Each Teams Best and Worst Lottery Picks.......

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We really haven't had that many lottery picks (started in 1985), I believe I counted 9. Would Telfair or Webster be worse?
 
Evan Turner!

Philadelphia 76ers
Best: Andre Iguodala, No. 9, 2004 (KP)/Allen Iverson, No. 1, 1996 (CF)

Worst: Larry Hughes, No. 8, 1998 (CF)/Evan Turner, No. 2, 2010 (KP)

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Iverson was a tough player to build around, but he almost single-handedly led the Sixers to an Eastern Conference title in 2001. Iguodala has always been more of a role player, but emerged as the consummate sixth man in Golden State the past few years.

Hughes was solid, but Larry Brown's decision to take him one spot ahead of Nowitzki and two spots ahead of Pierce should forever haunt him. Turner went ahead of DeMarcus Cousins, George and Hayward.
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Laker cawk gobbkers. There is still a worst if there is a best dumbasses.
 
The Lakers didn't draft Kobe.
 
e_blazer said:
I'd still put Bowie as the worst pick over Oden. We got a little more play out of Bowie, but the lost opportunity of MJ was so much greater than Durant.
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Lottery didn't start until the year after the Bowie draft, so he is excluded from consideration.
 
While I get that Bowie is excluded from this exercise, I think Bowie was by far the worse selection. Even at the time of the draft, nearly everyone agreed that Bowie was not as talented as Jordan. Bowie had the leg up primarily because he was a "big man" and because Portland already had a two-guard. Whereas, it was an open question who was more talented between Oden and Durant--generational big man versus generational perimeter player. Selecting Oden over Durant, if Oden had stayed healthy, would have been more like selecting Olajuwon over Jordan, not Bowie. And even that presupposes that Durant would have been better than a healthy Oden, which we don't know.

As it turns out, Oden was definitely the wrong pick due to health (and there can be an argument over whether the Blazers should have seen red flags with Oden), but Bowie was the wrong pick in any universe--even one where he never suffers a single injury.
 
Golden State Warriors
Best: Stephen Curry, No. 7, 2009

Worst: Todd Fuller, No. 11, 1996 (KP)/Ekpe Udoh, No. 6, 2010 (CF)

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Much to the dismay of ESPN's Amin Elhassan, the Warriors passed on a trade with the Phoenix Suns when Curry was still on the board. Eight years, two MVPs and one title (and counting) since, Golden State hasn't looked back.

The next year, the Warriors took Udoh ahead of Gordon Hayward and Paul George. Their decades-long search for a center also led Golden State to take Fuller two picks ahead of Bryant in 1996.
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Ha! Last year my intramural team played vs Todd Fuller...we were in the faculty/grad student division here at NC State (I think he is a grad student in mathematics). He stomped us, but lost in the championship game against a group of faculty/staff old guys that I play with every MWF at noon. :D
 
e_blazer said:
I'd still put Bowie as the worst pick over Oden. We got a little more play out of Bowie, but the lost opportunity of MJ was so much greater than Durant.
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Would Michael Jordan have won six rings had the Bulls not drafted Pippen in 1987? Jordan's enormous shadow really has eclipsed what a special and essential player Pippen was in Chicago.

We wouldn't have had Pippen at that time.
 
BigGameDamian said:
Would Michael Jordan have won six rings had the Bulls not drafted Pippen in 1987? Jordan's enormous shadow really has eclipsed what a special and essential player Pippen was in Chicago.

We wouldn't have had Pippen at that time.
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We had Clyde Drexler though. Either you try to play them together, or you trade Clyde and get something. I would have taken my chances.
 
Minstrel said:
While I get that Bowie is excluded from this exercise, I think Bowie was by far the worse selection. Even at the time of the draft, nearly everyone agreed that Bowie was not as talented as Jordan. Bowie had the leg up primarily because he was a "big man" and because Portland already had a two-guard. Whereas, it was an open question who was more talented between Oden and Durant--generational big man versus generational perimeter player. Selecting Oden over Durant, if Oden had stayed healthy, would have been more like selecting Olajuwon over Jordan, not Bowie. And even that presupposes that Durant would have been better than a healthy Oden, which we don't know.

As it turns out, Oden was definitely the wrong pick due to health (and there can be an argument over whether the Blazers should have seen red flags with Oden), but Bowie was the wrong pick in any universe--even one where he never suffers a single injury.
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In hindsight maybe, but I would disagree with the certainty about Jordan. Nobody debated to take Jordan over Olajuwon--it would not even have been considered. At the time I would argue that Bowie (very dominant defensive center) and Jordan were much closer in value. Certainly having Clyde on the roster tipped the scales, but I do not agree that everyone knew Jordan would become what he did. Otherwise Jordan would have been the first pick. I watched a lot of college ball back then and Clyde was my favorite player the year before he was drafted. I really wanted Bowie if we couldn't get Olajuwon. But for a the injuries, Bowie probably would have helped that team get over the top.

And, as BGD said, it is impossible to really know how Jordan would have developed along side Clyde. In hindsight it probably would have been as good or better than he an Pippen, but we really cannot know for sure.
 
tlongII said:
Larue Martin was our worst pick ever in my opinion. We could have picked Bob McAdoo or Dr. J!
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Not a lottery pick, but totally agree in terms of worst draft pick. Injuries can happen to anyone, but Martin was just a bad pick.
 
BigGameDamian said:
Would Michael Jordan have won six rings had the Bulls not drafted Pippen in 1987? Jordan's enormous shadow really has eclipsed what a special and essential player Pippen was in Chicago.

We wouldn't have had Pippen at that time.
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Michael Jordan wouldn't have won six rings if Arvydas Sabonis had come to the Blazers when they drafted him in 1986. Well, unless of course they had drafted Jordan in 1984 instead of Bowie. Porter, Jordan, Drexler, Buck Williams and Sabonis? That would have been some lineup.
 
tlongII said:
Larue Martin was our worst pick ever in my opinion. We could have picked Bob McAdoo or Dr. J!
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Can I like this post twice? At least Oden and Bowie were high profile college centers that were projected to go high. Martin's selection had everybody in the league scratching their heads.

My own personal opinion about our bad lottery picks is that our lack of player acquisition opportunities exacerbates our screwups. Of course people are going to focus on our screw ups when those are the only big headlines for this team. Big Free Agency misses? Please. Turner and ummmm..... ummmm.... long list there. We don't get a do over through free agency so people just point at the draft. It's an easy mark.
 
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BigGameDamian said:
Would Michael Jordan have won six rings had the Bulls not drafted Pippen in 1987? Jordan's enormous shadow really has eclipsed what a special and essential player Pippen was in Chicago.

We wouldn't have had Pippen at that time.
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Pippen wasn't drafted by Chicago, he was traded by Seattle for Olden Polynice.
 
The death of Len Bias set the Celtics back by many years. Yes, I understand he was picked before there was a lottery pick.
 
Reep said:
Certainly having Clyde on the roster tipped the scales, but I do not agree that everyone knew Jordan would become what he did. Otherwise Jordan would have been the first pick.
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I didn't say everyone knew that Jordan would "become what he did." No one knew he'd end up as arguably the greatest player ever. But it was fairly well-established (in my recollections anyway) that Jordan was more talented than Bowie (it wasn't established that Jordan was more talented than Olajuwon). There was a lot of discussion of Jordan being arguably the best player in college basketball. But the thinking back then was that you couldn't build a franchise around a shooting guard and that a big man, even one less talented than the shooting guard, was a better franchise foundation.

To be clear, I'm also not saying that Bowie would have been a bad player. My "in no universe" comment was that injuries aren't what made him the wrong pick--the process in selecting him was a poor one, IMO. I strongly believe that if Bowie, Olajuwon and Jordan were in this year's draft (instead of 1984), Jordan would go first or second (Olajuwon might still go first, because he was a freak talent in any era) and no one would rank Bowie ahead of Jordan.
 
Reep said:
Not a lottery pick, but totally agree in terms of worst draft pick. Injuries can happen to anyone, but Martin was just a bad pick.
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He was the #1 overall pick so I would argue it is the same as a lottery pick.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
The death of Len Bias set the Celtics back by many years. Yes, I understand he was picked before there was a lottery pick.
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Good example. I don't think draft picks to whom unfortunate things happen, like injuries or worse, AFTER the pick was selected should be considered "worst" picks. You can't know the future. If a drafted player gets in a car crash and dies, that doesn't mean it was a bad pick. Same for a guy who blows out his knees and is never the same. Hindsight doesn't count, IMO.
 
BBert said:
Good example. I don't think draft picks to whom unfortunate things happen, like injuries or worse, AFTER the pick was selected should be considered "worst" picks. You can't know the future. If a drafted player gets in a car crash and dies, that doesn't mean it was a bad pick. Same for a guy who blows out his knees and is never the same. Hindsight doesn't count, IMO.
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Totally agree, which is why I didn't like Oden singled out.
 
tlongII said:
Larue Martin was our worst pick ever in my opinion. We could have picked Bob McAdoo or Dr. J!
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10 other NBA teams passed on Dr. J because he was already under contract with the ABA Virginia Squires. MIL took a chance on him with the 12th pick, but he never played a game in a Bucks uniform, and because he was under contact with the New Jersey Nets at the time of the ABA/NBA merger, MIL lost his NBA rights. While adding Erving to team with Kareem and Oscar Robertson looked good on paper, it ended up being a completely wasted pick by the Bucks, and would have been for Portland, too.

Also, in hindsight, drafting LaRue Martin led us to our one, and only championship. Had we not drafted Martin with the 1st pick in 1972, we would not have sucked badly enough two years later to be able to draft Bill Walton with the first pick in the draft in 1974. Had we drafted Bob McAdoo in 1972, we would have been very good, but not good enough to win a championship, and would have missed out on drafting Walton.

So, it all worked out in the end.

BNM
 
tlongII said:
He was the #1 overall pick so I would argue it is the same as a lottery pick.
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Wasn't disputing that, just stating why he likely didn't show up in the ESPN ranking.
 
Minstrel said:
I strongly believe that if Bowie, Olajuwon and Jordan were in this year's draft (instead of 1984), Jordan would go first or second (Olajuwon might still go first, because he was a freak talent in any era) and no one would rank Bowie ahead of Jordan.
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No argument there. The game has changed dramatically. In 1984 you had to have a good big to compete. Now the value of the guards/wings has taken control.
 
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