Which NBA franchise has made the most mistakes in the draft?

[WiggyRuss]

If you include mismanaging draft assets, it's the wolves

Trading Ray Allen for Marbury
Joe Smith


Kevin Mchale loved trading away draft picks

Johnny Flynn
Wesley Johnson
Derrick Williams

yah but at least they got Towns and Love--- and Rubio was a decent/solid pick too.

The Kings are just awful. Cousins was a decent pick but had the problems that caused him to drop to the Kings in the first place- and Tyreke Evans was an okay pick.

They have had tons of busts.

 

[flyerhawk]

Portland's could be one of the most storied franchises in NBA history if they take Jordan and Durant- instead they are just another team.

Sam Bowie and Greg Oden were ALSO transcendent players. They just couldn't stay healthy.

 

[jontaejones]

Definitely the Kings in terms of overall picks.

If big pass-ups then, you could argue for the Blazers.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Sam Bowie and Greg Oden were ALSO transcendent players. They just couldn't stay healthy.

"were"

I am of course too young for Sam Bowie- but i was an OSU fan that watched Oden- and I remember he was great and hugely hyped- but i also remember he was injured during that sole season at OSU.

Callinga 1 year college player "transcendent" seems a litle premature

 

[flyerhawk]

"were"

I am of course too young for Sam Bowie- but i was an OSU fan that watched Oden- and I remember he was great and hugely hyped- but i also remember he was injured during that sole season at OSU.

Callinga 1 year college player "transcendent" seems a litle premature

How many years did Durant play in college? How many did Lebron?

 

[jontaejones]

Then again, Durant would have just left Portland for the first team that was able to beat the Blazers, so maybe it was for the best...

 

[WiggyRuss]

How many years did Durant play in college? How many did Lebron?

LeBron zero--- but he was "the Chosen One"

I would not call Durant a transcendent player when he came out of college. Its a results oriented business. They made the wrong pick. You do not grade drafts on what everyone though at the time. These guys are paid to make the right decisions.

 

[OregonDucks]

I stick by Portland's pick to take Oden over Durant. At the time Portland had Roy and Aldridge. I don't think Durant would have fit as well, nor would he have made the immediate impact Oden was capable of making. Portland needed a big man and a big man like Oden didn't come around often in the NBA.

In hindsight it was a terrible pick, but at the time it made sense and I thought it was a good decision.

 

[Carnzo]

Celtics, Len Bias.
It seemed like a good pick, for two days.
End thread

 

[flyerhawk]

LeBron zero--- but he was "the Chosen One"

I would not call Durant a transcendent player when he came out of college. Its a results oriented business. They made the wrong pick. You do not grade drafts on what everyone though at the time. These guys are paid to make the right decisions.

GMs can't predict the future and they can't predict injuries.

Oden and Durant were the CLEAR top choices in that draft.

 

[WiggyRuss]

I stick by Portland's pick to take Oden over Durant. At the time Portland had Roy and Aldridge. I don't think Durant would have fit as well, nor would he have made the immediate impact Oden was capable of making. Portland needed a big man and a big man like Oden didn't come around often in the NBA.

In hindsight it was a terrible pick, but at the time it made sense and I thought it was a good decision.

Revisiting the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant Decision: Should We Have Seen This Coming?

Before the 2007 draft, there was talking going both ways about which player would be a better draft pick. Some argued that a center in the NBA is very hard to find, and Oden should be the pick. Others argued for Durant and his swing skills.

Now, we know what happened. Oden has been injured most of his three years and has had no significant playing time. Durant is averaging almost 30 points per game on a playoff team.

The question has to be: Should we have seen this coming?

Durant had all the tools and the ability to take over a game. Plus, he had no injury history whatsoever. Oden, in contrast, was already dealing with multiple injuries.

It didn't help that Oden had one leg longer than the other, and, as media members noted, he walked like an old man. To add further insult to injury, Oden had recurring issues in his left wrist.

The whole situation had many parallels to the Michael Jordan/Sam Bowie situation.

Bowie already had a fractured bone in his leg before draft day. The Blazers conducted a seven-hour physical to see if the leg had healed. Yes, you read that correctly: a seven-hour physical. Yet that was not enough of a red flag to take Michael Jordan.

The rest is history. Jordan wins six titles and Bowie becomes a bust.

Maybe we should have seen the parallels. Many in the media did not predict this outcome, but some did.

Bill Simmons saw it coming, and his 2007 NBA Draft Debate with Chad Ford looks comical three years later.

All the signs were there. Of course, it's easy to say this with what we know now. But as the saying goes, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. If we had looked back and seen the parallels in history, we may have foreseen this outcome.



Simmons and Ford mock draft - ESPN Page 2

Bill Simmons selects: Kevin Durant, SF, Texas
If I'm Portland's GM, I just spent the last five weeks wondering about Greg Oden. What's his ceiling? Can he be better than Patrick Ewing? Alonzo Mourning? Can he become as dominant as Tim Duncan? Should I be worried about his surgically repaired wrist, or the fact that he might suffer back problems some day because his legs are different sizes? What about the fact that he likes basketball, but doesn't love it? The thing is, all these franchise centers are basically the same -- it just comes down to their inherent will to dominate a game. Hakeem had that will, Duncan has it, Moses had it, Shaq had it in 2000 and 2001 ... for whatever reason, Ewing didn't have it, and neither did Mourning or Robinson. Can you see Oden stepping onto a basketball court and saying, "There's no way we're losing this f-ing game. I'm destroying the other team tonight." For some reason, I can't.


Well, Durant plays that way every game. He's a cold-blooded killer. I hate pre-draft workouts, but didn't you find it interesting that Oden was nervous, awkward and apologetic during his workout in Portland, but a confident Durant strolled in there two days later and blew everyone away? You know what's funny about that? I knew that was going to happen. One guy plays basketball because he was created to play basketball; the other plays because he was bigger than everyone else and it seemed like the logical thing to do. If there was a pickup game and Oden was on one side, Durant was on the other, and your life depended on the game, you'd pick Durant. You would.


So if Portland takes Oden, it will happen because of conventional NBA logic (you always take the franchise center), because their fans are pushing for him (obviously, nobody watches college basketball in Portland) and because he's a personable, gregarious, likable big guy for a city that's desperately needed a personable, gregarious, likable big guy ever since Bill Walton ditched Portland for San Diego. I'm not saying those reasons are wrong. In fact, I understand them completely. But if I'm Portland's GM, I'm taking the guy with a legitimate chance to go down with Bird, Magic, MJ, Baylor, Oscar, West, Duncan, Pettit, Havlicek and every other great non-center who ever played in the National Basketball Association. I'm taking Kevin Durant.

 

[trojanfan12]

I am of course too young for Sam Bowie- but i was an OSU fan that watched Oden- and I remember he was great and hugely hyped- but i also remember he was injured during that sole season at OSU.

I saw Bowie play in college and watched him in the pros. If he had stayed healthy, he likely would have had a legit shot at the HOF.

That, combined with already having Drexler, is why it's revisionist history to criticize the Blazers for that pick.

But Oden? Yeah, they get to wear that one.

 

[jontaejones]

I saw Bowie play in college and watched him in the pros. If he had stayed healthy, he likely would have had a legit shot at the HOF.

That, combined with already having Drexler, is why it's revisionist history to criticize the Blazers for that pick.

But Oden? Yeah, they get to wear that one.

Houston also had Sampson already and still drafted a center.

They could have taken Jordan too.

They're always absolved of any blame. The only reason they have any titles is because Jordan retired.

 

[msgkings322]

Houston also had Sampson already and still drafted a center.

They could have taken Jordan too.

They're always absolved of any blame. The only reason they have any titles is because Jordan retired.

They are absolved because Hakeem was an all-time great player also. No shame in that pick. Not a Sam Bowie situation.

 

[trojanfan12]

Houston also had Sampson already and still drafted a center.

It worked because they could each play center or power forward. At that time in the league, those positions were fairly interchangeable and considered more important than SG. Especially when you consider the skill sets of both Sampson and Olajuwon.

Drexler and MJ were both shooting guards and, at the time, shooting guard and small forward weren't as interchangeable as they are now.

Also, it's not like Bowie was some kind of reach that had everyone scratching their heads. It was a pick that every other team in the league would have made if they were in the Blazers situation.

Because of how his career turned out, people forget that MJ wasn't the consensus #1 pick in the draft. The top 3 were pretty much always going to be MJ, Olajuwon and Bowie in some order.

Obviously, if folks knew then what they know now...Houston likely takes MJ #1 instead of Olajuwon leaving the Blazers to pick between Olajuwon and Bowie. So, either way, the Blazers still don't end up with MJ.

 

[Eco]

Well we passed up on Deron Williams, Chris Paul, and Andrew Bynum for a guy who didn't START in college.

#RememberMarvinWilliams

 

[Eco]

But at least we followed that up with drafted Shelden Williams with #5 overall draft pick, ahead of Brandon Roy

 

[Eco]

I doubt anyone would have fucked up the 1992 draft.

We drafted Adam Keefe from Stanford, when we could have had Robert Horry or Latreel Sprewell from Alabama

 

[logic]

If the question is who has made the most draft mistakes, the Wizards have to be in the conversation.

Kwame Brown is one of the biggest busts of all time at #1 and they have a never ending list of irrelevant players they have wasted top 10 picks on. Also, one must consider their history of trading away of picks and young budding stars for marginal vets as part of this equation.

The Clippers will raise you one Oliwokandi and Cleveland calls with Anthony Bennett.

 

[Mecca]

Houston also had Sampson already and still drafted a center.

They could have taken Jordan too.

They're always absolved of any blame. The only reason they have any titles is because Jordan retired.

I understand your point.

But, it's apples to oranges.

We can forgive the 76ers for taking Iverson over Kobe because the Answer had a hell of a career.

But, we can't give the Nets a pass for Kerry Kittles.

The Dream was a savage.

But, Jordan was the GOAT.

The Rockets missed by inches, Portland missed by miles.

Not the same thing....AT ALL.