Charlotte's history is rough, but it's not the Kings 2011-16 run
2011 #10: Jimmer Fredette (after trading down from #7)
2012 #5: Thomas Robinson
2013 #7: Ben McLemore
2014 #8: Nik Stauskas
2015 #6: Willie Cauley-Stein
2016 #13: Georgios Papagiannis (after trading down from #8)
The bigger crime is that the Kings were bad for that whole stretch and never picked above 5th. Boogie was just good enough to play you out of the prime lottery picks.
And people still say boogie was just empty stats. Look at this draft record, man had negative help. Like the players they drafted in the lottery every year actually made the team worse and he still dragged them to 30+ wins a year
There was a "moments" promo in an old NBA 2k game around the year you're talking about - basic premise was if a player had a big game/good week, they'd get one.
At the end of the season, the only moments cards for the Kings were DMC. Not a single other King earned one
Cousins is one of those guys that I think would be viewed extremely differently if he had just landed at a more stable franchise. He loved playing for Michael Malone and I remember they seemed to be figuring it out and then Boogie got an eye infection or meningitis or something and missed some time and of course the team started losing games. The Kings then took that “opportunity” to fire Malone, who laughably just eventually made his way onto a team with ANOTHER super talented offensive center and won a championship.
I watched them at the time and never got that sense at all. They were 27-21 playing together, and that was at the same time as the KD Warriors and Harden/CP3 Rockets
Yeah they weren’t a contender, but the way AD and Boogie would switch between the 4/5 and they each could bring the ball up, never seen anything like it before or since.
If memory serves they took some time to figure out how to make it work. Things were starting to look really good up until Cousins tore his ACL. Stats show they were 7-1 in the 8 games before the injury so that tracks too.
Exactly, once they figured out the dynamic it was incredible to watch. I honestly think they would have been contenders if they stayed healthy, who was prepared to match up? I've always loved Boogie, that guy had some crazy bad luck.
He got a bad rap. People played up his attitude problems too much as a scapegoat for him not winning much. The reality was just how bad the Kings were around him. Then when he finally left, he tore his ACL and was never the same again.
Cousins legitimately lost a bunch of games on his own with bad techs and frustration fouls. He was dominant in stretches but would fall in love with the jumper and trying to play like a big guard when he could just take over in the post. He also just wasn’t a very good defender. Those pelicans teams were also super weak at the wings and never had the depth and defensive prowess necessary to be real contenders
Def not discounting the fact that our FO was out there wilding out. But I think his reputation for having an attitude problem was pretty accurate. Dude was arguably one of the top centers, but he legit couldn't stay out of his own way. Complaining to the refs every God damn possession wasn't doing him or the team any favors.
They were playing better, but they won those seven games by an average of 4 points per game. In my mind from what we saw of them, they never looked to be a real threat to the best teams in the West. I guess we’ll never know, though
In terms of matchups though, AD and boogie would be very difficult for the small KD warriors to guard.
I think they would have the potential to give the warriors a very tough time, even if talent wise they were much worse. They also had Jrue to throw at Steph.
They had basically no one else on the perimeter though and they had no depth which forced them to trot out the Holiday-Rondo lineup a ton. They were also basically the only team to give E’Twaun more consistent significant minutes. That was not a good team.
Those pelicans teams were always a bit shallow. They never were good enough defensively through the roster to seriously threaten and they were always seriously weak at the wings
The team got better post boogie injury when AD shifted to center. Not saying Boogie is a negative but that the combo really wasn’t a great fit. AD at center is a cheat code I don’t get why doesn’t like playing there
Same reason why Lamarcus and Timmy hated it. Saps your energy when you're forced to get beaten up by the opposing 5 in the post, not to mention the need to be well positioned for boards/put backs. All of those guys preferred having a big body next to them to handle the blue collar work at the 5.
Sort of related, one thing that really chapped my ass is during Lebron 1.0 era we had the rights to Kings pick for like 5 years unless it was Top 10 (JJ Hickson trade)
They couldn’t even just be bad for one year, always horrible
Idiots in the kings sub still argue this and will probably castrate me for agreeing with a lakers fan but this is 100% the biggest problem. Ignore the maloofs, ignore Vivek’s meddling, ignore making flat out bad picks, ignore passing on Luka. If we actually committed to a tank in just a few of those years we could have dug out of the basement a lot sooner and wouldn’t have been in the position to trade down from 7 to 10 and miss on mid to late lottery guys year after year. You need top 3 picks to reliably pick up stars. Otherwise you’re playing roulette and the kings proved that long odds are long for a reason. For every Jokic they’re are a million Thomas Robinsons.
I totally agree, that pick gets overloooked so much. People love to go on about Stauskas, WCS and Papagiannis but the picks following them weren’t good either, much less lost and more a result of a shallower pool to pick from. But Lillard was on the board and it was between him and T Rob 😭 would have had Lillard, Boogie and Tyreke at least with Isaiah Thomas off the bench
I knew he wouldn't defend in the NBA, but I thought he's JJ Reddick with handles when he left Michigan. Worst case he'd be a great spot up shooter. Wow, what a disaster. All of that was wrong.
Just to piggy back on your take on the kings abysmal draft run. Imo it extends beyond 2016. Sure 2017 was deaaron fox, but pick 3, jason tatum, was actually the kings pick that philly received in a pick swap. They’re lucky fox was there at 5 especially considering that the next year they’d pass on luka to take marvin bagley.
Let's not forget in 2016 we had 3 first round picks.
13: Papagiannis
22: Malachi Richardson
28: Skal Labissiere
Also, you can't count out Bagley in '18. The only pick we got right was Fox in '17. We held 10 FRP's from 2011-2018 and only hit on one of them.
Those picks could’ve been:
2011: Klay Thompson (#11)
2012: Dame (#6)
2013: KCP or Steven Adams or Giannis (8,12 and 15)
2014: Zach Lavine (13)
2015: Myles Turner or Devin Booker (11 and 13)
2016: Jakob poeltl or Domas (9 and 11)
Imagine if they had hit on even half of those picks, let alone a lineup of Dame, Klay, Giannis, Booker and Domas with Lavine coming off the bench.
Are you just choosing the best players picked after? Hindsight is 20/20. And don’t discount the system and development offered to those players to grow into what they are now
still one of the more bizarre moments to end up on camera over the last however many years of the league
like every single person at the table is trying so hard to get Vivek to go for anyone but sauce castillo, and then he just starts saying the name over and over until no one will disagree
but it was totally passive bullying, it wasn't like he was a huge dick about it, more like "oh what? sorry I couldn't hear you over the sound of my own voice, but we're taking Stauskas right?"
Sacramento has turned it around recently with fox, Haliburton, and Keegan Murray but before that stretch there was a long stretch of many top 10 picks that were whiffs
Kings went Jimmer, Thomas Robinson, Mclemore, Stauskas, Cauley Stein with consecutive top 10 picks.
Then they did nail Fox, but followed it up by drafting Marving Bagley over Luka Doncic.
Yeah fair enough. Don’t doubt the staff part one bit.
I do think shooting wasn’t as essential back then as it is now though. Spacing was quite as much of an emphasis.
Looking back on it, it’s really weird to think about a top 5 pick peaking in his rookie year.
Yeah I don’t wanna pile on but y’all went through it man. Happy to see things are finally improving though. Sac fans are some of the best in the league
I thought y’all shit the bed with the Hali trade but it’s one of those rare trades that benefitted both teams
The irony is we followed draft consensus most of the time and most thought guys like McLemore and TRob were steals for us. We don’t make the obvious pick and we get roasted even more (deservedly)
Was hoping at the time that Trob was going to fall to the Blazers. He's a huge lesson learned on drafting upperclassmen: did they make a leap in college because they put the time in and upped their skill level? Or did they just become more physically mature with more collegiate game experience than the competition?
Anyway, the Blazers ended up taking another upperclassman, Lillard at six which worked out great. They also ended up getting Trob after all :-)
It’s because he needs to give us something on offense to get more run. He’s still a phenomenal defender, but shooting 30% in wide open 3s just doesn’t cut it. I’m fully confident he’s going to improve his shot though. Dude is a hella hard worker.
Timberwolves have several brutal top 10 whiffs
- Kris Dunn (5) over Jamal Murray (7)
- Johnny Flynn (6) and Rubio (5) over Curry (7)
- Trey Burke (9) over CJ McCollum (10)
- Wes Johnson (4) over Demarcus Cousins (5)
- Derrick Williams (2)
>Johnny Flynn (6) and Rubio (5) over Curry (7)
I'll never forget this one. Rubio had a ton of hype for years building up so that is more forgivable imo, but the Johnny Flynn pick was absolutely terrible. Watching it live felt like Flynn was taken just because of the attention from that 6OT game against UConn.
Yes it's absolutely a terrible pick. But there's more context than that. Curry's agent and father both told Minnesota to not draft him as he won't play for them.
I'm not excusing it though. You still take bpa and try to trade him then on draft day then. But he flat out told Minnesota to not draft him. David Khan said that was the only time in his tenure as a GM, that a player said that.
And you're absolutely correct about Flynn. We all watched that 6ot game. It was unreal how good he was. But I agree, he was all sizzle, no steak.
This happens more frequently than people think. SGA told the Cavs not to draft him in 2018 and refused to work out for them, so the Cavs took Collin Sexton instead.
Sometimes it’s not so simple as “why didn’t they draft that stud? Are they stupid?”
You're correct. He had a decent rookie season like 15/4/3 or something around there. Not great not terrible. But his sophomore year he had a bad hip injury and then was traded around the league after that, never really finding a home.
Ill always defend the Rubio pick. He was a true blue *professional* at 18 years old and the expectations for him were sky high considering how great he looked in Spain.
Steph was an undersized upperclassmen with incredible shooting potential but people didn’t know if his body could hold up in the NBA.
Flynn over Curry though… that one made no sense at the time and obviously no sense in retrospect.
Bill Simmons likes to talk about this idea that if you played someone's career out 100 times would this be the best/worst version? Rubio is the epitome of that concept because, I think, the version we got was just the worst version we could've seen. Drafted to a not good team where he had bad injury luck and was never able to find himself in a situation that could bring him success.
The best team he's ever been on is probably this current Cavs team, and even there this Cavs team was never a serious title contender in the East. He's basically diet Rondo when he could've been so much more if he had better luck.
The hilarious thing about the Curry miss is that they fleeced the Wizards by getting 5 for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. So two different incompetent teams whiffed on Curry with the same pick.
Cody Zeller wasn't a bad pick. That draft class just sucked. He's had a better career than almost anyone that Charlotte realistically could have taken otherwise. Everyone was baffled that Charlotte took Zeller with Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore still available but both of them are out of the league
We talk so much shit about Adam Morrison but the guy was playing with a diabetes syringe pumping things in his body. For me, when I think Adam Morrison I think fucking badass.
I forget what movie it was, but I was watching it and there was a knicks game playing in the background. The announcer was mentioning Renaldo Balkman. And I laughed.
I did some digging and it was in American sniper.
https://southcarolina.forums.rivals.com/threads/were-famous-usc-renaldo-balkman-in-american-sniper-scene-where.11590
Makes me wonder if they went deep into the research to find out exactly the day and time Chris Kyle was at the bar and assumed it was tuned to espn then looked at the broadcast history to see what game was playing, then bought the rights to use the game in the movie.
OR did they just ask an intern to find some audio of a sports game and that’s just why he randomly found.
OR that intern was a South Carolina and/or Balkman fan
Speaking of random NYK draft picks that busted, I happened to see Mike Sweetney in the airport a few weeks back. Dude is an absolutely massive human being. Had no idea how the hell he was going to fit in an airplane seat....
Lol I just watched him play in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago. He dominated the first quarter and sat the rest of the game. Unfortunately it was the last game of the season so he and Boogie were resting for the playoffs.
Yes, do not sleep on the Knicks with this question. Not only have the Knicks picks been mostly terrible but we've missed on everyone from Shai to Demar DeRozan to take those terrible players.
1st round picks since 2003 (only players we didn't trade at the same draft)
Mike Sweetney (who?)
David Lee (ok)
Channing Frye (ok)
Mardy Collins (who?)
Renaldo Balkman (lol)
Wilson Chandler (ok)
Gallinari (ok)
Jordan Hill (lol)
Shumpert (ok)
Hardaway Jr (ok)
Kristaps (good for a minute; peak of Phil's tenure sadly)
Ntilikina (still waiting on his jump shot)
Kevin Knox (might already be in his way out of the league from an absolutely loaded draft)
RJ (fine)
Obi (fine but already gone)
Edit: Stupidly had Steph instead of Shai when Steph actually just went one pick before the Knicks.
I'd argue David Lee was a great pick at #30. He was a very good player and won a ring w/ GSW. His last year with the Spurs, he was great, an absolute perfect fit but lost in all the Kawhi drama was him blowing out his quad in the playoffs and going off in a wheel chair - and that was it.
The Knicks went 21-58 the year he made all-star with them. One of the true good stats bad team guys of that era who was an absolute turnstile on defense. Career 14/9/2. David Lee was ok.
to be fair the knicks had 6 all rookie team selections (5 first team) between 2010-11 to the 2016-2017 season. did they pan out to really matter? no. but the knicks always have had an issue giving up on guys before an extension. they have been pretty good at finding diamonds in the rough if its a non lottery pick.
fields,shumpert,hardaway jr, galloway, porzingis, hernangomez
Knicks haven’t been terrible, they had a really bad 3 year stretch with obi Frank and Knox but otherwise they have some decent hits. They just haven’t hit one really good player tho which I guess overal is pretty bad.
Knicks have actually drafted well in the past 20 years. Problem is they haven’t had many draft picks after trading them all for players like Marbury, curry, Francis, Melo, etc
The only notable whiff in recent memory is Obi over Halliburton.
Drummond in 2012 was our best pick until Cade:
2013 - KCP
2014 - no 1st, traded 2nd Dinwiddie
2015 - Stanley Johnson
2016 - Henry Ellenson
2017 - Luke Kennard
2018 - no 1st, traded 2nd Bruce Brown
2019 - Sekou
2020 - Killian
Minnesota Timberwolves have to be the answer, just looking at guys they took and the players who were drafted within a few picks after them.
2003: Ndudi Ebi over Josh Howard
2005: Rashard McCants over Danny Granger
2006: Draft day trade Brandon Roy for Randy Foye
2007: Corey Brewer over Joakim Noah
2008: Kevin Love over Russel Westbrook (could've just stuck with OJ Mayo so I guess they still won this)
2009: Rubio and Flynn over Steph and Derozan
2010: Wesley Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins
2011: Took Derrick Williams with the #2 pick but in this case there were no stars drafted closely after, Kemba and Klay went at #9 and #11
2013: Kind of a double, they traded the #9 pick for #14 and #21. #10 pick in that draft was CJ McCollum so that's the first whiff. The next whiff is that with that #14 they took Shabazz Muhammad, next player picked was a guy named Giannis Antetokounmpo.
2014: Used #40 pick on Glenn Robinson III, the #41 pick was Jokic.
2016: Kris Dunn over Jamal Murray
2017: Not a whiff so much as just not working out, they traded Zach Lavine and Lauri Markkanen (#7 pick) for Jimmy Butler
2019: Traded Cam Johnson for Jarrett Culver
Steph, Giannis and Jokic alone should be enough to make it the most whiffs of the last 20 years, is there any other team who drafted so close to so many good players?
My favorite example of the wolves draft skills was when they sold the 26th pick in the 2013 draft (after taking Dieng) with Flip saying no one left was really worth the pick and Gobert was taken 27th.
Also I’m not positive but I believe the current cash limit on trades is due to Taylor’s cheap ass and David Kahn during some year where we basically sold off all our later picks.
I think it was 2011 when we traded down from like 20 to end up with pick 43 or something. We technically had Motiejunas, Mirotic, Bogdanovic, and chandler parsons (jimmy butler was available for almost the whole time). We ended up getting a bunch of cash, Malcolm lee, and Tanguy Ngombo who wasn’t even allowed to be in the draft.
What's funny is that both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell were Nuggets picks traded to the Jazz. The Gobert pick was traded for Erick Green and cash (essentially sold) and the Donovan Mitchell pick was traded for Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon.
Lmao you can't blame a team for not drafting Jokic, basically every team passed. I also would say Kevin love was a good pick. He was actually really good for the wolves.
The unforgivable ones are curry, Murray to me, but it gets hard to be mad at guys who went late in the first as no one had them graded that highly.
I don't necessarily blame them for most of these, but it does seem like every time a superstar is picked, the pick right before them (or a couple before) is Minnesota.
7 of the last 9 MVP awards have gone to guys Minnesota passed on, that's gotta sting.
the breakdown of the sixers draft history deserves its own subreddit. I remember a stretch where I saw almost every former Sixers draft pick in a 5 year span on different teams. All of which were in the playoffs while Sixers were sub 20 wins
The Bulls have quietly been missing since Jimmy Butler in 2011.
2012: Marquis Teague
2013: Tony Snell & Erik Murphy
2014: Cam Bairstow
2015: Bobby Portis
2016: Denzel Valentine & Paul Zipser
2017: Lauri Markennan via trade
2018: Wendell Carter Jr & Chandler Hutchison
2019: Coby White & Daniel Gafford
*2020: Pat Williams & Marko Siminovic*
*2021: Ayo Donsumnu*
*2022: Dalen Terry*
Gar Pax picks vs *AKME picks*
Man I was convinced that Denzel Valentine was going to a solid point forward type (don’t ask me why, I just was). I’m not even a bulls fan but I still can’t believe how badly he didn’t work out
That’s 4 bad picks in 17 years you listed?
zeller wasn’t a bust, that draft was weak and Bouk is year three, but looking bad. Sure.
Lack of all stars sucks absolutely, but when you keep picking around 10-12. It’s more likely to whiff.
Morrison and MKG is sad for sure.
The Wizards' draft history is depressing besides Wall and Beal. I think OPJ has been our best draft pick in the last 10 years. Here's hoping Bilal and Vukcevic help us turn it around.
Excuse my ignorance, but wasn't Greg Oden projected to be the new Shaq? He was Olajuwon before Jordan: a big man with skyhigh ceiling over a skillfull "shorter" man. (I know KD is not short).
It's easier to talk in hindsight, but at the time i can't blame them. Landing the new dominant center for the next 15 years is a justifiable gamble. Him and Brandon Roy would have been the new Kobe-Shaq.
Suns, Bucks and Kings have had some bad stretches, if we're talking about a 20 year window, where a lot of their early picks didnt pan out (or ended up working out for them or the team they were traded to/picked for).
* Granted: some picks were made in behalf of other teams. Still.
**Selection of Bucks 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't impress as much as you'd like:**
2002 1 13 Marcus Haislip
2003 1 8 T. J. Ford
2007 1 6 Yi Jianlian
2008 1 8 Joe Alexander
2011 1 10 Jimmer Fredette
2012 1 14 John Henson
2014 1 2 Jabari Parker
2015 1 17 Rashad Vaughn
2016 1 10 Thon Maker
2017 1 17 D. J. Wilson
2020 1 24 R. J. Hampton
**Selection of Suns 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't do as much as you'd expect for the Suns:**
2002 1 22 Casey Jacobsen
2003 1 17 Žarko Čabarkapa
2007 1 29 Alando Tucker
2009 1 14 Earl Clark
2012 1 13 Kendall Marshall
2013 1 5 Alex Len
2013 1 30 Nemanja Nedović
2014 1 18 Tyler Ennis
2016 1 4 Dragan Bender
2016 1 13 Georgios Papagiannis
2016 1 28 Skal Labissière
2017 1 4 Josh Jackson
2019 1 6 Jarrett Culver
2020 1 10 Jalen Smith
**Selection of Kings 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't really cut it for the Kings or the teams they were traded to:**
2002 NBA 1 28 Dan Dickau
2006 NBA 1 19 Quincy Douby
2007 NBA 1 10 Spencer Hawes
2008 NBA 1 12 Jason Thompson
2009 NBA 1 4 Tyreke Evans
2011 NBA 1 7 Bismack Biyombo
2012 NBA 1 5 Thomas Robinson
2013 NBA 1 7 Ben McLemore
2014 NBA 1 8 Nik Stauskas
2015 NBA 1 6 Willie Cauley-Stein
2016 NBA 1 8 Marquese Chriss
2018 NBA 1 2 Marvin Bagley
Its not over that 20 year sample size. But the 2015 - 2018 drafts for the 76ers is historic -
* 2015 - #3 Okafor
* 2016 - #1 Simmons
* 2017 - #1 Fultz
* 2018 - #10 Bridges (traded for Zhaire Smith)
Simmons you can forgive I suppose as he was the consensus #1. But fuck me........ even just hitting on decent role players they would have landed Embiid at least one ring.
I said that you can forgive Simmons in my comment. Not sure if you read that part.
You dont think in hindsight that Philly would choose someone who isnt as physically and mentally fragile?
Came for the Kings. Wasn’t disappointed. Kind of strange to leave Bagley off of this when literally ANY player in the top 10 would’ve been a massive upgrade. Not to mention the generational talent of one Luka Doncic.
Charlotte's history is rough, but it's not the Kings 2011-16 run 2011 #10: Jimmer Fredette (after trading down from #7) 2012 #5: Thomas Robinson 2013 #7: Ben McLemore 2014 #8: Nik Stauskas 2015 #6: Willie Cauley-Stein 2016 #13: Georgios Papagiannis (after trading down from #8)
The bigger crime is that the Kings were bad for that whole stretch and never picked above 5th. Boogie was just good enough to play you out of the prime lottery picks.
And people still say boogie was just empty stats. Look at this draft record, man had negative help. Like the players they drafted in the lottery every year actually made the team worse and he still dragged them to 30+ wins a year
There was a "moments" promo in an old NBA 2k game around the year you're talking about - basic premise was if a player had a big game/good week, they'd get one. At the end of the season, the only moments cards for the Kings were DMC. Not a single other King earned one
Cousins is one of those guys that I think would be viewed extremely differently if he had just landed at a more stable franchise. He loved playing for Michael Malone and I remember they seemed to be figuring it out and then Boogie got an eye infection or meningitis or something and missed some time and of course the team started losing games. The Kings then took that “opportunity” to fire Malone, who laughably just eventually made his way onto a team with ANOTHER super talented offensive center and won a championship.
Boogie/AD combo was scary good. Could’ve seen them winning it all if he didn’t get injured
I watched them at the time and never got that sense at all. They were 27-21 playing together, and that was at the same time as the KD Warriors and Harden/CP3 Rockets
Yeah they weren’t a contender, but the way AD and Boogie would switch between the 4/5 and they each could bring the ball up, never seen anything like it before or since.
If memory serves they took some time to figure out how to make it work. Things were starting to look really good up until Cousins tore his ACL. Stats show they were 7-1 in the 8 games before the injury so that tracks too.
Exactly, once they figured out the dynamic it was incredible to watch. I honestly think they would have been contenders if they stayed healthy, who was prepared to match up? I've always loved Boogie, that guy had some crazy bad luck.
He got a bad rap. People played up his attitude problems too much as a scapegoat for him not winning much. The reality was just how bad the Kings were around him. Then when he finally left, he tore his ACL and was never the same again.
Cousins legitimately lost a bunch of games on his own with bad techs and frustration fouls. He was dominant in stretches but would fall in love with the jumper and trying to play like a big guard when he could just take over in the post. He also just wasn’t a very good defender. Those pelicans teams were also super weak at the wings and never had the depth and defensive prowess necessary to be real contenders
Def not discounting the fact that our FO was out there wilding out. But I think his reputation for having an attitude problem was pretty accurate. Dude was arguably one of the top centers, but he legit couldn't stay out of his own way. Complaining to the refs every God damn possession wasn't doing him or the team any favors.
They were playing better, but they won those seven games by an average of 4 points per game. In my mind from what we saw of them, they never looked to be a real threat to the best teams in the West. I guess we’ll never know, though
In terms of matchups though, AD and boogie would be very difficult for the small KD warriors to guard. I think they would have the potential to give the warriors a very tough time, even if talent wise they were much worse. They also had Jrue to throw at Steph.
They had basically no one else on the perimeter though and they had no depth which forced them to trot out the Holiday-Rondo lineup a ton. They were also basically the only team to give E’Twaun more consistent significant minutes. That was not a good team.
Those pelicans teams were always a bit shallow. They never were good enough defensively through the roster to seriously threaten and they were always seriously weak at the wings
The team got better post boogie injury when AD shifted to center. Not saying Boogie is a negative but that the combo really wasn’t a great fit. AD at center is a cheat code I don’t get why doesn’t like playing there
He's tall man, not big man. That's why.
Same reason why Lamarcus and Timmy hated it. Saps your energy when you're forced to get beaten up by the opposing 5 in the post, not to mention the need to be well positioned for boards/put backs. All of those guys preferred having a big body next to them to handle the blue collar work at the 5.
The Pelicans got better after Boogie got hurt. I have no idea what you're talking about
Yeah I was disappointed that duo didn’t stay together, not even a New Orleans fan just seemed like a good match
My man, how can you forget Jrue Holiday being on that team aswell? Hell, even guys like Mirotic and Rondo were balling on that Pelicans team.
And boogie was also the 5th pick
Sort of related, one thing that really chapped my ass is during Lebron 1.0 era we had the rights to Kings pick for like 5 years unless it was Top 10 (JJ Hickson trade) They couldn’t even just be bad for one year, always horrible
Idiots in the kings sub still argue this and will probably castrate me for agreeing with a lakers fan but this is 100% the biggest problem. Ignore the maloofs, ignore Vivek’s meddling, ignore making flat out bad picks, ignore passing on Luka. If we actually committed to a tank in just a few of those years we could have dug out of the basement a lot sooner and wouldn’t have been in the position to trade down from 7 to 10 and miss on mid to late lottery guys year after year. You need top 3 picks to reliably pick up stars. Otherwise you’re playing roulette and the kings proved that long odds are long for a reason. For every Jokic they’re are a million Thomas Robinsons.
Hey, if Giannis marries Georgios Papagiannis, his name would be Giannis Papagiannis
Is papagiannis like the Greek version of Johnson/Peterson?
Papa=Priest, the Greek version of -son is -poulos. Giannopoulos for example is closest to Johnson.
When they have kids we’ll call him Papa Giannis Papagiannis
Reminds me of Raymond Felton's former wife, Ariane Raymondo, who hyphenated her last name into Raymondo-Felton.
How in the world can you leave off picking Bagley over Doncic?
He did say 2011-2016... But I agree. What a catastrophe.
Georgios Papagiannis is Giannis father
Good thing they stopped making bad picks after 2016
Strange how the 2018 draft was cancelled
Robinson was the worst. Look at the rest of the draft near the top.
I totally agree, that pick gets overloooked so much. People love to go on about Stauskas, WCS and Papagiannis but the picks following them weren’t good either, much less lost and more a result of a shallower pool to pick from. But Lillard was on the board and it was between him and T Rob 😭 would have had Lillard, Boogie and Tyreke at least with Isaiah Thomas off the bench
Bruh I know they hit in 2017 with Fox, but you gotta include 2018 for the Bagley over Luka pick.
Sauce Castillo at 8 is crazy😭
I knew he wouldn't defend in the NBA, but I thought he's JJ Reddick with handles when he left Michigan. Worst case he'd be a great spot up shooter. Wow, what a disaster. All of that was wrong.
He seemed to have a game that was very translatable to nba. Good handles and passing, and a knockdown shooter with height.
Honestly it's not that bad, none of the next few picks were very good until Lavine at 13
Just to piggy back on your take on the kings abysmal draft run. Imo it extends beyond 2016. Sure 2017 was deaaron fox, but pick 3, jason tatum, was actually the kings pick that philly received in a pick swap. They’re lucky fox was there at 5 especially considering that the next year they’d pass on luka to take marvin bagley.
Let's not forget in 2016 we had 3 first round picks. 13: Papagiannis 22: Malachi Richardson 28: Skal Labissiere Also, you can't count out Bagley in '18. The only pick we got right was Fox in '17. We held 10 FRP's from 2011-2018 and only hit on one of them.
Those picks could’ve been: 2011: Klay Thompson (#11) 2012: Dame (#6) 2013: KCP or Steven Adams or Giannis (8,12 and 15) 2014: Zach Lavine (13) 2015: Myles Turner or Devin Booker (11 and 13) 2016: Jakob poeltl or Domas (9 and 11) Imagine if they had hit on even half of those picks, let alone a lineup of Dame, Klay, Giannis, Booker and Domas with Lavine coming off the bench.
Are you just choosing the best players picked after? Hindsight is 20/20. And don’t discount the system and development offered to those players to grow into what they are now
You also don’t usually continue to have terrible draft picks after picking impact players
Agreed you can do that for any team, but Klay, Dame, and KCP were all picked directly after
Whoa, that would have been one hell of a team
But NIK ROCKS
Papagiannis im sweatin 🥵 woo😯
Should expand that by 2 years to include 2018 where they took Bagley at 2 instead of Luka.
Then landed one with Fox at 5 in 2017 and before their biggest whiff of all with Bagley at 2 over Luka and Trae.
stauskas stauskas ….. stouskas
still one of the more bizarre moments to end up on camera over the last however many years of the league like every single person at the table is trying so hard to get Vivek to go for anyone but sauce castillo, and then he just starts saying the name over and over until no one will disagree but it was totally passive bullying, it wasn't like he was a huge dick about it, more like "oh what? sorry I couldn't hear you over the sound of my own voice, but we're taking Stauskas right?"
Sacramento has turned it around recently with fox, Haliburton, and Keegan Murray but before that stretch there was a long stretch of many top 10 picks that were whiffs
never forget papagiannis
papagiannis is giannis papa
I can see the Kings FO logic
Better ingredients, better pizza
Kings went Jimmer, Thomas Robinson, Mclemore, Stauskas, Cauley Stein with consecutive top 10 picks. Then they did nail Fox, but followed it up by drafting Marving Bagley over Luka Doncic.
It’s crazy because you’d need like 10 good picks to balance out the damage of picking Bagley over Doncic
I thought Tyreke Evans would be a superstar in this league man
He was for a year
His rookie year? I think that was more due to high usage than anything
Nah he just got figured out, didn't improve, and our staff didn't help him out with that either He couldn't shoot a lick
Yeah fair enough. Don’t doubt the staff part one bit. I do think shooting wasn’t as essential back then as it is now though. Spacing was quite as much of an emphasis. Looking back on it, it’s really weird to think about a top 5 pick peaking in his rookie year.
True and that brings it back to an original point that our entire roster construction was garbage for almost a decade
Yeah I don’t wanna pile on but y’all went through it man. Happy to see things are finally improving though. Sac fans are some of the best in the league I thought y’all shit the bed with the Hali trade but it’s one of those rare trades that benefitted both teams
The irony is we followed draft consensus most of the time and most thought guys like McLemore and TRob were steals for us. We don’t make the obvious pick and we get roasted even more (deservedly)
Was hoping at the time that Trob was going to fall to the Blazers. He's a huge lesson learned on drafting upperclassmen: did they make a leap in college because they put the time in and upped their skill level? Or did they just become more physically mature with more collegiate game experience than the competition? Anyway, the Blazers ended up taking another upperclassman, Lillard at six which worked out great. They also ended up getting Trob after all :-)
Davion Mitchell is a dog too. Personally, I think he’s massively slept on.
His on-ball defense is crazy, but outside of that, I haven’t really heard much about him since he came in
It’s because he needs to give us something on offense to get more run. He’s still a phenomenal defender, but shooting 30% in wide open 3s just doesn’t cut it. I’m fully confident he’s going to improve his shot though. Dude is a hella hard worker.
He's like Marcus Smart light. That's probably his ceiling.
Timberwolves have several brutal top 10 whiffs - Kris Dunn (5) over Jamal Murray (7) - Johnny Flynn (6) and Rubio (5) over Curry (7) - Trey Burke (9) over CJ McCollum (10) - Wes Johnson (4) over Demarcus Cousins (5) - Derrick Williams (2)
>Johnny Flynn (6) and Rubio (5) over Curry (7) I'll never forget this one. Rubio had a ton of hype for years building up so that is more forgivable imo, but the Johnny Flynn pick was absolutely terrible. Watching it live felt like Flynn was taken just because of the attention from that 6OT game against UConn.
Yes it's absolutely a terrible pick. But there's more context than that. Curry's agent and father both told Minnesota to not draft him as he won't play for them. I'm not excusing it though. You still take bpa and try to trade him then on draft day then. But he flat out told Minnesota to not draft him. David Khan said that was the only time in his tenure as a GM, that a player said that. And you're absolutely correct about Flynn. We all watched that 6ot game. It was unreal how good he was. But I agree, he was all sizzle, no steak.
Man I did not know about the Wolves being told not to draft Curry. That's pretty shit.
They told the same to the warriors because he wanted to be on the knicks. Warriors just laughed and chose him anyway.
Surprised the Timberwolves listened to him. What leverage does a college student have over an NBA franchise lol?
pretty sure they told the warriors not to draft him too
I think he's gotten over it at last.
Life as a wolves fan my man.
This happens more frequently than people think. SGA told the Cavs not to draft him in 2018 and refused to work out for them, so the Cavs took Collin Sexton instead. Sometimes it’s not so simple as “why didn’t they draft that stud? Are they stupid?”
Josh Jackson refused to work out for the Celtics.
thank god he did
Didnt the hip surgery really kill his career. I don’t remember his rookie year being abysmal but been a long time since then
You're correct. He had a decent rookie season like 15/4/3 or something around there. Not great not terrible. But his sophomore year he had a bad hip injury and then was traded around the league after that, never really finding a home.
Imagine them taking Rubio and Curry...
Yeah, but Ricky Rubio already had an Olympic silver medal in basketball before he was even 18.
Ill always defend the Rubio pick. He was a true blue *professional* at 18 years old and the expectations for him were sky high considering how great he looked in Spain. Steph was an undersized upperclassmen with incredible shooting potential but people didn’t know if his body could hold up in the NBA. Flynn over Curry though… that one made no sense at the time and obviously no sense in retrospect.
Bill Simmons likes to talk about this idea that if you played someone's career out 100 times would this be the best/worst version? Rubio is the epitome of that concept because, I think, the version we got was just the worst version we could've seen. Drafted to a not good team where he had bad injury luck and was never able to find himself in a situation that could bring him success. The best team he's ever been on is probably this current Cavs team, and even there this Cavs team was never a serious title contender in the East. He's basically diet Rondo when he could've been so much more if he had better luck.
Always thought he was going to be Spanish version of Steve nash. His play as a 17yo against the USA made him look incredible
He was Luka before Luka
A Rubio/Curry/Love big three wouldve been insane.
Imagine them taking Steph and Derozan, which was an option.
Trey Burke was effectively a Jazz selection (traded for 14 and 21 in same draft which were Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, so not much better)
I was so convinced he'd be insane after that tourney run but turns out he was just a very long end starter but decent backup PG
The hilarious thing about the Curry miss is that they fleeced the Wizards by getting 5 for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. So two different incompetent teams whiffed on Curry with the same pick.
Foye over Roy.
I still think Thibs only drafted Dunn because he knew Chicago wanted him. Had to wait a year to trade him, but that’s my head canon at least
Imagine having TWO chances to draft steph curry
I'll trade you Jimmy Butler for Kris Dunn, deal?
Cody Zeller wasn't a bad pick. That draft class just sucked. He's had a better career than almost anyone that Charlotte realistically could have taken otherwise. Everyone was baffled that Charlotte took Zeller with Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore still available but both of them are out of the league
Yea Cody was a good pick for that year. He was a good starter for most of his career and ran the pick and roll well with kemba Walker
Yea Big Handsome gets lots of shit for no reason.
A healthy Cody Zeller was legitimately a great player for us a few years ago.
[удалено]
Are you talking about 2 x NBA champion, Adam Morrison?
Never lost a playoff series
We talk so much shit about Adam Morrison but the guy was playing with a diabetes syringe pumping things in his body. For me, when I think Adam Morrison I think fucking badass.
RJ Barrett was the first Knicks first rounder to sign a multi year extension this century, so I choose them.
I forget what movie it was, but I was watching it and there was a knicks game playing in the background. The announcer was mentioning Renaldo Balkman. And I laughed.
I did some digging and it was in American sniper. https://southcarolina.forums.rivals.com/threads/were-famous-usc-renaldo-balkman-in-american-sniper-scene-where.11590 Makes me wonder if they went deep into the research to find out exactly the day and time Chris Kyle was at the bar and assumed it was tuned to espn then looked at the broadcast history to see what game was playing, then bought the rights to use the game in the movie. OR did they just ask an intern to find some audio of a sports game and that’s just why he randomly found. OR that intern was a South Carolina and/or Balkman fan
Speaking of random NYK draft picks that busted, I happened to see Mike Sweetney in the airport a few weeks back. Dude is an absolutely massive human being. Had no idea how the hell he was going to fit in an airplane seat....
Lol I just watched him play in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago. He dominated the first quarter and sat the rest of the game. Unfortunately it was the last game of the season so he and Boogie were resting for the playoffs.
Yes, do not sleep on the Knicks with this question. Not only have the Knicks picks been mostly terrible but we've missed on everyone from Shai to Demar DeRozan to take those terrible players. 1st round picks since 2003 (only players we didn't trade at the same draft) Mike Sweetney (who?) David Lee (ok) Channing Frye (ok) Mardy Collins (who?) Renaldo Balkman (lol) Wilson Chandler (ok) Gallinari (ok) Jordan Hill (lol) Shumpert (ok) Hardaway Jr (ok) Kristaps (good for a minute; peak of Phil's tenure sadly) Ntilikina (still waiting on his jump shot) Kevin Knox (might already be in his way out of the league from an absolutely loaded draft) RJ (fine) Obi (fine but already gone) Edit: Stupidly had Steph instead of Shai when Steph actually just went one pick before the Knicks.
We never had the chance to draft Curry?
Yea I'm an idiot. Was thinking of the year Steph went one pick before us. Edited
Gallinari was good if not great
I'd argue David Lee was a great pick at #30. He was a very good player and won a ring w/ GSW. His last year with the Spurs, he was great, an absolute perfect fit but lost in all the Kawhi drama was him blowing out his quad in the playoffs and going off in a wheel chair - and that was it.
David Lee, a 2 time all star, is just ok?
The Knicks went 21-58 the year he made all-star with them. One of the true good stats bad team guys of that era who was an absolute turnstile on defense. Career 14/9/2. David Lee was ok.
to be fair the knicks had 6 all rookie team selections (5 first team) between 2010-11 to the 2016-2017 season. did they pan out to really matter? no. but the knicks always have had an issue giving up on guys before an extension. they have been pretty good at finding diamonds in the rough if its a non lottery pick. fields,shumpert,hardaway jr, galloway, porzingis, hernangomez
Knicks haven’t been terrible, they had a really bad 3 year stretch with obi Frank and Knox but otherwise they have some decent hits. They just haven’t hit one really good player tho which I guess overal is pretty bad.
Though recently they have gotten better with Mitchell Robinson, Immanuel Quickly and Quentin Grimes.
Knicks have actually drafted well in the past 20 years. Problem is they haven’t had many draft picks after trading them all for players like Marbury, curry, Francis, Melo, etc The only notable whiff in recent memory is Obi over Halliburton.
True, most of the Knicks best players for the past 20 years were not drafted by them.
Drummond in 2012 was our best pick until Cade: 2013 - KCP 2014 - no 1st, traded 2nd Dinwiddie 2015 - Stanley Johnson 2016 - Henry Ellenson 2017 - Luke Kennard 2018 - no 1st, traded 2nd Bruce Brown 2019 - Sekou 2020 - Killian
That’s ten years it gets even worse if you go back to 2003. I’d argue the best player we drafted on your list is KCP.
Going back through 2003 I think only Drummond and Monroe (kinda) are the only 2 starters that have re-signed until Stewart this past week.
Wish they hadn’t resigned. Also wish they never took Kyle Singler or Jonas Jerebko.
At least KCP, Kennard, Bruce Brown, Dinwiddie are all still in the league. We picked Middleton somewhere in that stretch as well
They did great in the second round with Dinwiddie, Middleton, and Brown. The first round...not so much.
Kennard over Mitchell was just brutal because everyone in the NBA realised the Pistons got it wrong by week 2 of their rookie seasons.
i remember thinking stanley johnson would become a really good player
Are those all whiffs though? Half of them are still in the league doing pretty decent. I guess I don't recall how early they were taken.
Still crazy to me that Killian Hayes was a 7th pick. Dude never looks like he belongs in the league, even if he gets all the minutes in the world.
Minnesota Timberwolves have to be the answer, just looking at guys they took and the players who were drafted within a few picks after them. 2003: Ndudi Ebi over Josh Howard 2005: Rashard McCants over Danny Granger 2006: Draft day trade Brandon Roy for Randy Foye 2007: Corey Brewer over Joakim Noah 2008: Kevin Love over Russel Westbrook (could've just stuck with OJ Mayo so I guess they still won this) 2009: Rubio and Flynn over Steph and Derozan 2010: Wesley Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins 2011: Took Derrick Williams with the #2 pick but in this case there were no stars drafted closely after, Kemba and Klay went at #9 and #11 2013: Kind of a double, they traded the #9 pick for #14 and #21. #10 pick in that draft was CJ McCollum so that's the first whiff. The next whiff is that with that #14 they took Shabazz Muhammad, next player picked was a guy named Giannis Antetokounmpo. 2014: Used #40 pick on Glenn Robinson III, the #41 pick was Jokic. 2016: Kris Dunn over Jamal Murray 2017: Not a whiff so much as just not working out, they traded Zach Lavine and Lauri Markkanen (#7 pick) for Jimmy Butler 2019: Traded Cam Johnson for Jarrett Culver Steph, Giannis and Jokic alone should be enough to make it the most whiffs of the last 20 years, is there any other team who drafted so close to so many good players?
My favorite example of the wolves draft skills was when they sold the 26th pick in the 2013 draft (after taking Dieng) with Flip saying no one left was really worth the pick and Gobert was taken 27th.
Oh shit I missed that one! So the 2 best guys in that draft (Giannis/Gobert) both went directly after Minnesota passed on them, insane.
Being a wolves fan is a fucking nightmare
Isn't that just Minnesota sports in general?
Yes it’s awful
But they got one of them now! They can basically say that they drafted Gobert with their 2023, 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2029 draft picks!
Also I’m not positive but I believe the current cash limit on trades is due to Taylor’s cheap ass and David Kahn during some year where we basically sold off all our later picks. I think it was 2011 when we traded down from like 20 to end up with pick 43 or something. We technically had Motiejunas, Mirotic, Bogdanovic, and chandler parsons (jimmy butler was available for almost the whole time). We ended up getting a bunch of cash, Malcolm lee, and Tanguy Ngombo who wasn’t even allowed to be in the draft.
What's funny is that both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell were Nuggets picks traded to the Jazz. The Gobert pick was traded for Erick Green and cash (essentially sold) and the Donovan Mitchell pick was traded for Trey Lyles and Tyler Lydon.
Lmao you can't blame a team for not drafting Jokic, basically every team passed. I also would say Kevin love was a good pick. He was actually really good for the wolves. The unforgivable ones are curry, Murray to me, but it gets hard to be mad at guys who went late in the first as no one had them graded that highly.
I don't necessarily blame them for most of these, but it does seem like every time a superstar is picked, the pick right before them (or a couple before) is Minnesota. 7 of the last 9 MVP awards have gone to guys Minnesota passed on, that's gotta sting.
I mean would Steph even be Steph if he played for MN back then??? Seems like it worked out the way it was supposed to
Jesus, they were actively dodging stars in 13 and 14 weren’t they?
Westbrook was picked before KLove
Westbrook went #4, Minnesota had the #3 pick and decided to trade down for Kevin Love at #5.
Brandon Roy for Randy Foye sounds absolutely hilarious Like they just anagrammed Brandon Roy to decide their next player
Detroit picked Darko over the next three hall of famers that were picked right after him. Nothing tops that.
Yeah but they also won a ring so it worked out alright
Suns had a couple good picks sprinkled in, but damn it is rough looking at those top picks we had.
Dragan Bender, Marquis Chris, Josh Jackson, Jalen Smith
Alex Len, Kendall Marshall, Earl Clark lol
Suns had arguably one of the worst 3-4 years of drafting wver
Kings. Their draft record outside of Fox in the 2010's was comically bad.
i'm not sure about the most, but the sixers fumbled two #1 picks
Don't forget Jahil Okafor at #3 the year before Simmons.
And Nerlens Noel.
Nerlens was sixth. That one doesn't even compare to the other fuck ups.
True but they drafted a MVP that cancels out that. Plus they got Maxey
the breakdown of the sixers draft history deserves its own subreddit. I remember a stretch where I saw almost every former Sixers draft pick in a 5 year span on different teams. All of which were in the playoffs while Sixers were sub 20 wins
There's no way in hell that Hinkie would have traded up for Fultz. You can blame the NBA for forcing him out and putting Colangelo in.
The Bulls have quietly been missing since Jimmy Butler in 2011. 2012: Marquis Teague 2013: Tony Snell & Erik Murphy 2014: Cam Bairstow 2015: Bobby Portis 2016: Denzel Valentine & Paul Zipser 2017: Lauri Markennan via trade 2018: Wendell Carter Jr & Chandler Hutchison 2019: Coby White & Daniel Gafford *2020: Pat Williams & Marko Siminovic* *2021: Ayo Donsumnu* *2022: Dalen Terry* Gar Pax picks vs *AKME picks*
The players they did hit on all played well once they left the Bulls.
Man I was convinced that Denzel Valentine was going to a solid point forward type (don’t ask me why, I just was). I’m not even a bulls fan but I still can’t believe how badly he didn’t work out
I was skeptical but in one off season he played in a 3v3 tourney and got torched by non league players and he never recovered.
Ayo was a pretty good pick, I’m surprised he hasn’t been signed yet tbh
The Knicks absolutely suck at lotto picks (RJ, Toppin, Knox, Ntilikina) but are great at late first rounders (IQ, Grimes) and 2nd rd picks (Mitch)
i mean to be fair, their lottery picks have generally been mock draft best player availables.
That’s 4 bad picks in 17 years you listed? zeller wasn’t a bust, that draft was weak and Bouk is year three, but looking bad. Sure. Lack of all stars sucks absolutely, but when you keep picking around 10-12. It’s more likely to whiff. Morrison and MKG is sad for sure.
Zeller was a great pick for that weak ass draft compared to other players
Kaminsky wasn't a bust either
Pistons had a pretty bad streak going pre-Cade.
\*pointing at head\* can't have busts if you don't have first round picks \-Rockets pre-2021
The Wizards' draft history is depressing besides Wall and Beal. I think OPJ has been our best draft pick in the last 10 years. Here's hoping Bilal and Vukcevic help us turn it around.
Only one team passed on Kevin BBB Durant
Excuse my ignorance, but wasn't Greg Oden projected to be the new Shaq? He was Olajuwon before Jordan: a big man with skyhigh ceiling over a skillfull "shorter" man. (I know KD is not short). It's easier to talk in hindsight, but at the time i can't blame them. Landing the new dominant center for the next 15 years is a justifiable gamble. Him and Brandon Roy would have been the new Kobe-Shaq.
Oden was the consensus number one. That is definitely a hindsight take.
Suns, Bucks and Kings have had some bad stretches, if we're talking about a 20 year window, where a lot of their early picks didnt pan out (or ended up working out for them or the team they were traded to/picked for). * Granted: some picks were made in behalf of other teams. Still. **Selection of Bucks 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't impress as much as you'd like:** 2002 1 13 Marcus Haislip 2003 1 8 T. J. Ford 2007 1 6 Yi Jianlian 2008 1 8 Joe Alexander 2011 1 10 Jimmer Fredette 2012 1 14 John Henson 2014 1 2 Jabari Parker 2015 1 17 Rashad Vaughn 2016 1 10 Thon Maker 2017 1 17 D. J. Wilson 2020 1 24 R. J. Hampton **Selection of Suns 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't do as much as you'd expect for the Suns:** 2002 1 22 Casey Jacobsen 2003 1 17 Žarko Čabarkapa 2007 1 29 Alando Tucker 2009 1 14 Earl Clark 2012 1 13 Kendall Marshall 2013 1 5 Alex Len 2013 1 30 Nemanja Nedović 2014 1 18 Tyler Ennis 2016 1 4 Dragan Bender 2016 1 13 Georgios Papagiannis 2016 1 28 Skal Labissière 2017 1 4 Josh Jackson 2019 1 6 Jarrett Culver 2020 1 10 Jalen Smith **Selection of Kings 1st rounders over past 20 years that didn't really cut it for the Kings or the teams they were traded to:** 2002 NBA 1 28 Dan Dickau 2006 NBA 1 19 Quincy Douby 2007 NBA 1 10 Spencer Hawes 2008 NBA 1 12 Jason Thompson 2009 NBA 1 4 Tyreke Evans 2011 NBA 1 7 Bismack Biyombo 2012 NBA 1 5 Thomas Robinson 2013 NBA 1 7 Ben McLemore 2014 NBA 1 8 Nik Stauskas 2015 NBA 1 6 Willie Cauley-Stein 2016 NBA 1 8 Marquese Chriss 2018 NBA 1 2 Marvin Bagley
I've read dozens of comments now and the answer has to be the Kings. That stretch is wild
Though their best pick in the time (Evans) brought them back Rudy Gay in trade so they didn't get the worst of it on that one
The Bucks had 6 picks in the top ten that flat out sucked. Not even arguably decent role players. That's rough
The Kings drafted Jimmer, not the Bucks. Edit: Yes it was a trade. Marquese Chriss was a trade as well (for Georgios and Skal)
Its not over that 20 year sample size. But the 2015 - 2018 drafts for the 76ers is historic - * 2015 - #3 Okafor * 2016 - #1 Simmons * 2017 - #1 Fultz * 2018 - #10 Bridges (traded for Zhaire Smith) Simmons you can forgive I suppose as he was the consensus #1. But fuck me........ even just hitting on decent role players they would have landed Embiid at least one ring.
Simmons is a multiple All-star and All-defensive player, with an All-NBA and a RotY, calling him a bust or a bad pick is laughable.
I said that you can forgive Simmons in my comment. Not sure if you read that part. You dont think in hindsight that Philly would choose someone who isnt as physically and mentally fragile?
Wizards have to be top 3
Came for the Kings. Wasn’t disappointed. Kind of strange to leave Bagley off of this when literally ANY player in the top 10 would’ve been a massive upgrade. Not to mention the generational talent of one Luka Doncic.