Pondering rookie futures / Top 100

Every year, with every draft class, I wonder what the future holds for the new rookies coming into the NBA. Which will have long careers, becoming icons in the process? Which ones will fail and be out of the league after their rookie contract expires? Which ones will have an average career (the average NBA career being 8 years)? It's hard to guess but it's fun to watch and see how it plays out.

One of the things I love about the Trading Card Database is the copious amounts of statistics they provide. Recently they upped the stats page to show not just the top 100 in your collection but everything. I was looking at my charts and I have come to the conclusion that it will be very difficult for a person to crack my top 10. The most recent player in my all-time top 10 is Tim Duncan, who was drafted all the way back in 1997. He and Kobe Bryant are in fact the only two in my top ten who were not yet in the NBA when I discovered it in February 1996. Even my all-time favorite player, Elton Brand, (1999-00 class) does not crack my top 10 although I have gotten him up to 11th.

The highest player drafted in the 2000s is, unsurprisingly, LeBron James. He ranks only 61st in my collection, tied with Joe Smith. In fact, in my top 100, there are only a scant 6 players drafted in 2000 or later. The others are Kenyon Martin (81st), Jason Richardson (86th), Tony Parker (87th), Pau Gasol (94th) and Darius Miles (98th). Even Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade do not crack my top 100. They are actually tied, with Tyson Chandler, for 132nd.

Granted, a large part of that fact is that the majority of my collection was built between 1996-2006. I took a break from the NBA which I now regret immensely, but I did not come back full time until 2012-13. Of the players drafted in the time period I was not collecting, Kevin Durant is highest...and he ranks 324th in my collection!

The highest ranking player drafted in my NBA Renaissance is Anthony Davis, locked in a 14-way tie for 546th, with players like Dickey Simpkins, Oscar Robertson and others.

My top 10 has been pretty much the same since I entered my collection onto the Database back in 2012. There has been some fluctuations in order but the people in the top ten have stayed pretty much the same. Soon, by the end of 2016, I will have moved Elton into the top 10, and I fully expect him to stay there and climb higher. He's the only player I actively chase singles of. I will add other players of course, but I mostly use the "low hanging fruit" method- I get whatever is cheapest and available. Doesn't matter the player or team, I want them all, so any I get is great for me!

Now, the Database listings and my personal collections don't match. The Database tags team cards and multi-person cards to each person shown, whereas I keep track of how many multi-person, team, league leader cards, etc. The Database also counts college, which I do not. So each person shows as having more cards on the Database than I consider being in my collection. However, as I've mentioned in the past, I lost all my listings in a floppy disk crash circa 2004. I am slowly recreating it, and making it better than it originally was, but it's not a fast process by any means and I don't foresee myself completing it this decade. Someday I will, and then I'll really know what my stats are, but for now the Database listings will have to do.

Just for fun, here are my Top 100, in order, according to the Trading Card Database.

1. Michael Jordan
2. Shaquille O'Neal
3. Karl Malone
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Kevin Garnett
6. Jason Kidd
7. David Robinson
8. John Stockton
9. Tim Duncan
10. Gary Payton
11. Elton Brand
12. Hakeem Olajuwon
13. Chris Webber
14. Grant Hill
15. Reggie Miller
16. Allen Iverson
17. Vince Carter
18. Dikembe Mutombo
19. Scottie Pippen
20. Alonzo Mourning
21. Latrell Sprewell
22. Ray Allen
23. Patrick Ewing
24. Anfernee Hardaway
25. Stephon Marbury
26. Jerry Stackhouse
27. Paul Pierce
28. Tracy McGrady
29. Glenn Robinson
30. Antoine Walker
31. Shareef Abdur-Rahim
32. Allan Houston
33. Dirk Nowitzki
34. Eddie Jones
35. Charles Barkley
36. Jamal Mashburn
37. Michael Finley
38. Shawn Kemp
39. Rasheed Wallace
40.  Antonio McDyess
41. Juwan Howard
42. Tim Hardaway
43. Sam Cassell
44. Steve Smith
45. Mitch Richmond
46. Vin Baker
47. Steve Francis
48. Jalen Rose
49. Steve Nash
50. Kenny Anderson
51. Nick Van Exel
52. Keith Van Horn
53. Mike Bibby
54. Damon Stoudamire
55. Antawn Jamison
56. Baron Davis
57. Terrell Brandon
58. Shawn Marion
59. Derrick Coleman
60. Glen Rice
61. Joe Smith
62. LeBron James
63. Lamar Odom
64. Clifford Robinson
65. Jason Williams
66. Toni Kukoc
67. Larry Johnson
68. Tom Gugliotta
69. Andre Miller
70. Clyde Drexler
71. Brian Grant
72. Jason Terry
73. Jermaine O'Neal
74. Peja Stojakovic
75. Rashard Lewis
76. Dennis Rodman
77. Marcus Camby
78. Vlade Divac
79. Richard Hamilton
80. Chauncey Billups
81. Mookie Blaylock
82. Kenyon Martin (Tied with Blaylock)
83. Chris Mullin 
84. Antonio Davis
85. Sean Elliott
86. Jason Richardson
87. Tony Parker
88. Rod Strickland
89. Wally Szczerbiak
90. Larry Hughes
91. Mark Jackson
92. Christian Laettner
93. Tim Thomas
94. Pau Gasol
95. Cuttino Mobley
96. Ben Wallace
97. Horace Grant
98. Darius Miles
99. Robert Horry
100. Joe Dumars

The Database shows 2290 people in my collection, but it's well over that as everyone with one card is tied at 2290th. The listings also include non-NBA cards, like college, multi-sport, WNBA, CBA, etc. I only count actual NBA cards. 

I figured now would be a good time to post this as it's between the conclusion of my 20th anniversary season and before the 2016-17 cards start showing up, which, if Panini holds true to how they have done it in past years, is only about a month and a half from now.