Brandon Roy, Ryan Gomes, Jameer Nelson, David Lee, Kirk Hinrich, David West, Kyle Korver, Juan Dixon, JJ Redick, and Tayshaun Prince.

I’m going to leave you with the scouting report from the past of another player that could be mistaken for Wes Johnson.

“____ has a prototypical body for an NBA small forward. He has good size… a solid wingspan and very solid athletic ability. He is smart and smooth… along with an excellent (and very quick) vertical leap.”

“What makes _____ an especially intriguing player… is the fact that he is so versatile. He can score from anywhere on the floor, create his own shot, defend, rebound, block shots, come up with steals, and pass very well.”

“Defensively, his team plays a lot of zone, but he shows excellent potential in this area in the rare opportunity he gets to guard the other team's star player. His combination of strength, length, athletic ability, intensity, determination and excellent footwork give him the potential to be a very good defender on the NBA level once he is fully unleashed. These same skills along with his good hands and the ability to elevate quickly off the floor also make him a very good rebounder as well”

“Unlike other wings in this draft, ____ doesn't have a crazy amount of star potential. His ceiling isn't of an allstar, but his worst case (or his floor) is better than most of the other guys competing with Its fairly clear what ____ will give you, and that's everything you want out of your super solid role-player. He appeared to lack a killer instinct at times this year, preferring to be a role player and not taking games over when his team needed him to step up and take the team on his back. He's unselfish to a fault at times, but I'm not sure how much of a weakness this is. He's not the most intense player in this draft, but there is no doubt that he works very hard.”

The player in question has averaged close to or over 20/6/3 with 1 block and 1 steal per game over the last three seasons.You know him better as Danny Granger.

I don't know if Wesley Johnson is the next Danny Granger, the next Marvin Williams, or the next Bonzi Wells. But neither do you. So please stop pretending like you do.