Yes his post was thorough but I said essentially the same thing.
But since you need a link and stats here you go.
http://82games.com/nbadraftpicks.htm
As opposed to football
http://walterfootball.com/nfldraftology408_2.php
So to sum it up Football has about a 50% hit rate on 1st round picks while Basketball is much less.
Now was that so hard?
Unfortunately, neither of those links back up the claim that
And after the top 10 picks in basketball there is a 20% chance they get a second contract
But I don't really care about that claim. Just thought it was a made up stat... If you have the numbers on it, or a link to it, I'd like to see it. If not, ok... just say so.
As to the merits of the football vs. basketball draft hit rates... No one's arguing that it's easier to hit on basketball picks than on football picks. I do think it's easier to "hit" on football picks, for a number of reasons. It goes back to the facts that football teams have to put more players on the field at one time, there are more roster spots, etc.
Basketball players generally have longer careers because the damage done to the body is not as high as football. This leads to guys often hanging around 15-20 seasons, which decreases the likelihood a draft pick sticks.
Genghis Khan came in and made the blanket statement that it's easier to replace a guy in football than in basketball... It may be true, it may not be true... but I don't know how you quantify that. It depends on how you define the term "replace." Are you just talking about filling the departed player's roster spot? That's simple in either league. Are you talking about replacing an elite guy with similar level talent? Yeah that's hard to do in any sport. Elite players at any position aren't easy to find. I doubt the Dolphins would say it's been easy to replace Marino. It took years for the Cowboys to find a suitable replacement for Aikman, Irvin, Woodson, etc.