The draft in any sport is a crapshoot. Nobody truly knows what college-aged prospects will do when money, status and the fact that they'll have to work harder than they've ever had to as athlete factors into the equation.
That's why you can't help but root for guys like former Washington Husky Isaiah Thomas.
A 5-foot-9 guard drafted with the last pick in the NBA draft last year, took that as a knock not a reality. He knew he was better than that and he set out to prove it. A full season later, he's the starting point guard on a young, talented team in the Sacramento Kings. His presence and pass-first mentality has balanced a group of gunners.
Thomas won two Western Conference rookie of the month awards back-to-back while taking away headlines from the more heralded rookie guard taken 40+ plus picks ahead of him in Jimmer Fredette. He averaged 11.5 points, 4.1 assists and posted a 17.68 PER, earning him a seventh place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting. Though seventh was actually a slight on his season, getting votes at all coming from where Thomas came from is a feat in itself.
What would happen if the draft happened all over again with the information teams now have about this year's crop of rookies? Maybe we'd be celebrating a first-round pick instead of the last pick.
But maybe, just maybe, Thomas likes it just how it is.