The 2008 NBA Draft Class, History, Recap
The 2008 NBA draft was held on June 26, 2008, in New York. It produced two league MVPs in the first four picks, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, a champion in Kevin Love, and more good centers than almost any draft since.
It also had one of the stranger backdrops in draft history. The Seattle SuperSonics picked fourth and 24th, taking Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. Less than a week later the team’s move to Oklahoma City was settled, and neither player ever wore a Sonics uniform in a regular-season game.
The Significance of the 2008 NBA Draft
Seven players from this class became All-Stars: Rose, Westbrook, Love, Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert, DeAndre Jordan and Goran Dragić. Two of them, Jordan and Dragić, were second-round picks.
For a site that cares about big men, this is the interesting part. Count the centers: the Lopez twins, Hibbert, JaVale McGee, Kosta Koufos, Ibaka, Jordan, Ömer Aşık and Nikola Peković all came out of this one draft, and most of them started in the league for years.
Official 2008 NBA Draft Class Recap & Order:
The first round, in order:
| Pick | Player | Team | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Derrick Rose | Chicago Bulls | Memphis |
| 2 | Michael Beasley | Miami Heat | Kansas State |
| 3 | O.J. Mayo | Minnesota Timberwolves (traded to Memphis) | USC |
| 4 | Russell Westbrook | Seattle SuperSonics | UCLA |
| 5 | Kevin Love | Memphis Grizzlies (traded to Minnesota) | UCLA |
| 6 | Danilo Gallinari | New York Knicks | Italy |
| 7 | Eric Gordon | Los Angeles Clippers | Indiana |
| 8 | Joe Alexander | Milwaukee Bucks | West Virginia |
| 9 | D.J. Augustin | Charlotte Bobcats | Texas |
| 10 | Brook Lopez | New Jersey Nets | Stanford |
| 11 | Jerryd Bayless | Indiana Pacers (traded to Portland) | Arizona |
| 12 | Jason Thompson | Sacramento Kings | Rider |
| 13 | Brandon Rush | Portland Trail Blazers (traded to Indiana) | Kansas |
| 14 | Anthony Randolph | Golden State Warriors | LSU |
| 15 | Robin Lopez | Phoenix Suns | Stanford |
| 16 | Marreese Speights | Philadelphia 76ers | Florida |
| 17 | Roy Hibbert | Toronto Raptors (traded to Indiana) | Georgetown |
| 18 | JaVale McGee | Washington Wizards | Nevada |
| 19 | J.J. Hickson | Cleveland Cavaliers | NC State |
| 20 | Alexis Ajinça | Charlotte Bobcats | France |
| 21 | Ryan Anderson | New Jersey Nets | California |
| 22 | Courtney Lee | Orlando Magic | Western Kentucky |
| 23 | Kosta Koufos | Utah Jazz | Ohio State |
| 24 | Serge Ibaka | Seattle SuperSonics | Republic of the Congo |
| 25 | Nicolas Batum | Houston Rockets (traded to Portland) | France |
| 26 | George Hill | San Antonio Spurs | IUPUI |
| 27 | Darrell Arthur | New Orleans Hornets (traded to Memphis) | Kansas |
| 28 | Donté Greene | Memphis Grizzlies (traded to Houston) | Syracuse |
| 29 | D.J. White | Detroit Pistons (traded to Seattle) | Indiana |
| 30 | J.R. Giddens | Boston Celtics | New Mexico |
The top scorers of the 2008 NBA draft
Career NBA points, first-round picks. Pick number in brackets.
Show the data behind this chart
Player
Pick
Career points
Career win shares
Russell Westbrook
4
27,176
112.9
Brook Lopez
10
18,151
94.2
Kevin Love
5
15,669
96
Eric Gordon
7
14,167
42.1
Derrick Rose
1
12,573
44.6
Danilo Gallinari
6
11,607
65.4
Nicolas Batum
25
11,553
75.6
Serge Ibaka
24
11,028
73
George Hill
26
9,545
71
D.J. Augustin
9
9,259
47.7
Derrick Rose: The Number One Pick of the 2008 NBA Draft
The Bulls had a 1.7% chance of winning the lottery, won it anyway, and took the point guard from their own city. Derrick Rose was Rookie of the Year in 2009, and in 2011, at 22, he became the youngest MVP in league history.
Then he tore his ACL in the first game of the 2012 playoffs. He played for more than a decade afterward and had good seasons, including a 50-point game for Minnesota in 2018, but the player from 2011 never fully came back. He remains the great what-if of this class.
Russell Westbrook: A Future Superstar
Westbrook was the surprise of the top five. He hadn’t even been a full-time starter until his second year at UCLA, and plenty of people thought fourth was too high. He became the 2017 MVP, the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double for a season (he ended up doing it four times), and the player who broke Robertson’s record for career triple-doubles.
Kevin Love: A Dominant Force on the Court
Love and O.J. Mayo were swapped on draft night in an eight-player trade between Memphis and Minnesota, and Minnesota got much the better of it. Love was a five-time All-Star. In November 2010 he had 31 points and 31 rebounds in one game, the league’s first 30-30 game in 28 years. He later won a championship with Cleveland in 2016.
2008 NBA Draft Pick Sleeper Brook Lopez: A Rising Star
Brook Lopez went 10th and has had two careers. In the first he was a back-to-the-basket scorer for the Nets and an All-Star in 2013. In the second he turned himself into a three-point shooter and one of the best rim protectors in the league, and won a title with Milwaukee in 2021. He is still on an NBA roster in 2026-27, at 38, and still on our list of the tallest NBA players. His twin brother Robin went five picks later.
Other Notable Picks in the First Round of the 2008 NBA Draft
- Danilo Gallinari (6th) was booed by Knicks fans on draft night and went on to score more than 11,000 points.
- Eric Gordon (7th) won Sixth Man of the Year in 2017.
- Roy Hibbert (17th) made two All-Star teams as the anchor of Indiana’s defense.
- JaVale McGee (18th) won three championships as a role player.
- Ryan Anderson (21st) was the league’s Most Improved Player in 2012.
- Serge Ibaka (24th) led the league in blocks twice and won a title with Toronto in 2019.
- Nicolas Batum (25th) and George Hill (26th) both played well over a decade as starters and trusted veterans.
The misses were near the top. Michael Beasley, the second pick, had been one of the most productive freshmen in college history and never became more than a scorer off the bench. Joe Alexander, eighth, played 67 NBA games.
Second Round Gems: Finding Hidden Talent in of the 2008 NBA Draft
- DeAndre Jordan (35th) slid out of the first round and became a first-team All-NBA center for the Clippers.
- Goran Dragić (45th) was Most Improved Player and third-team All-NBA in 2014, and an All-Star in 2018.
- Mario Chalmers (34th) started at point guard for two Miami championship teams.
- Nikola Peković (31st), Ömer Aşık (36th) and Luc Mbah a Moute (37th) all became starters.
International Players in the 2008 Draft
Gallinari (Italy), Ibaka (Republic of the Congo, by way of Spain), Batum and Alexis Ajinça (France) went in the first round. Peković (Montenegro), Aşık (Turkey), Dragić (Slovenia) and Mbah a Moute (Cameroon) followed in the second. For more, see our guides to NBA players by country.
2008 Draft Night Trades and Surprises
Three trades stand out. Minnesota and Memphis swapped Mayo and Love. Indiana and Portland swapped Jerryd Bayless and Brandon Rush. And Toronto’s pick, Hibbert, went to Indiana as part of the deal that sent Jermaine O’Neal to the Raptors, which worked out far better for the Pacers.
Where the 2008 draft's 10 best careers were picked
The class's top 10 by career win shares and the pick each was taken with. Orange: picked outside the top 10.
Show the data behind this chart
Win shares rank
Player
Pick
Career win shares
1
Russell Westbrook
4
112.9
2
Kevin Love
5
96
3
Brook Lopez
10
94.2
4
Nicolas Batum
25
75.6
5
Serge Ibaka
24
73
6
George Hill
26
71
7
Danilo Gallinari
6
65.4
8
Robin Lopez
15
49.6
9
D.J. Augustin
9
47.7
10
Ryan Anderson
21
46.7
Evaluating the 2008 Draft Class Years Later
How does it compare? The 2007 NBA draft had the better single player in Kevin Durant. The 2009 draft had Stephen Curry, James Harden and Blake Griffin. But 2008 was deeper than either: more than a dozen players from it were still in the league ten years later.
If the draft were held again today, Westbrook would go first, with Love, Rose, Brook Lopez and Jordan behind him in some order. Three of those five weren’t top-three picks, and one wasn’t a first-round pick at all. That is the lesson of 2008: the top of the draft got the headlines, and the value was spread all the way down.
