Top 5 Best Second-Round NBA Draft Picks Since 2000

Second-round NBA Draft picks often get traded without a second thought, which makes it all the more impressive when a player taken in the final round becomes a star.

While some all-time greats were taken in the second round back when the NBA had 10 teams and more than two rounds in the draft, we're going to focus on the modern era by looking at second-round picks since 2000. One player on the list was drafted in 1999 but made his debut in 2002, which allows him to qualify.

Here's our list of the top five players who were taken in the second round since the turn of the 21st century.

Nikola Jokic

Drafted: 41st overall pick (round 2, pick 11) in 2014
Accomplishments: 1x NBA Champion, 1x NBA Finals MVP, 3x NBA MVP, 7x All-NBA (5x First-Team), 7x All-Star

Three MVPs, one NBA Championship, one Finals MVP, and seven All-Star honors would make for a great career resume for any NBA player, but it's all the more impressive because it belongs to a second-round pick who has 10 seasons under his belt and is still just 30 years old.

The Denver Nuggets infamously drafted Nikola Jokic while a Taco Bell commercial was airing, reflecting what the league thought of the draft's second round in general.

Jokic spent another year overseas after that draft, and his NBA career got off to a solid start, which isn't often talked about. He averaged 10.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.0 steal in 21.7 minutes per game, and he started 55 of his 80 games played.

Since then, all the Joker has done is improve. His points, rebounds, and assists averages increased in each of his first four NBA seasons, and by 2020/21, he posted 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.3 assists to 3.1 turnovers, and 1.3 steals to win his first MVP Award.

In the 2023 playoffs, he averaged 30.0 points, 13.5 rebounds, 9.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.0 block as he led his team to become NBA Champions, winning Finals MVP in the process. Jokic averaged a triple-double for the first time in 2024/25, and he secured his fifth consecutive top-two finish in MVP voting.

Jalen Brunson

Drafted: 33rd overall pick (round 2, pick 3) in 2018
Accomplishments: 2x All-NBA, 2x All-Star

Despite playing on two National Championship teams in four years at Villanova, point guard Jalen Brunson's size (6-foot-2) and age (22 years old at the start of his rookie season) saw him fall to the second round.

Many fans wondered how a two-time title-winner could fall that far, and he's only validated those questions with his play since entering the NBA. His short list of accolades doesn't come close to illustrating his impact in each game now that he's seven years into his professional career.

Drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson mostly served as Luka Doncic's backup in his first three seasons before starting next to the franchise player in his fourth year. After that, he reached free agency and joined the New York Knicks, where he assumed the starting point guard role.

In all three of his seasons with the Knicks, Brunson has averaged at least 24 points and six assists while shooting at least 47.5% overall. He's also improved his long-range shooting, having shot 39.9% from deep over his three seasons in the Big Apple.

Plus, he just led the Knicks to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2000.

Manu Ginobili

Drafted: 57th overall (round 2, pick 28) in 1999
Accomplishments: Hall of Fame, 4x NBA Champion, 2x All-NBA, 1x Sixth Man of the Year, 2x All-Star

This is kind of cheating because Ginobili was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 1999, but his entire NBA career was played after 2000. Plus, he's awesome, so he deserves a spot on this list.

The second-to-last pick in that draft played three seasons in Italy before joining the Spurs, where he made an instant impact as a rookie. His regular-season stats were relatively average (7.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.4 steals). But, like most great players, he raised his game in the playoffs with 9.4 points, 3.8 boards, 2.9 assists, and 1.7 steals, shooting 38.7% from three off the bench as he helped his team to win the NBA Championship.

He became a full-time starter in his third NBA season, which ended in another Spurs title, and three years later, he won Sixth Man of the Year.

Whether he was a starter or the sixth man, and whether he was tasked with scoring, assisting, or making a defensive play, Ginobili was always up to the challenge. That's why he's a four-time champion and Hall of Famer despite not having all-time great statistics.

Marc Gasol

Drafted: 48th overall (round 2, pick 18) in 2007
Accomplishments: 1x NBA Champion, 1x Defensive Player of the Year, 1x All-Defensive, 2x All-NBA (1x First-Team), 3x All-Star

Marc Gasol was something of a precursor to another player on this list, Nikola Jokic, but defining him that way greatly undersells the career he had.

The younger of the Gasol brothers did a little bit of everything throughout his NBA tenure with career averages of 14.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.4 blocks on 48.1% overall shooting and 36.0% three-point shooting.

Those numbers only led to three career All-Star appearances. But, he also received MVP votes twice and won the 2012/13 Defensive Player of the Year Award with 1.0 steal and 1.7 blocks per game while posting an individual defensive rating of just 98 points allowed per 100 possessions.

Gasol also became an NBA Champion in 2019, after the Memphis Grizzlies ended his 11-year stay there by trading him to the Toronto Raptors. Gasol started all 24 playoff games and averaged 9.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists to 0.9 turnovers, 0.9 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 30.6 minutes per game.

In the 2019 NBA Finals, he averaged 12.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 44.7 percent from the field.

DeAndre Jordan

Drafted: 35th overall pick (round 2, pick 5) in 2008
Accomplishments: 1x NBA Champion, 2x Rebounding Champion, 3x All-NBA (1x First-Team), 2x All-Defensive (2x First-Team), 1x All-Star

From 'Lob City' with the Los Angeles Clippers to his 2015 free agency saga to winning the 2023 NBA Championship with the Nuggets, DeAndre Jordan has had an eventful — and successful — career.

The 6-foot-11, 265-pound center is rarely the most talented player on the court, but he has parlayed his height and strength to become one of the most efficient scorers in NBA history, as he ranks first all-time with a career effective field goal percentage of 67.7%.

Jordan is also a top-tier rebounder. He's a two-time rebounding champion and has averaged double-digit boards in seven of his 17 NBA seasons. He's also an effective screener, as he finished first and second in screen assists in 2015/16 and 2016/17, respectively, per NBA tracking stats.

The 2023 NBA Champion only got three minutes of playing time in that year's Finals, but he was a 34-year-old backup for Nikola Jokic at that point. It does nothing to take away from the rest of his career, in which he made himself into an archetype for effective interior play.