It’s the summer of 2010 — the Los Angeles Lakers just won their second title with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. Teams are preparing for what would become the most pivotal free agency class in NBA history and fans are anticipating a once-respected 2010 draft class to take the league by storm. Fast-forward to now, Paul George is the only remaining player from that class, which has painted an even larger target on his back.
How did we get here?
George has unofficially claimed this title for the past few years, but it was truly set in stone after John Wall announced his retirement today. In hindsight, the 2010 class was nothing special compared to the 2009 NBA Draft, which featured the likes of Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Blake Griffin. Nor was it on par with the 2012 draft class, headlined by Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, and Bradley Beal.
By the dawn of the 2010s, the NBA was in a weird phase where teams either remained true to the traditional triangle offense or adapted Mike D’Antoni’s pace-and-space philosophy that he revered with the Phoenix Suns in the 2000s. With such dramatic variance around the league, the goalpost for what a team required from a player was constantly in motion. This is why so many tweener wings and traditional bigs were phased out by the mid 2010s.
To trace it back to the 2010 class, wings like Evan Turner, who the Philadelphia 76ers drafted with the second overall pick, and Wesley Johnson could never quite live up to expectations because of this. Bigs such as Greg Monroe and Derrick Favors went on to have respectable careers, but if they played in prior eras, they could’ve yielded more success. It’s not necessarily that the 2010 draft was untalented, it was more so that the league was going through puberty.
George didn't get here by accident
It’s no coincidence that George is the last man standing. He was selected by the Indiana Pacers with the 10th overall pick with upside as an athletic two-way forward. Three years later, he went toe-to-toe with LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. George’s progression is a prime example of how players had to adapt to the modern era. He was the blueprint of the two-way, three-level-scoring, shot-creating archetype that teams obsess over.
However, recent history hasn’t been kind to George. He averaged just 16.2 points per game on 54.3% true-shooting in 41 games with the 76ers last season. Time will tell if his regression was a cause of age and/or injuries, but him being the lone player currently representing the 2010 class puts things into perspective.