Yes. The 5 ball potential hall of famer with a 5k starting salary can be anywhere on the list. Same goes for the 2/2 scrub that no one wants. The grey balls mean nothing.
Thank you for the explanation. It amazes me how I've done anything well in this game at all not having information like that all this time. It had never occurred to me before that they would intentionally mislead you.
The draft/scouting page says: "Your scouts have provided a very rough estimate of the player's skills and potential based on the word on the streets. Expect this evaluation to be fairly inaccurate."
There's a big gap between fairly inaccurate and totally random, isn't there? At least fairly inaccurate suggests that there is some rhyme or reason, that if you have to start somewhere the guys at the top shouldn't be completely awful potentially.
Word on the street might overhype a guy, but it's pretty unlikely that it would call a guy with no skills or potential a 5-ball prospect at any point. I could understand if a guy initially shown as 5 might drop as low as 3 when scouted, and that there can be some surprises among the 1-ball guys. But it should have at least some accuracy, shouldn't it?
Now at least I understand why I have yet to draft a great prospect.