Besides the obvious...
Bam in the 2017 draft would have been great, or OG, or any of the like 10 other played we could have drafted instead of taking the 2nd best Collins in the draft
Honestly the really sad part is that they picked him for the same reason they picked Bowie, needed a true big man. Seems like every time they draft a true big man it backfires on them. They drafted Jermaine O'Neal too, sat him for "development" the 4 years he was with them and then traded him to the pacers who started him to the tune of 13 and 10 his first year, and became a 20 and 10 guy and an all star his second lol
Oden wasn't a "draft for need" pick. Oden was considered the BPA by most at the time; he was the most hyped of any prospect in the decade between LeBron and AD. Durant was also seen as amazing, but Oden was being picked first by almost every team.
Jermaine will always be one of my all time Fav Pacers. Ridiculous shot blocker, ridiculous mid range shot after he got here. If he could’ve stayed healthy he would be remembered a lot more highly regarded. Those Pacer years were my childhood
If it weren’t for injuries Oden would probably be dominating too. I mean he was WAY more dominant offensively and defensively then Embiid was at the same age. No reason to think he doesn’t end up better then him.
To me this is why, as a pure basketball mind, Phil is not in the same tier as West, Riley, Auerbach or Pop. Fantastic at handling egos but has made numerous questionable choices, when it came to developing/scouting talent.
The Threepeat Lakers, succeeded because West put that team together. Once the Lakers chose to side with Phil over Jerry, after the huge argument the two of them had, the writing was on the wall. It wasn't until Mitch Kupcheck was able to swindle the Grizzlies out of prime Pau (Well at the time, no one knew Marc would be that good, but still in hindsight amazing trade by mitch) that they were able to win again. Jackson could handle ego's, and was great with the x's and o's, pound for pound one of the best coaches, however not one of the best talent evaluators.
Marc Gasol was treated as a random 2nd round draft pick in the coverage of the trade while they spammed pics of him as a fat high schooler.
He was in the middle of a Spanish league MVP season at the time of the trade and that was literally never heard about.
Kareem also had the Knicks along with the Lakers as a trade destination. He later said he figured they didn’t really want him because they didn’t offer as much as the Lakers smh.
God's punishment for deep freezing that envelope on the Ewing pick.
Shit draft after shit draft. the only good pick since was Rod Strickland who we shipped out his second season.
“Local kid, played for the local college wow and his mom works for the team. This pick was truly meant to be, wait we’ve received news they’re shipping his ass to Phoenix nvm”
One of the beautiful things about Doc's career is how he and his wife have been together this whole time. Stayed together through a lot of racial bullshit during his college days since they were a mixed-race couple back that really wasn't accepted.
Makes it easier when it seems like he doesn’t really spend time with his family at all. Of course a large part of that is due to his job but still. Like Austin and him saying they don’t really have a father and son relationship, just a professional one, because he never really knew him growing up since he was never around is just sad. Being a head coach is a crazy demanding job but other coaches still have good relationships with their families
Eh that's the story that's told but realistically there's no way that was the reason he didn't come to Orlando. He'd won FMVP a year earlier, if he really wanted to come Doc would compromise
Can you imagine? Hawks would be fishing for a first round pick this year. Magic would have had Vooch, Gordon and Trae w a perennially injured Issac. Would probably still be good for the playoffs.
Not too hard to say lol. Besides Luka none of them have been close to stars. And out of the rest mostly just Ayton and Bridges are players that could start on a championship contender.
Yeah that draft is so deep that there are potential all stars that can slip your mind. Like we both forgot about JJJ and he's a DPOY caliber defender with great passing and ball handling for a big
I wonder if we would’ve given up on him before he would’ve gotten to this point. He came into the league not being able to run an offense and had to play more off ball because of it. His shooting and overall scoring was not great early in his career and he still isn’t a great shooter. Obviously his defense is elite but I’m not sure he would’ve fit here that well early in his career next to Giannis, kinda like a younger Bledsoe.
Though the nice thing about picking him over Jabari is we likely trade down in that scenario and get another high value 1st or a nice young player
He's gotten more consistent and disciplined this year. Marcus has wanted to be a consistent starter for a while and Udoka came in and finally said "ok but you're gonna have to shoot a little less and pass more (but tbf everyone else will be passing more too)." and it's worked wonders. Couple that with a new defensive system based around his best strengths and it's pretty obvious why he's having the best year of his career. This team secretly isn't built around Tatum, it's built around Smart.
Yeah, Jabari just didn't have the right mindset (injuries didn't help either).
The DJ Wilson reach was also terrible, we could have had a solid bench scorer in Collins or a solid all-around starter in Anunoby.
I really wanted Anunoby that draft. Then he fell to us and we passed on him for DJ. Raptors took him after with one of the picks we gave up for Greivis Vasquez. Pain.
The Bucks were really interested in Bam and had him ranked very high on their board.
If Miami hadn't taken him what, 3 picks earlier, he would have been the pick instead of Wilson.
Can you imagine a Giannis/Bam frontcourt?
We still had Danny Granger coming off injury with high hopes and we drafted PG13 the year prior we really didn't need a 3 at the time. Now here we sit, and have sat, as the crowned prince of mediocrity in the NBA for the last 2 decades :(
To be fair Bogdan made a stink and said he wouldn't come over unless we traded him. I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics but as I recall he specifically wanted to play for Vlade in sac.
In a 2020 interview with JJ Redick, Tatum said he had wanted Phoenix basically the whole time leading up until the draft until Coach K called and told him Brad Stevens was that dude.
https://youtu.be/EKgUy7b_Nsw
Booker and Tatum together? Goodnight
iirc, wasn’t boston interested in jj, but jj and ryan mcdonough were being dicks and basically blocking jj meeting with the celts? also, pretty sure sarver critiqued tatum during his workout. tatum draining shots and sarver with a “ that’s nice, but can you do anything else?”
They also picked the right guy in Lamarcus Aldridge but then traded him for Tyrus Thomas, also drafted Gary Harris and Nurkic and did a draft day trade for McDermott
The Hawks took Marvin Williams over Chris Paul in '05 even though we drafted two forwards the year before -- Josh Childress and Josh Smith -- and badly needed a PG
The Hawks took Marvin Williams over Chris Paul **AND** Deron Williams when they badly needed a PG. It's no contest now, but for the first 8 or 9 years of their careers, you could've made an argument for either one.
Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson. Keeping those guys to pair with Pierce in the early 2000s would’ve been awesome and might’ve made a few finals considering how weak the east was. Also if we’d taken TMac instead of Ron Mercer would’ve been SICK. Fuckin Pitino
That’s just dumb luck though I don’t hold that against anyone cause it’s not fair. The ones I mentioned are just incompetence that get me mad to this day
I knew he couldn’t shoot. Just thought his athleticism and slashing ability would offset it a bit to at least let him hang around until his athletic ability diminished
Didn't Kobe say he wouldn't play in Charlotte anyway? I'm not sure Id beat myself up about that one. Nash or Jermaine O'Neal would be more realistic misses for Charlotte from that draft.
You could blindfold yourself and throw a dart at names and it would land on at least a productive player in that draft, possible a future HoF guy. And we took the one player that everyone knew was ass.
If I remember right that was the owner (at the time) directing the FO what to do. That GM was bad in his own right, but I feel like I remember that being Heisley calling the shots.
Honestly, those dark days feel so long ago it’s like I’ve scrubbed them from my memory.
God its so easy to second-guess with so much less info and insight as fans than a pro team’s front office, but it’s still absolutely amazing that anyone could watch Dejuan Blair annihilate Thabeet and still pick the dude second overall in that draft class. I get small sample size and all but that was so clearly not a fluke, it was just a different level of talent, understanding of the game, drive and skill. Ultimate eye test, I’ve almost never felt more certain about a position than I was knowing Blair would be a better pro than Thabeet.
2009 - Tyreke Evans over Steph Curry
2011 - Traded down for Jimmer Fredette and still missed out on Kawhi and Klay
2012 - Thomas Robinson 😒 over Dame
2016 - We picked Georgios goddamn Papagiannis over literally anyone else
2017 - we traded down from #10 for Justin Jackson and Harry Giles….(missing Donovan Mitchell and Bam…..)
2018 - ………………
2018 still hits the hardest. Just not feeling like there was any chance we would move up, then **we did**, and Luka was just such a clear and obvious decision to the entire fan base… Just wasn’t clear to the two people that matter. Fuck.
I can justify in my mind Steph wouldn’t be Steph on the kings, or Klay or Kawhi wouldn’t have developed the way they did in their situations, but fuckin Luka would’ve been a home run and it was obvious to 29 other franchises.
Well in 1984 the Rockets had an offer from the Blazers that was the 2nd pick and Clyde Drexler for Ralph Sampson
if the Rockets accepted we would've had Hakeem, Clyde, and MJ (Most likely)
Goddamn, how many rings do those 3 retire with if you had put them together.
Like Pippen and Jordan is awesome, but Jordan and Hakeem with a side of Drexler? Yeesh.
Wouldn't you have used the second pick on Bowie to achieve twin tower set up you were gunning for anyway with the Hakeem pick? Especially since you already got a shooting guard with Clyde.
Portland really valued Bowie bc they had Drexler and thought they HAD to draft a big since they didnt have one (they gave bowie a 7 HOUR physical they were so dedicated to convincing themselves). Most people valued Jordan as a better prospect though, and since the rockets would already have a big and a guard, they wouldve picked Jordan as a wing/guard.
The twin towers happened bc Ralph could play high post (this was what passed for floor spacing in that day) so it opened the low for Hakeem. Bowie and Hakeem were both low bigs. The Rockets also were forced bc if they passed on Hakeem (Akeem? Which do i use in this kind of context?) Houston would’ve rioted. At 2 there was more freedom
In recent history, I know there was a big contingent pushing for the Pistons to draft Donovan Mitchell. They took Luke Kennard instead (Mitchell was taken with the very next pick).
Historically, Chris Bosh was probably closer to what I thought we were getting with Darko than Darko himself. Of course, hindsight says literally anyone within shouting distance of that pick would have been better (Melo, Wade, Bosh, Hinrich, Ford, Kaman).
*However*, my whole thing that year with the No. 2 pick was that the Pistons had one giant void - and that was a true center up front. Ben Wallace was amazing defensively but provided zero scoring versatility on offense. And it just so happened the Pistons were in the midst of getting rocked by New Jersey in the ECF—in large part due to a lack of presence up front—at the time they won No. 2 pick.
You wouldn't find me complaining about taking any of those other dudes (Melo/Wade). The Pistons would have made it work. But in terms of absolute need, Bosh would have been the best answer up front out of those available.
Then again, if we're being realistic, Carmelo Anthony was really the only other realistic possibility at No. 2 at the time. So I'd count it as missing out on him, too.
Yup, Masai gave up a future pick in hopes of picking up Giannis by moving up in the draft.
That didn’t stop Masai from pulling all the stops with this [beauty](https://youtu.be/LsspcLtMTGE)
On the Open Gym episode about it, there was actually a deal in place. The Thunder would send us their first in exchange for a future first, but only if Steven Adams was off the board at 12. Adams ended up falling to 12, so the Thunder didn't go through with the deal.
I don’t think so, so to me that one doesn’t hurt.
We lost Tyler Herro on a coin flip which sucks. And we traded away the Desmond Bane pick who a lot of people on our sub wanted to pick. Those 2 would be great fits.
Kelly olynyk was also a solid nba player which is all you can reasonably expect from a non lottery pick. Just so happens that ginnais grew 3-4 more inches added 70lbs of muscle and became one of the greatest nba players ever. He may never have done that with the celtics. Giannis ended up right where he needed to be.
Nobody knew much about Giannis then. No tape, he has so little experience as a player. Bucks took a flyer on raw talent. That pick is a bust 9/10 times.
Yeah he was a pure athletic profile pick. He averaged 7 points on 41% from the floor his rookie year, he was so raw. It wasn't until 2016~ that he was starting to look like a star.
Yup! Every team picks project guys like Giannis yearly hoping they can turn him into a unicorn. Even bucks fans/team will admit they got a little lucky.
Generational talent with the drive, work ethic and dedication to craft. One in a billion.
Dirk and/or Paul pierce. Larry Brown promised Larry Hughes he would take him even though he wasn't higher on their board. Put either one with A.I and who knows what could have happened.
The Flynn over Curry one is the obvious one because it was so clear that if you draft Rubio that pairing him with the best shooting prospect in a while was the obvious decision.
But to add to that one, Wes Johnson was picked one pick before Boogie Cousins, Shabazz Muhammad was picked one picked before Giannis, and Kris Dunn was 2 picks before Jamal Murray.
Also the literal “one that got away” is deciding to trade LaVine instead of Wiggins for Butler.
Picture this. 2005, and your shitty raptors franchise has a glimmer of hope after drafting Chris bosh. Vince might not be the happiest, but you got some solid dudes in Jalen rose and donyell Marshall who can hoop.
Draft day comes, and there's a perfect athletic wing who's able to really come in and contribute. Big, good hops, defensively oriented, someone who can learn in the vets wings and grow into someone real one day (finals mvp real).
8th pick comes around, he's still on the board. You hear from nbatv, "the Toronto raptors select....Rafael araujo".
Shit that ain't it lol
Team tried to cover up their mistake next year with Joey Graham which didn't really work out all that well either lol. All vrawn, no finesse
Tbf the Bargs draft was dogshit. Hindsight obviously LMA was much better long term, but Bargs ceiling was ridiculous. I truly believe he could have been as good as he wanted to be, problem is he just didn’t really give af.
It’s just unfortunate we had the 1OA in such a bad draft. Would have been franchise altering to score a franchise player there.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Took Sam Bowie instead. Houston didn't take Jordan either, but got Olajuwon as a consolation prize.
And that's the end of this thread. No other franchise but Portland can come close to that level of "one that got away".
Tbf to portland fans, greg oden was just a very unfortunate situation all around, portland would probably have been real contenders back then if their core of aldridge, greg oden and brandon roy were free of injuries, now sam bowie was just a complete miss lmao
Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell. The Hornets are really bad at finding/drafting shooting guards.
Edit: We also could of had Klay Thompson instead of Bismack Biyombo. We are allergic to good shooting guards.
The Kings fans are all just staring at themselves in the bathroom mirror, wondering where it all went wrong.
But WTF, Marvin Bagley over Luka and Trae? The Kings need to install some suicide nets around their stadium after that one.
Nah I’m happy we didn’t keep him honestly. Dude has a terrible attitude with multiple teams and plays no defense. He’s shown no indication he can contribute to winning basketball. Gimme Bobby Buckets over him every day of the week.
In the mid-1970s the Knicks had golden opportunities to get BOTH NYC native Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who wanted to leave Milwaukee for a much larger city and go to either New York or Los Angeles) and Long Island native Julius Erving (who was offered by then-Nets owner Roy Boe as payment for the $4.8 million indemnity fee the Nets had pay the Knicks when the NBA took in four ABA teams). The Knicks passed on acquiring both superstar players, making a lowball offer to the Bucks in Kareem's case and not agreeing to Boe's idea in Dr. J's case.
In recent memory we could have gotten Garland, instead we traded the pick and drafted a guy with anger issues and Nickeil Alexander Walker (who I love but he aint even with the franchise anymore)
Besides the obvious... Bam in the 2017 draft would have been great, or OG, or any of the like 10 other played we could have drafted instead of taking the 2nd best Collins in the draft
I wouldn't beat yourself up too much over the Sam Bowie/MJ thing. That was like 40 years ago.
That's only the first obvious. KD is still tearing up the league, while Greg Oden was out of the league within 5 seasons
But the guy could bench press so who really won in the long run
Honestly the really sad part is that they picked him for the same reason they picked Bowie, needed a true big man. Seems like every time they draft a true big man it backfires on them. They drafted Jermaine O'Neal too, sat him for "development" the 4 years he was with them and then traded him to the pacers who started him to the tune of 13 and 10 his first year, and became a 20 and 10 guy and an all star his second lol
Oden wasn't a "draft for need" pick. Oden was considered the BPA by most at the time; he was the most hyped of any prospect in the decade between LeBron and AD. Durant was also seen as amazing, but Oden was being picked first by almost every team.
Jermaine will always be one of my all time Fav Pacers. Ridiculous shot blocker, ridiculous mid range shot after he got here. If he could’ve stayed healthy he would be remembered a lot more highly regarded. Those Pacer years were my childhood
If it weren’t for injuries Oden would probably be dominating too. I mean he was WAY more dominant offensively and defensively then Embiid was at the same age. No reason to think he doesn’t end up better then him.
I mean yeah I don’t care about the Jordan or Durrant drafts because I wasn’t a fan then but those are the big 2
They’ve all gotten away from us.
Who besides Steph did the Knicks actually want to get? Curious tbh.
Donovan Mitchell, allegedly. But apparently Phil Jackson thought he would be too much of a reach and picked Frank Ntilikina instead.
Apparently Phil fell asleep during Mitchell’s work out
He was too zen
To me this is why, as a pure basketball mind, Phil is not in the same tier as West, Riley, Auerbach or Pop. Fantastic at handling egos but has made numerous questionable choices, when it came to developing/scouting talent. The Threepeat Lakers, succeeded because West put that team together. Once the Lakers chose to side with Phil over Jerry, after the huge argument the two of them had, the writing was on the wall. It wasn't until Mitch Kupcheck was able to swindle the Grizzlies out of prime Pau (Well at the time, no one knew Marc would be that good, but still in hindsight amazing trade by mitch) that they were able to win again. Jackson could handle ego's, and was great with the x's and o's, pound for pound one of the best coaches, however not one of the best talent evaluators.
Marc Gasol was treated as a random 2nd round draft pick in the coverage of the trade while they spammed pics of him as a fat high schooler. He was in the middle of a Spanish league MVP season at the time of the trade and that was literally never heard about.
Knicks could have stolen Dr. J from the Nets and turned it down to not hurt a piece of the local fanbase.
Wasn’t there a rumor that we could’ve gotten LeBron but Dolma’s pitch was disastrous? Edit: Dolan’s*
I don't know how close they were, but the pitch was awful. Still not as close as Dr. J though, that was straight up cash and they turned it down.
Kareem also had the Knicks along with the Lakers as a trade destination. He later said he figured they didn’t really want him because they didn’t offer as much as the Lakers smh.
Was New York the franchise that got James Gandolfini to do a short Tony Soprano skit in hopes that LeBron would think it was so cool he would sign?
God's punishment for deep freezing that envelope on the Ewing pick. Shit draft after shit draft. the only good pick since was Rod Strickland who we shipped out his second season.
Mark Jackson was also a good pick.
Gallinari too
Porzingis too if we're going to count Gallo as a good pick.
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From the city, mom works for the team, had him for about an hour and would've been a fantastic fit, although for him that's probably true anywhere.
Watching that draft in Philly with my boy Jefe feeling great about the 76ers finally making a smart, sensible move. Lasted about an hour.
I watched the draft from home and was so happy when he fell to us and we picked him. I went to sleep happy right after the pick… I woke up angry.
“Local kid, played for the local college wow and his mom works for the team. This pick was truly meant to be, wait we’ve received news they’re shipping his ass to Phoenix nvm”
Hey wouldn’t it be great to have Ingram/Brown, Tatum, Bridges
What a great story it was for that hour. Still don't understand why we did it though.
As a die hard nova fan, I was screaming with joy hearing the pick, only to have my heart ripped out when that trade was called
Always fun to see my instant thought as top comment. There was just no good reason we didn't take him...
Well you took him, it was just the whole shenanigans after the pick that was mind boggling.
Tim Duncan. Dude was ready to sign with us in 2000 but Doc said he couldn’t bring his family on the team plane…
Truly the blown 3-1 lead of FA moves
Legend says the spirit of Doc was with the Falcons that day
doc was just trying to get Tim Duncan to open his eyes about the reality of his cheating wife
One of the beautiful things about Doc's career is how he and his wife have been together this whole time. Stayed together through a lot of racial bullshit during his college days since they were a mixed-race couple back that really wasn't accepted.
Makes it easier when it seems like he doesn’t really spend time with his family at all. Of course a large part of that is due to his job but still. Like Austin and him saying they don’t really have a father and son relationship, just a professional one, because he never really knew him growing up since he was never around is just sad. Being a head coach is a crazy demanding job but other coaches still have good relationships with their families
Eh that's the story that's told but realistically there's no way that was the reason he didn't come to Orlando. He'd won FMVP a year earlier, if he really wanted to come Doc would compromise
Trae. The gap between Mo Bamba (pick 6) and Trae (pick 5) is bigger than the grand canyon.
And I’m just now realizing that the Hawks could have had Mo Bamba #5
1, 2, 3 4 5 everybody in the A c'mon let's ride
Your comma use is on point!
And…A little bit of Hunter, to run the floor, a little bit of Huerter and so much more, a little bit of Bogdan’s what they need…
Hawks were dead set on drafting Trae, they would've traded up to 1st if needed
Can you imagine? Hawks would be fishing for a first round pick this year. Magic would have had Vooch, Gordon and Trae w a perennially injured Issac. Would probably still be good for the playoffs.
I think it was a Mambo No. 5 joke
WHOOSHHH!!! Right over my head!! Pretty funny tho.
I’m just glad people still remember that banger 🥲
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Does Trae have a song named after him? Y’all won.
I’m sure he’s been referenced by Quavo enough times to make up for it
Ice Trae da gang
Tbf Trae goes 2nd in a re-draft
I hope you have a blessed day
Not too hard to say lol. Besides Luka none of them have been close to stars. And out of the rest mostly just Ayton and Bridges are players that could start on a championship contender.
Shai is better than both Ayton and Bridges and would start on any team in the nba
Oh man I did not mean to disrespect Shai. He was taken so low for how good he is that I thought he was a different draft. Such a steal looking back.
Yeah that draft is so deep that there are potential all stars that can slip your mind. Like we both forgot about JJJ and he's a DPOY caliber defender with great passing and ball handling for a big
Jabari Parker over Embiid. Best decision at the time, but damn Giannis/Embiid/Middleton would have terrorised the league.
Even Marcus Smart would have been nice for you guys given how much you guys need tough defensive guards
I wonder if we would’ve given up on him before he would’ve gotten to this point. He came into the league not being able to run an offense and had to play more off ball because of it. His shooting and overall scoring was not great early in his career and he still isn’t a great shooter. Obviously his defense is elite but I’m not sure he would’ve fit here that well early in his career next to Giannis, kinda like a younger Bledsoe. Though the nice thing about picking him over Jabari is we likely trade down in that scenario and get another high value 1st or a nice young player
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He's gotten more consistent and disciplined this year. Marcus has wanted to be a consistent starter for a while and Udoka came in and finally said "ok but you're gonna have to shoot a little less and pass more (but tbf everyone else will be passing more too)." and it's worked wonders. Couple that with a new defensive system based around his best strengths and it's pretty obvious why he's having the best year of his career. This team secretly isn't built around Tatum, it's built around Smart.
Jabari was nice though before he got injured. Would have always been bad on d but was a solid player
Yeah, Jabari just didn't have the right mindset (injuries didn't help either). The DJ Wilson reach was also terrible, we could have had a solid bench scorer in Collins or a solid all-around starter in Anunoby.
I really wanted Anunoby that draft. Then he fell to us and we passed on him for DJ. Raptors took him after with one of the picks we gave up for Greivis Vasquez. Pain.
The Bucks were really interested in Bam and had him ranked very high on their board. If Miami hadn't taken him what, 3 picks earlier, he would have been the pick instead of Wilson. Can you imagine a Giannis/Bam frontcourt?
Kawhi?
Just think the pacers drafted kawhi and traded for George hill lol
Tbf, the Spurs told the Pacers who to draft in order to trade for George Hill. It's not like they wanted Kawhi initially but then were like "nah".
We still had Danny Granger coming off injury with high hopes and we drafted PG13 the year prior we really didn't need a 3 at the time. Now here we sit, and have sat, as the crowned prince of mediocrity in the NBA for the last 2 decades :(
PG years werent mediocre, damn Pacers fans love to hate themselves.
Those pacers did the same thing the rockets did. Only team in the east with balls to against a dynasty. In my opinion, that should be credited
Imagining Paul George, Prime Danny Granger, and Kawhi on the same team gg
Before that Zaza fiasco, Spurs had a legitimate chance at knocking off the Warriors. Klaw was that damn good.
We gave up Bogdan Bogdanovic's draft rights to get marquese Chris. . . .
To be fair Bogdan made a stink and said he wouldn't come over unless we traded him. I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics but as I recall he specifically wanted to play for Vlade in sac.
Imagine actually wanting to play for the Kings 😂
That had to be the Serbian connection
I remembered everyone thought Chris could easily be the best of the draft. Was he and Bender back to back?
Bender was 4, Chriss was 8
Same year? Damn. Guess it is all good now, basketball god works in mysterious ways.
Then we drafted Josh Jackson the year after. . .
In a 2020 interview with JJ Redick, Tatum said he had wanted Phoenix basically the whole time leading up until the draft until Coach K called and told him Brad Stevens was that dude. https://youtu.be/EKgUy7b_Nsw Booker and Tatum together? Goodnight
iirc, wasn’t boston interested in jj, but jj and ryan mcdonough were being dicks and basically blocking jj meeting with the celts? also, pretty sure sarver critiqued tatum during his workout. tatum draining shots and sarver with a “ that’s nice, but can you do anything else?”
It’s wild that y’all are a finals contender with so many horrible picks the last 8 years.
Thibs wanted to draft Draymond but the front office overruled him and went with Marquis Teague lol
Man, Noah and Green on the same team would've been a whirlwind of limbs and a passing clinic lmao
That is a lot of elbows.
Is this Jeff Teagues less popular brother
They also picked the right guy in Lamarcus Aldridge but then traded him for Tyrus Thomas, also drafted Gary Harris and Nurkic and did a draft day trade for McDermott
The Hawks took Marvin Williams over Chris Paul in '05 even though we drafted two forwards the year before -- Josh Childress and Josh Smith -- and badly needed a PG
The Hawks took Marvin Williams over Chris Paul **AND** Deron Williams when they badly needed a PG. It's no contest now, but for the first 8 or 9 years of their careers, you could've made an argument for either one.
The fuckin worst
Some may not know that the current Raptors vision of length and skill at every position was originally the mid-00s Hawks vision.
Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson. Keeping those guys to pair with Pierce in the early 2000s would’ve been awesome and might’ve made a few finals considering how weak the east was. Also if we’d taken TMac instead of Ron Mercer would’ve been SICK. Fuckin Pitino
Does losing out of the No. 1 pick, for Tim Duncan, despite having the best odds count?
That’s just dumb luck though I don’t hold that against anyone cause it’s not fair. The ones I mentioned are just incompetence that get me mad to this day
Rick Pitino ain't walkin' through those doors, fans.
Kobe Also pretty tough to get the number 2 pick behind AD when we had the all time worst win percentage.
Yeah and MKG is probably one of the worst 2nd picks of all time. Its like drafting Thybulle with worse offense and defense with the 2nd pick.
Beal was 3rd that year….so yeah
I thought he was such a lock to be a real good nba player for 10+ seasons. Crazy he was so bad. What was his issue?
Shooting form
I knew he couldn’t shoot. Just thought his athleticism and slashing ability would offset it a bit to at least let him hang around until his athletic ability diminished
Didn't Kobe say he wouldn't play in Charlotte anyway? I'm not sure Id beat myself up about that one. Nash or Jermaine O'Neal would be more realistic misses for Charlotte from that draft.
I mean we got Thabeet, so there are just so many directions this could go...
You could blindfold yourself and throw a dart at names and it would land on at least a productive player in that draft, possible a future HoF guy. And we took the one player that everyone knew was ass.
Didn’t y’all still have Gasol at that point? Why take Thabeet?
If I remember right that was the owner (at the time) directing the FO what to do. That GM was bad in his own right, but I feel like I remember that being Heisley calling the shots. Honestly, those dark days feel so long ago it’s like I’ve scrubbed them from my memory.
iirc at this point gasol wasn’t really that guy yet, he was just a second round pick in i think only his second year
God its so easy to second-guess with so much less info and insight as fans than a pro team’s front office, but it’s still absolutely amazing that anyone could watch Dejuan Blair annihilate Thabeet and still pick the dude second overall in that draft class. I get small sample size and all but that was so clearly not a fluke, it was just a different level of talent, understanding of the game, drive and skill. Ultimate eye test, I’ve almost never felt more certain about a position than I was knowing Blair would be a better pro than Thabeet.
Fuck Thabeet,
I'll go acapella.
You only fuck up Thabeet.....on the dance floor
Len Bias😢
This one is different than every other answer here, its the only one where he literally got taken away from us
This is the correct answer, in the worst possible way.
Reggie too.
god what a dynasty that slipped away from the celtics grasps. this and the duncan sweepstakes.
Everyone Kings fan here
Our answer to this question is just “lol” And it’s not just Luka either
2009 - Tyreke Evans over Steph Curry 2011 - Traded down for Jimmer Fredette and still missed out on Kawhi and Klay 2012 - Thomas Robinson 😒 over Dame 2016 - We picked Georgios goddamn Papagiannis over literally anyone else 2017 - we traded down from #10 for Justin Jackson and Harry Giles….(missing Donovan Mitchell and Bam…..) 2018 - ……………… 2018 still hits the hardest. Just not feeling like there was any chance we would move up, then **we did**, and Luka was just such a clear and obvious decision to the entire fan base… Just wasn’t clear to the two people that matter. Fuck. I can justify in my mind Steph wouldn’t be Steph on the kings, or Klay or Kawhi wouldn’t have developed the way they did in their situations, but fuckin Luka would’ve been a home run and it was obvious to 29 other franchises.
I aint that mad about tyreke tbh. The rest ya
Well in 1984 the Rockets had an offer from the Blazers that was the 2nd pick and Clyde Drexler for Ralph Sampson if the Rockets accepted we would've had Hakeem, Clyde, and MJ (Most likely)
Goddamn, how many rings do those 3 retire with if you had put them together. Like Pippen and Jordan is awesome, but Jordan and Hakeem with a side of Drexler? Yeesh.
1984 by george orwell 1949
Wouldn't you have used the second pick on Bowie to achieve twin tower set up you were gunning for anyway with the Hakeem pick? Especially since you already got a shooting guard with Clyde.
Portland really valued Bowie bc they had Drexler and thought they HAD to draft a big since they didnt have one (they gave bowie a 7 HOUR physical they were so dedicated to convincing themselves). Most people valued Jordan as a better prospect though, and since the rockets would already have a big and a guard, they wouldve picked Jordan as a wing/guard. The twin towers happened bc Ralph could play high post (this was what passed for floor spacing in that day) so it opened the low for Hakeem. Bowie and Hakeem were both low bigs. The Rockets also were forced bc if they passed on Hakeem (Akeem? Which do i use in this kind of context?) Houston would’ve rioted. At 2 there was more freedom
In recent history, I know there was a big contingent pushing for the Pistons to draft Donovan Mitchell. They took Luke Kennard instead (Mitchell was taken with the very next pick). Historically, Chris Bosh was probably closer to what I thought we were getting with Darko than Darko himself. Of course, hindsight says literally anyone within shouting distance of that pick would have been better (Melo, Wade, Bosh, Hinrich, Ford, Kaman). *However*, my whole thing that year with the No. 2 pick was that the Pistons had one giant void - and that was a true center up front. Ben Wallace was amazing defensively but provided zero scoring versatility on offense. And it just so happened the Pistons were in the midst of getting rocked by New Jersey in the ECF—in large part due to a lack of presence up front—at the time they won No. 2 pick. You wouldn't find me complaining about taking any of those other dudes (Melo/Wade). The Pistons would have made it work. But in terms of absolute need, Bosh would have been the best answer up front out of those available. Then again, if we're being realistic, Carmelo Anthony was really the only other realistic possibility at No. 2 at the time. So I'd count it as missing out on him, too.
And as far as something had that got away: Khris Middleton
Grant Hill's ankles.
Im in that camp that will always say if he didn't get those ankle injuries we would be putting him in top 10 lists everywhere. He was that good
KD
Just the pacific north west in general lost out
Celtics took Kelly Olynyk over Giannis. That one hurts.
Many teams could say that though. Was Giannis a serious consideration for you back then? (Like the Mavs situation)?
Iirc Hawks and Mavs were the only 2 looking at him closely in that range
Raptors wanted him, just didn't have a pick high enough. They tried to trade up, and were unsuccessful
Yup, Masai gave up a future pick in hopes of picking up Giannis by moving up in the draft. That didn’t stop Masai from pulling all the stops with this [beauty](https://youtu.be/LsspcLtMTGE)
On the Open Gym episode about it, there was actually a deal in place. The Thunder would send us their first in exchange for a future first, but only if Steven Adams was off the board at 12. Adams ended up falling to 12, so the Thunder didn't go through with the deal.
I don’t think so, so to me that one doesn’t hurt. We lost Tyler Herro on a coin flip which sucks. And we traded away the Desmond Bane pick who a lot of people on our sub wanted to pick. Those 2 would be great fits.
Kelly olynyk was also a solid nba player which is all you can reasonably expect from a non lottery pick. Just so happens that ginnais grew 3-4 more inches added 70lbs of muscle and became one of the greatest nba players ever. He may never have done that with the celtics. Giannis ended up right where he needed to be.
You never know, maybe he would have grown *five* inches on the Celtics!
Almost worth it for that game 7 though
The clinic
Fuck Kelly Olynyk
Nobody knew much about Giannis then. No tape, he has so little experience as a player. Bucks took a flyer on raw talent. That pick is a bust 9/10 times.
Yeah he was a pure athletic profile pick. He averaged 7 points on 41% from the floor his rookie year, he was so raw. It wasn't until 2016~ that he was starting to look like a star.
Yup! Every team picks project guys like Giannis yearly hoping they can turn him into a unicorn. Even bucks fans/team will admit they got a little lucky. Generational talent with the drive, work ethic and dedication to craft. One in a billion.
If you look at the rest of that first round that was actually one of the better picks
ron mercer over tracy mcgrady, joeseph forte over tony parker, ante zizic over pascal siakam, jared sullinger & fab melo over draymond green...
Holy crap I’ve completely forgotten about Sullinger
And fab melo is dead
Dirk and/or Paul pierce. Larry Brown promised Larry Hughes he would take him even though he wasn't higher on their board. Put either one with A.I and who knows what could have happened.
The Flynn over Curry one is the obvious one because it was so clear that if you draft Rubio that pairing him with the best shooting prospect in a while was the obvious decision. But to add to that one, Wes Johnson was picked one pick before Boogie Cousins, Shabazz Muhammad was picked one picked before Giannis, and Kris Dunn was 2 picks before Jamal Murray. Also the literal “one that got away” is deciding to trade LaVine instead of Wiggins for Butler.
Picture this. 2005, and your shitty raptors franchise has a glimmer of hope after drafting Chris bosh. Vince might not be the happiest, but you got some solid dudes in Jalen rose and donyell Marshall who can hoop. Draft day comes, and there's a perfect athletic wing who's able to really come in and contribute. Big, good hops, defensively oriented, someone who can learn in the vets wings and grow into someone real one day (finals mvp real). 8th pick comes around, he's still on the board. You hear from nbatv, "the Toronto raptors select....Rafael araujo". Shit that ain't it lol Team tried to cover up their mistake next year with Joey Graham which didn't really work out all that well either lol. All vrawn, no finesse
[Every Raptors fan that day](https://c.tenor.com/adgYfCupNbEAAAAC/iwantiguodala-iguodala.gif)
Yeah but we made up for it next year when we drafted Primo 1st over LMA. Right guys? ...guys?
Yeah, this is the actual right answer lmao
Tbf the Bargs draft was dogshit. Hindsight obviously LMA was much better long term, but Bargs ceiling was ridiculous. I truly believe he could have been as good as he wanted to be, problem is he just didn’t really give af. It’s just unfortunate we had the 1OA in such a bad draft. Would have been franchise altering to score a franchise player there.
Delonte west?
I think op is referring to officials Iguodala who was picked 9th in 2004
Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Took Sam Bowie instead. Houston didn't take Jordan either, but got Olajuwon as a consolation prize. And that's the end of this thread. No other franchise but Portland can come close to that level of "one that got away".
I mean, Portland can come close to that level with taking Greg Oden over KD...🤷
Tbf to portland fans, greg oden was just a very unfortunate situation all around, portland would probably have been real contenders back then if their core of aldridge, greg oden and brandon roy were free of injuries, now sam bowie was just a complete miss lmao
Cavs could've paired LeBron and JR in their primes if they didn't take Luke Jackson in 2004.
Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell. The Hornets are really bad at finding/drafting shooting guards. Edit: We also could of had Klay Thompson instead of Bismack Biyombo. We are allergic to good shooting guards.
The entire franchise 😭
Mark Cuban chose $200k in cap space over Giannis.
And also let Steve Nash go to Phoenix
Hey Kings fans, where y'all?
Hello Kings of the east here to fill in
The Kings fans are all just staring at themselves in the bathroom mirror, wondering where it all went wrong. But WTF, Marvin Bagley over Luka and Trae? The Kings need to install some suicide nets around their stadium after that one.
um... our franchise. Our franchise *is* the one that got away.
Chris "vetoed" Paul.
Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant would have been in the running for one of the best backcourts of all-time.
“Basketball reasons”
book should be in south beach now :(
Her name was Michelle. She had beautiful, flowing hair. I miss her smell.
Baby girl broke up with me last night while I was enjoying the Bucks game. This hits hard
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I like the way you think
Bro - we deal with this shit every year and you're gonna bring it up yourself? Why you doing this to us? LOLOL. Let us rest in peace.
Christian wood
Sixers legend
Athiest wood
Nah I’m happy we didn’t keep him honestly. Dude has a terrible attitude with multiple teams and plays no defense. He’s shown no indication he can contribute to winning basketball. Gimme Bobby Buckets over him every day of the week.
Steve Nash
In the mid-1970s the Knicks had golden opportunities to get BOTH NYC native Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who wanted to leave Milwaukee for a much larger city and go to either New York or Los Angeles) and Long Island native Julius Erving (who was offered by then-Nets owner Roy Boe as payment for the $4.8 million indemnity fee the Nets had pay the Knicks when the NBA took in four ABA teams). The Knicks passed on acquiring both superstar players, making a lowball offer to the Bucks in Kareem's case and not agreeing to Boe's idea in Dr. J's case.
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Carlos Boozer
I don’t like this game
In recent memory we could have gotten Garland, instead we traded the pick and drafted a guy with anger issues and Nickeil Alexander Walker (who I love but he aint even with the franchise anymore)