A guard heavy year overall, 2005 wasn’t a bad draft at all.
While you see a significant drop off from the draft’s two best players (guards
Chris Paul and Deron Williams) to the rest of the field, nobody was really too
horrible in terms on lottery picks. There were guys that didn’t pan out, but
the draft as a whole had a lot of guys even going late first round and in the
second round who were sustainable and helpful. An easy argument could be made
for who should be on this list between pick 10 and picks into the low 20’s as
there is a lot of talent (i.e. Brandon Bass, Jason Maxiell, Ryan Gomes) who I
did not make part of the top 15 of a redraft.
To show the depth, there were 24 undrafted players from
2005’s eligibility list that have gone on to play in the NBA at some point,
including recognizable (to NBA fans) names like Will Bynum or Chuck Hayes.
Yet at the top stood two and that helps this draft’s stock
in the history of drafts. Because both of those top players are likely headed
some day to the Hall of Fame.
Pick 1: Milwaukee
Bucks
Who they took: Andrew Bogut
Who they should have took: Chris Paul (4th pick)
Why: This is a no brainer. CP3 is in a class of his own from
this draft. Court vision, scoring aptitude, the way he runs the floor. In all
of those areas, Paul looks more like NBA2K than reality. He’s a smooth scoring
point who should be considered a top 10 player in today’s league. Thanks to time
with the NBA-owned Hornets and the recent Clippers ownership debacles, he has
been on his fair share of controversial rides, but has always come out cleaner
on the other end. With a lot of time left on his career, he is a lifetime 18.6
ppg and 9.9 apg guy who has led the league in assists on three separate occasions.
Pick 2: Atlanta
Hawks
Who they took: Marvin Williams
Who they should have took: Deron Williams (3rd
pick)
Why: Maybe not directly behind (but close to) Chris Paul in
ranking the league’s point guards, Deron took a steady growth to the top of his
game and then cashed in for a major payday. He developed in Utah
and became one of the top young points in the league before cashing out and
heading to New Jersey where he
didn’t let up, posting a career high in assists per game in his first year as a
Net. Atlanta made a critical
mistake by missing out on Williams (and then Chris Paul too). They took
Williams to help an inside game that didn’t need help. They had everything they
needed in the ATL except a point guard (because Tyronn Lue and Royal Ivey
weren’t getting it done, combining in the 2005-06 season for less points and
less assists than four of their teammates). Williams would have taken Atlanta
over the top and changed the trajectory of the organization immediately. And
that isn’t easy.
Pick 3: Utah
Jazz
Who they took: Deron Williams
Who they should have took: Raymond Felton (5th
pick)
Why: This may come as a shocking choice. And I will openly
admit that I initially was thinking Felton at #4, but when you look at the
needs in Utah , Andrew Bynum would
have made no sense. Utah needed a
solid swing guard and with Paul and Deron off the board, Felton would have had
to have been the pick. Felton doesn’t have the flash of the other two and never
has. But he has been consistent wherever he has gone, averaging below 10 ppg
for the first time just this last season. He was what kept Charlotte
afloat in his first five years in the league, maxing out at 14.4 ppg and 7.4
apg in his third year, while never missing more than four games in a season.
Although he missed some time when he left for New York ,
he posted career highs in minutes (38.4), points (17.1) and assists (9). In a
world where Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko were doing the heavy lifting,
Felton would have been a more than adequate accessory point guard.
Pick 4: New Orleans
Hornets
Who they took: Chris Paul
Who they should have took: Andrew Bynum (10th
pick)
Why: This is where you just bite the bullet. Although the
Hornets also needed a guard, you have to just go ahead and take Bynum here and
pray he stays healthy. Because a healthy Andrew Bynum (both physically and
mentally) could possibly have been the best big man in the modern NBA. He
struggled as a rookie, when he was the youngest person to ever play in a NBA
game, but struck the next year, playing in all 82 games (which is nice since
he’s played in 26 combined the last two years with three teams). In his final
season as a Laker, he finally showed what he could do when (mostly) healthy, by
averaging 8.7 ppg and 11.8 rpg while being an All-Star and an All-NBA 2nd
team selection. If you are New Orleans ,
you have to take this gamble and hope he doesn’t get hurt, because a
Bynum/David West combo would have been very powerful even without adequate
guard play.
Pick 5: Charlotte
Bobcats
Who they took: Raymond Felton
Who they should have took: Danny Granger (17th
pick)
Why: Granger has become another sad tale of injury lately,
but before he played 46 games in three years, he was a prolific scorer and
considered amongst NBA elite. Just four seasons in and passed on by 16 teams;
he posted back to back years of 24+ ppg. Charlotte
needed that hallmark of consistency and Granger was that and more when healthy.
With a scorer like him, maybe they wouldn’t have been held playoff less for so
long and avoided being the laughing stock of the league.
Pick 6: Portland Trail Blazers
Who they took: Martell Webster
Who they should have took: David Lee (30th pick)
Why: Portland
was set in the guard position going into the 2005-06 season and Lee would have
been a perfect second punch inside with a young Zach Randolph. Especially at
this point in his career, David Lee was much more versatile and didn’t play as
flat footed as his aging body does today. It would have afforded the Blazers
cap space as well as they could have easily parted ways with Joel Przybilla to
use the cheaper Lee in the same role.
Pick 7: Toronto
Raptors
Who they took: Charlie Villanueva
Who they should have took: Monta Ellis (40th
pick)
Why: The only reason Ellis comes this low is because he is
known to have a terrible attitude and has been some form of a cancer in many
different places at many different times. His personality upside is limited,
but his basketball upside is terrific. Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady were no
longer options and the Raptors were flat out terrible. How they won as many
games as they did is one of life’s great mysteries. The only help they had was
a young Chris Bosh, who was still coming into his own and Villanueva scored
over 1000 points strictly because they needed him to on a team where the go to
guy was Mike James or Morris Peterson. And while Ellis did very little in his
first year, this would have been an excellent pick to say “it can’t get any
worse” and let him grow. In fact, he has averaged 10 or more points higher
every single season than he did his rookie year, peaking with 25.5 ppg in his
fifth year and even hitting 19 ppg last year, his 10th in the
league.
Pick 8: New York
Knicks
Who they took: Channing Frye
Who they should have took: Andrew Bogut (1st
pick)
Why: Bogut shouldn’t have been the top pick, but that
doesn’t mean he hasn’t had a valuable and productive NBA career, making an
All-NBA team as recently as 2010 and leading the league in blocks in 2011. He
has not had the scoring punch he did in college, but has been a strong
defensive presence, averaging a block or more a game in all but two seasons and
has never had a worse rebounding career than his first. With lifetime 11.6 ppg
and 9.3 rpg marks, he won’t set the world on fire, but he has been an integral
option in both Milwaukee and Golden
State
Pick 9: Golden State
Who they took: Ike Diogu
Who they should have took: Gerald Green (18th
pick)
Why: Green always has been the tail of about 14 different
players. His only consistency has been his inconsistency. Since his drafting 9
years ago, he has been part of 8 different NBA teams, three foreign teams and
three NBA Developmental League teams. But the fact is that when he is on, he
can be explosive and not just as one of the game’s best dunkers. His game and
mentality has adapted to the NBA level, something that the straight out of high
school version didn’t have. He was skinny and cocky and brash and he dropped in
the draft because of it. But years later, he has found a foot hold in Phoenix
where he set career high marks in every significant statistical category but
rebounds per game (and he was 0.1 off of that mark) and field goal percentage
(though .445 isn’t shabby). If you are the Warriors, you pass on flame out
Diogu and take the raw talent, hoping to make him mature earlier.
Pick 10: Los Angeles
Lakers
Who they took: Andrew Bynum
Who they should have took: Marcin Gortat (57th
pick)
Why: Before the Lakers latched onto Pau Gasol, they were
searching for any kind of big man. Kwame Brown, Chris Mihm, Ronny Turiaf. They
thought (and kind of did) hit a jackpot (planned big, reality small) with
Bynum. But with him gone, you go to the next strongest long term post. Gortat
would be a steal today even though he didn’t play in the NBA for two full
seasons after being drafted, instead staying with his German team. Though he
doesn’t have the upside of Bynum, he also doesn’t have the downside of Bynum.
By his second season in the league, he found his footing as a role player in Orlando .
By the time the Lakers were running out of steam and the Heat was becoming the perennial
favorites, Gortat was averaging over 15 ppg and 10 rpg in Phoenix .
Imagine those numbers backing up what an older Gasol was lacking instead of
relying on an emotionally unstable Bynum.
Pick 11: Orlando
Magic
Who they took: Fran Vazquez
Who they should have took: Jarrett Jack (22nd
pick)
Why: Orlando was
a great combination of young possible future stars and aging, but helpful
veterans like Grant Hill and Stacey Augmon. It’s still odd that they didn’t
break through at this point, but even more guard depth from Jack would have
been great, especially when their actual pick still hasn’t played a NBA game.
Jack could have backed up Deshawn Stevenson and bolstered the team by playing
alongside point guards Steve Francis, Jameer Nelson and Keyon Dooling. An additional
6.7 ppg doesn’t seem like much, but the athleticism Jack brings to the game
would have been a lot.
Pick 12: Los Angeles
Clippers
Who they took: Yaroslav Korolev
Who they should have took: Nate Robinson (21st
pick)
Why: Because why not? Sadly, I think Robinson’s place in NBA
history will be more of a circus act. And while his numbers fluctuate, this is
still a guy who averaged 17.2 ppg and 1.3 spg as a fourth year player in New
York . And he is 5-FOOT-9! He did well in half a
season in Denver last year and is
still averaging 11.4 ppg for his career. He is dynamic, but often wrongly
overlooked.
Pick 13: Charlotte
Bobcats
Who they took: Sean May
Who they should have took: Marvin Williams (2nd
pick)
Why: Williams is considered a pretty big bust, but mostly
because he went before Deron Williams and Chris Paul. He still is averaging a
career 10+ ppg and 5+ rpg, so he is not as much a bust as just not good enough
to be a #2 overall pick. Still Williams would have helped this Bobcats team
still (eternally?) looking to find their footing. If nothing else, he has been
consistent, playing in almost every game every season and averaging that
lifetime scoring number because he hovers almost right at 10 ppg per season.
Pick 14: Minnesota
Timberwolves
Who they took: Rashad McCants
Who they should have took: Ersan Ilyasova (36th
pick)
Why: Few probably though Ilyasova would ever stick in the
NBA. He’s not a knock your socks off kind of guy. But as is the trend most of
the time in these redrafts, you need a guy between 11-15 who will just work and
give you solid, consistent numbers. He has done that in Milwaukee ,
an organization seemingly always in a state of flux. He missed his initial year
in the league, but has spent his last three seasons putting up the best numbers
of his career while averaging a fair 27 minute per game off the bench.
Pick 15: New Jersey
Nets
Who they took: Antoine Wright
Who they should have took: Channing Frye (8th
pick)
Why: Frye is another guy who flies under the radar because
of not living up to initial expectations. He even put up 12.3 ppg as a rookie
in New York before falling off.
Then he landed in Phoenix and has been steady, averaging between 10.5 and 12.7
ppg, shooting near 43-percent from the field and as high as 89-percent from the
foul line.
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