Redrafting 2011 NBA Draft: A class with plenty of stars, lots of busts shaken up

When fans talk about the best NBA draft classes ever , they usually talk about 2003, 1996, and 1984. We shouldn't forget about the 2011 NBA Draft, though. While there were some massive busts in that draft class, 2011 will forever be remembered for the superstar talent it produced. The stars in this class combined for a total of 37 All-Star Game appearances, and four players will likely be immortalized in the Basketball Hall of Fame when things are all said and done.

While the best players from this class aren't even close to calling it quits yet, there have already been some big numbers put up and memorable moments produced from 2011 draftees. Because of the combination of both stars and busts from 2011, things would surely go drastically different if teams were given a do-over. For reference, both the last pick of the first round and the last pick of the second round had iconic careers, so hindsight drastically changes the outlook of this class. With that said, here is our redraft of the 2011 NBA Draft class.

Actual position: 1st

Original number 1 pick: Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving is arguably the best ball-handler AND below the rim finisher of all-time. The Cavaliers took him at the top of the draft in 2011, and they'd do so again given the chance to do it all over. Irving is a wizard with the ball in his hands, and he hit some big shots en route to helping the Cavaliers win their first championship.

That championship was the first in Cleveland sports since 1964, making it one of the most memorable championships in recent memory. The Irving-LeBron James duo will go down in history, and we aren't going to mess with that in this redraft. Irving is one of the best point guards in NBA history , and although the next three players in this redraft all had cases for the first overall pick for this exercise, why fix something that isn't broken?

Actual position: 15th

Original number 2 pick: Derrick Williams

Kawhi Leonard is an all-time iconic player who has a very impressive resume. His career statistics might not be as impressive as you would think, though. Leonard has fewer points than Tobias Harris, who won't come up in this redraft for a handful more picks, for reference.

While numbers are important, and Leonard's are far from bad, it is his accolades that people will remember forever. The two Finals MVPs that Leonard has earned with two different organizations are why he has become an NBA legend. Leonard has dealt with injuries throughout his career, but when he has suited up, he has been one of the best players in the league.

The former 15th overall pick is one of the best mid-range shooters ever, and his defensive resume is up there with anybody. Leonard has two Defensive Player of the Year awards to his name, which is a rarity for a non-center. For that reason, Leonard is viewed as one of the best defensive players ever, and that is why he goes second in our 2011 NBA redraft. This pick is a huge upgrade for the Timberwolves, considering their original pick (Derrick Williams) was one of the biggest draft busts ever .

Actual position: 11th

Original number 3 pick: Enes Kanter

It is hard to picture Klay Thompson in a jersey besides the Golden State Warriors, which is why drafting Thompson here looks weird, but NBA fans will experience Thompson suiting up for a new team for the first time next year. Thompson, who forms one-half of the Splash Brothers, will now be playing for the Dallas Mavericks .

We would have never gotten the iconic duo of Thompson and Steph Curry if Thompson were drafted by the Jazz, but the shooting guard would have worked out wherever he went. Perhaps he wouldn't have won four championships, but his pure shooting form and quick trigger means that he probably would have still become one of the best three-point shooters ever .

Considering Thompson is one of the greatest shooting guards ever , it is pretty amazing that he falls to pick three in our 2011 redraft. The guys selected ahead of him were lead options, though, whereas Thompson has always worked as a second or third option. Regardless, he has had a magnificent career sniping shots from deep. He was a key part of the greatest dynasty in recent memory, and he has claim to a number of individual records and iconic moments, including points in a quarter (37) and the infamous 60-point 11-dribble game.

Actual position: 30th

Original number 4 pick: Tristan Thompson

Jimmy Butler is one of the biggest draft day steals in the 21st century. The Bulls draft pick who goes to Cleveland in this redraft went from the last pick of the first round to a league superstar. Butler exceeding expectations is something he has done a lot throughout his basketball career and life as a whole.

While Butler has never won the big one, he has twice been the best player on a team playing in the NBA Finals. He is a gritty player with elite defensive instincts, both of which are somewhat rare for star players. Cleveland fans walk away happy with the results of our 2011 NBA redraft. They land both Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler, both of whom have been elite for nearly a decade and a half now. Had they both have been on the Cleveland roster when LeBron James re-joined the team, the Cavaliers probably would have become a dynasty.

Actual position: 9th

Original number 5 pick: Jonas Valanciunas

Recency bias makes fans remember Kemba Walker's drastic fall off which resulted in a recent retirement , but the UConn product had a legendary career full of iconic moments that will stand the test of time. During his time in college, game-winning shots and clutch play resulted in Walker receiving the nickname 'Cardiac Kemba.'

Because of that, we view Walker as one of the best college basketball players this century , but his spot in this redraft is a result of exclusively his NBA career. Walker made four All-Star games and was the best player on the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets for the better part of a decade.

In fact, most would consider Walker to be the best player in franchise history . While there isn't a lot of depth in the 2011 NBA Draft, the fact that Walker doesn't go off the board until pick five in this redraft despite being such a big part of the Bobcats/Hornets history should go to show you how impressive the star talent was that emerged from this class.

Actual position: 16th

Original number 6 pick: Jan Vesely

Nikola Vucevic is the quintessential modern day big man. Vucevic can bang in the post, but he thrives most stepping out and knocking down jumpers from beyond the arc. Vucevic actually has more career points than stars taken above him in this redraft, such as Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard.

Actual position: 5th

Original number 7 pick: Bismack Biyombo

Jonas Valanciunas has never been a top five player at the center position, but he has been in the next tier of big men for most of his career. The Toronto Raptor draftee has also found success with the Memphis Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans, so he would have surely been fine if the Sacramento Kings were the team to draft him. Valanciunas is a big interior presence who has added more to his game away from the basket as he has gotten older.

Actual position: 19th

Original number 8 pick: Brandon Knight

Tobias Harris has gotten a lot of crap from fans over the course of his career, and that was especially the case during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers. That is largely because Harris was given a huge contract from the 76ers, though. Overall, he has been a solid player throughout his NBA career.

Harris has averaged 16.3 points per game over his career, and he has 777 career starts to his name. Some of his best days have come with the Pistons. While Detroit didn't draft him, Harris enjoyed one great complete season with the team and two more solid partial seasons in Detroit. Now, he has finally left Philadelphia, and he is back with the Pistons . Harris isn't a superstar, and he was certainly overpaid by the 76ers, but he is still a solid third or fourth option, as he has been for 13 seasons now.

Actual position: 31st

Original number 9 pick: Kemba Walker

Bojan Bogdanovic scoring figures have been in the double digits every year since his rookie season, including two seasons where he was above 20 points per game. Bogdanovic is a traditional European player. He has a great shot and wins with fundamentals. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, they miss out on their best player in franchise history here, as they drafted Kemba Walker with this spot back in 2011.

Actual position: 60th

Original number 10 pick: Jimmer Fredette

Isaiah Thomas is one of the most infamous Mr. Irrelevant picks in NBA history. He was the last man to hear his name called back in 2011, but he shoots up all the way into the top 10 of this redraft. Thomas has been fighting to earn a spot in the league for years now, but back in his prime, he was one of the best players in the NBA.

No one can forget his 2016-17 season where he finished top five in MVP voting. That year, the undersized guard averaged 28.9 points per game and led the Boston Celtics on an iconic run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Unfortunately, that was Thomas's last great year, as he was traded the following season and has never been handed the reins to a team's offense again.

Thomas has now played on a new team 12 different times. He is only 5-foot-9, so defense has always been an issue, and his short stature has turned him into a journeyman. Even so, Thomas defied the odds of an undersized player who was barely drafted, as he was legitimately one of the best players in the NBA at one point.

Actual position: 4th

Original number 11 pick: Klay Thompson

Tristan Thompson has had a weird career. The center who entered the NBA as a left handed shooter ended up switching to his right hand for jump shots and free throws. Shooting was never Thompson's calling card, though. Rebounding and defense are what have helped Thompson stick in the league for such a long time. Thompson recently re-signed with the Cavaliers, the team he won a championship with back in 2016.

Thompson has played for six teams since his originally stint with the Cavaliers, but he keeps landing gigs as a veteran leader. It seems the big man's career will likely come to a close sooner rather than later, but Thompson keeps sticking around. He never put up big numbers, but his longevity and willingness to be a team player means he is certainly one of the 14 best players from the 2011 NBA Draft class.

Actual position: 14th

Original number 12 pick: Alec Burks

It is nearly impossible to mention Marcus Morris without talking about his twin brother, Markieff, so we will will save the majority of our dialogue about the two for the next pick in our 2011 NBA redraft.

Actual position: 13th

Original number 13 pick: Markieff Morris

The Morris twins went back-to-back in 2011, so it made too much sense to have them follow each other up in this redraft, considering their career numbers are eerily similar, especially from their early days in the NBA. Originally, Markieff went before Marcus, but Marcus has had a slightly more impressive NBA career. Regardless, Markieff lands in the same spot he did back in 2011.

Actual position: 24th

Original number 14 pick: Marcus Morris

Reggie Jackson was one of many young and exciting players on the Oklahoma City Thunder in the early 2010s. After he left the Thunder, he went on to be a solid point guard wherever he played, even putting up career averages of 12.6 points per game. Jackson won a championship with the Denver Nuggets in 2023, and he was a part of a huge spending splurge by the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason.

Actual position: 22nd

Original number 15 pick: Kawhi Leonard

Kenneth Faried was given the nickname "Manimal," and if you watched him play, then it made sense. Faried looked half man, half beast the way he corralled rebounds. Despite a lack of size, Faried hauled in any and everything off of the glass because of unmatched energy and determination. Faried has some famous clips of him collecting his own rebounds many times before finally scoring a layup.

Eventually, the league moved on without him, because as spacing and shooting increased, Faried no longer fit the modern game. Even so, his motor was valuable to the Denver Nuggets early on in his career, and he could still work today out of the dunker spot as a play finisher and alley-oop threat.

Actual position: 12th

Original number 16 pick: Nikola Vucevic

Alec Burks entered the league as somewhat of a non-shooter. He has stuck around and developed enough that three-point shooting is now his specialty. Knowing Burks ability to work hard and improve upon his weakness would surely be beneficial if teams were allowed to do-over their 2011 drafts, but Burks actually goes lower than he originally did because some of the stars in this draft class were somewhat late picks.

Actual position: 3rd

Original number 17 pick: Iman Shumpert

If only offense mattered, then Enes Kanter (now Enes Freedom) would have gone much higher in this redraft. However, the game of basketball is a two-way sport, and Kanter was a defensive liability. The big man certainly could score inside, though. Kanter was a load to handle in the paint, and he had soft touch to boot, which made him an exceptional interior scorer.

Actual position: 38th

Original number 18 pick: Chris Singleton

Chandler Parsons is best known for being often-injured while reaping the rewards of a massive contract. While he eventually became overpaid, there is a reason why he earned such a big deal in the first place. Before his fall off in Memphis, Parsons averaged, 9.5, 15.5, 16.6, 15.7, and 13.7 points per game in his first five seasons.

Parsons is certainly a classic case of what could have been, as injuries clearly ruined his career. Fans shouldn't forget that he was a solid player during his prime.

Actual position: 42nd

Original number 19 pick: Tobias Harris

European stretch shooters have become a popular draft archetype in recent years, and the 2011 NBA Draft class was a big reason why. Bertans has been launching threes over the outstretched arms of opposing players since he came into the league, and that lands him as the 19th pick in the 2011 NBA redraft.

Actual position: 29th

Original number 20 pick: Donatas Montiejunas

The point guard position is one that the Timberwolves often missed at in drafts during the 2010s. Cory Joseph is by no means a star lead guard, but he has been a reliable option at the point guard position for a long time now. Joseph has been a solid backup point guard for 13 seasons now, and the Timberwolves could have used the security that he provides as a ball handler off of the bench.

Actual position: 17th

Original number 21 pick: Nolan Smith

Iman Shumpert always seemed to be playing key minutes on relevant teams. He played on the Carmelo Anthony-led New York Knicks and the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers. He even won a championship with the latter of those two. The stage he played on led him to becoming a noteworthy player, as evidenced by the fact that he even won Dancing with the Stars .

Shumpert might not have been as big of a name if it was the Trail Blazers who drafted him, but he would have surely still been a rotation player for the team. Shumpert was a great defensive player, and he had some playmaking skills off of the wing on offense, too.

Actual position: 23rd

Original number 22 pick: Kenneth Faried

Nikola Mirotic didn't make his way to the NBA until 2014. He then went back to play in Europe during his prime. Because of that, Mirotic didn't rack up the career numbers that he had the potential to. The fact that he only played five NBA seasons limits him to a selection in the 20s in our 2011 NBA redraft.

Mirotic is more talented than that, though, as he was very effective during his brief time in the NBA. He averaged 12.3 points per game as a stretch four capable of knocking down shots from the outside.

Actual position: 8th

Original number 23 pick: Nikola Mirotic

Brandon Knight is predominantly known for the frequency that he appeared on "Shaqtin a Fool." The point guard has way too many bloopers than an NBA player should, but you shouldn't forget how talented he was despite the regularity in which he messed up in the worst ways possible.

Knight averaged a more than respectable 14 points per game for his career. He even averaged over 17 points per game in three straight seasons, including a 19.6 point-per-game explosion in 2015-16. A total of 349 career NBA starts is not a bad career for someone who has been memed left and right since he left the NBA.

Actual position: 55th

Original number 24 pick: Reggie Jackson

E'Twaun Moore wasn't much more than a three-and-D role player, but that archetype is valuable in the NBA. Because of that, Moore stuck around in the NBA for a while, and he deserves a spot in our 2011 NBA redraft.

Actual position: 2nd

Original number 25 pick: MarShon Brooks

Derrick Williams goes from pick two to pick 25 in our 2011 NBA redraft, and there is a case to be made that he should have fallen out of the first round here all together. While Williams certainly holds the label of draft bust, he was probably slightly better than you remember. He actually ranks in the top 20 in his draft class in both points (8.9) and rebounds (4) per game.

You'd certainly want more out of a number two overall pick, but you couldn't be too mad about those stats from someone drafted in the mid-20s. The Celtics are always a well run team, whereas the Timberwolves weren't run well when they took Williams. A change of scenery on a better team could have changed Williams' career outlook.

Actual position: 10th

Original number 26 pick: Jordan Hamilton

Jimmer Fredette is a legendary basketball player and a huge name in the world of basketball. He was one of the greatest college players of the 21st century , he went on to have a legendary overseas career, and he was recently on the grand stage that is the Olympics, playing 3×3.

His NBA career wasn't as impressive. The sharpshooting Fredette is considered a bust, as his skillset never worked out in the league, even after multiple comeback attempts. Fredette struggled defensively against NBA talent, and his score-first mindset didn't work well at the highest level. He still grabs a late first-round spot in the 2011 redraft, though, because he is clearly an elite shooter, and his name alone will always get butts in seats.

Actual position: Undrafted

Original number 27 pick: JaJuan Johnson

The lone undrafted player to be selected in our 2011 NBA redraft is Justin Holiday. One of three Holiday brothers to make the NBA, Justin has made quite the career for himself despite starting his career at a disadvantage. Holiday has been a role player who is trusted to make the right play during his entire career. Even in his age-34 season last year on the defending champion Nuggets, Holiday was a reliable option to come off of the bench whenever his team needed him to do so.

Actual position: 34th

Original number 28 pick: Norris Cole

Shelvin Mack spent a good amount of time in the NBA as a reliable backup point guard. Whether it was Derrick Rose or Lonzo Ball, the Bulls have had injury issues at the point guard position ever since the 2011 NBA Draft (Rose first hurt his knee in the 2011-12 season), so it would have been beneficial to have drafted a point guard who could step up and play when the injury bug hit.

Actual position: 33rd

Original number 29 pick: Cory Joseph

Yet another stretch four makes his way into the 2011 NBA redraft. Kyle Singler snatches the second to last spot in the first round of this redraft, and he finds himself in a good home. During the 2000s-early 2010s, the Spurs did nothing but turn late draft picks into quality NBA players. The next player in this redraft was considered because of San Antonio's historical success with foreign draft picks, but Singler's career was too solid not to justify this selection.

Actual position: 6th

Original number 30 pick: Jimmy Butler

Jan Vesely didn't work out in the NBA. After being drafted sixth overall, Vesley only lasted three seasons in the league, and he only racked up 25 total starts. Vesely was put in an unideal spot when he was taken by the Wizards, though. Washington won 49 games in Vesely's first two seasons with the team combined.

Although his lack of preparedness for the NBA game led to him becoming one of the biggest international draft busts ever , Vesely's context certainly didn't help. After his NBA career ended, Vesely proved that he is a legitimate NBA-caliber player. He has had an excellent career overseas, notably winning the EuroLeague MVP in 2019.

Vesely's resume outside of the top basketball league is extensive, and had he ended up on a different team back in 2011, it is possible that he would have looked more like his post-NBA self in the NBA than the version of himself that we actually got. After all, the Bulls turned an unheralded player (Jimmy Butler) into a superstar with this pick back in 2011. Vesely's stretch big skillset is incredibly valuable in the NBA, even more so than it was when he was originally drafted.