1999 is almost a forgotten year when you talk about top
draft classes, but this class really was loaded from top to bottom as the first
and fifty-seventh picks each ended up being All-Stars and All-NBA performers
during their careers. There were seven other All-Stars picked between them.
The letdowns there were, especially in the top 15 were both
unfortunate and sad. Duke University saw four players go in the top 14 picks,
but only two had extended NBA careers and only one (Elton Brand) had any high
level of success. Trajan Langdon and William Avery both washed out in the
league but had pretty great success overseas.
And the sad: Frederic Weis. Although Knicks fans still have
a habit of booing their own draft picks when their names were called, this was
perhaps the worst pick in the history of the draft, let alone in New
York . Weis, best (and really only) known for being
the victim of a Vince Carter leap-frog-your-opponent dunk in the Olympics,
never played a single NBA minute. He became one of the highest picks ever, if
not THE highest to never see the league.
Pick 1: Chicago
Bulls
Who they took: Elton Brand
Who they should have took: Manu Ginobili (57th
pick)
Why: Had any single team had the slightest inkling about
Manu, he would have been a locked in lottery pick. Had they known what we know
now, he would have very clearly been the building block of Chicago ’s
post-Jordan reboot instead of Brand. He is quite possibly the best foreign
player to ever play in the NBA and has shown his game and the level at which he
plays has substantial longevity, especially when you consider that he had
played professionally overseas for four years at this point. With a player like
Manu to build around, Chicago could
have made better roster decisions earlier.
Pick 2: Vancouver
Grizzlies
Who they took: Steve Francis (traded to Rockets)
Who they should have took: Baron Davis (3rd pick)
Why: First of all, drafting Davis
would have given Vancouver someone
to build around, as opposed to giving up Steve Francis for a litany of garbage
(Othella Harrington may have been their best piece of the Houston
trade). Davis went on to be one of
the most reliable, gritty and tough point guards in the modern age of the
league. He averaged over 16 points and 7 assists during his career, three times
averaging 20+ points per game. The trophy years for Davis
were his 22.9 ppg, 2.4 spg, 4.3 rpg, 7.5 apg outing in 2003-2004. That same
year, had he been in then-Memphis, he would have teamed with Shane Battier and
Pau Gasol and possibly been a major threat out West.
Pick 3: Charlotte
Hornets
Who they took: Baron Davis
Who they should have took: Elton Brand (1st pick)
Why: While not the best player in this draft now, anyone who
sees Brand as near a bust doesn’t know much about the league. He never went on
to be the most dominant post of the century as many believed he could, but he
averaged 20+ six different years and could have been a foundation (as Davis
became) for a soon to be relocating and rebuilding franchise. Elton Brand would
have been a great face for the New Orleans Hornets. He is one of a handful of
still active players from this draft and although his production has done down,
his career point/rebound numbers still hover over 16 and 8. It’s a stretch to
say he would have stayed in New Orleans
through 2005, but had he, they would have benefited from back to back years of
averaging over 20/10 and he instantly would have helped them in 1999, still
stumbling over the Kobe debacle.
Pick 4: Los Angeles
Clippers
Who they took: Lamar Odom
Who they should have took: Shawn Marion (9th
pick)
Why: The draft gets wide open for the next several picks as
there may not have been a wrong choice in anybody I name from here through pick
10. But what Marion has provided in
his career has been a winning attitude and nearly unparalleled effort. His
numbers stay respectable, but Marion
has been a guy who was clutch as a teammate. Could he have thrived as THE guy?
Who knows. Maybe he wouldn’t have been that guy in LA anyway, but as a big
puzzle piece, he was one of the guys who made Phoenix ’s
run and gun in the 2000s so efficient.
Pick 5: Toronto
Raptors
Who they took: Jonathan Bender (traded to Pacers)
Who they should have took: Richard (Rip) Hamilton
(7th pick)
Why: Bender was a joke and so was his aged replacement Antonio
Davis, so this is automatically and upgrade. Forget his 17.1 career points per
game for a minute and remember that Richard Hamilton is one of the best face
guarding players in the modern era of the NBA. There are very few guys I would
rather have playing defense, especially off the ball. He made other guys work
and work and work and work and then some. And I would much rather have Rip in
the backcourt as a rookie than the aging Dell Curry or Muggsy Bouges.
Pick 6: Minnesota
Timberwolves
Who they took: Wally Szczerbiak
Who they should have took: Steve Francis (2nd
pick)
Why: Because the Stephon Marbury experiment was unsuccessful
and Minnesota really needed a
point guard. Something that made their pick of Szczerbiak odd anyway as Terrell
Brandon (the player they got in the Marbury trade) was not a long term fix.
Also, with hindsight as it is, we know that Minnesota
was on the verge of losing first round draft picks for years to come. Francis
may have been happier in Minnesota
and it would have given the T-Wolves another chance to partner an explosive
point man in a high-scoring combo with Kevin Garnett.
Pick 7: Washington
Wizards
Who they took: Richard Hamilton
Who they should have took: Jason Terry (10th
pick)
Why: Washington
was hungry for a playmaker guard at this point and Terry looked more
offensively ready than Rip at this point. And while his assist numbers have
never quite added up as a point guard, he’s succeeded as a backup and an
undersized shooting guard, hitting 38-percent for his career from long range.
He’s also only had two seasons in single digit scoring (his first and
2013-2014) so he has shown consistency. Something that, for the most part,
still lacks in Washington today.
Also, with Terry on the roster, the Wizards may have never gotten involved with
his college teammate Gilbert Arenas years later out of need, something that
helped kill their franchise a little more.
Pick 8: Cleveland
Cavaliers
Who they took: Andre Miller
Who they should have took: Lamar Odom (4th pick)
Why: For the sad joke that Odom has turned into, he was a
stellar prospect and solid contributor for almost his entire career. Cleveland ’s
guard first approach to lottery life in the years before Lebron didn’t pan out,
so taking a nice combo forward like Odom could have been a better avenue, even
if it did leave them in the lottery or the smelly end of the playoffs.
Pick 9: Phoenix
Suns
Who they took: Shawn Marion
Who they should have took: Ron Artest (16th pick)
Why: It is hard to say what to do here. The Suns lost Jason
Kidd during the following season with an injury, so maybe you want another
point guard so the brunt of the work doesn’t go to Penny Hardaway. But I say go
physical and bring in Artest. Before the real anger issues or name changes,
Artest was just a brute force. He would have helped Phoenix
initially in their eventual playoff loss to San Antonio
and this pick could have changed the path of the franchise. Maybe Artest,
teaming with Kidd or even if they still traded for Marbury, becomes what leads Phoenix
and never brings Nash or Amare Stoudemire to town. Would it be better? Hard to
say, but Artest’s intensity would have been good for a talented, yet pretty
emotionless club in 1999.
Pick 10: Atlanta
Hawks
Who they took: Jason Terry
Who they should have took: Andre Miller (8th
pick)
Why: You basically get the same thing in Miller as you got
in Terry, with a little less scoring and little better court vision. In just
his third season, Miller put up a 16.5 ppg/10.9 apg season that would have been
useful in Atlanta where Terry was
the leading scorer pretty quickly. Would this pick have changed anything? No,
but it would be a lateral move for another emotionless franchise.
Pick 11: Cleveland
Cavaliers
Who they took: Trajan Langdon
Who they should have took: Corey Magette (13th
pick)
Why: Langdon was a prototypical Duke player. But there is a
reason that old school look doesn’t breed much success for ex-Blue Devils and a
reason that Magette lasted longer in the league. Magette and Odom would have
been a fierce combo in Cleveland
and led a youthful surge for a long ailing club. What Cleveland
actually got from Langdon were two uneventful years where he never looked like
the advertised “Alaskan Assassin.” Though he washed out and faded in obscurity
recently, Magette was still a 16 ppg career scorer who at times looked like a
dominant physical specimen capable of leading a franchise as their top guy.
Pick 12: Toronto
Raptors
Who they took: Aleksander Radojevic
Who they should have took: Andrei Kirilenko (24th
pick)
Why: While Kirilenko has sadly never become the player he
has the potential to be, he would have been an awesome player for Toronto
to add to a roster that boasted Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady (and in the
redraft version a better option than Antonio Davis with the earlier 5th
pick). They were already a playoff team, so imagine this Raptors team dropping
Davis’ 11.5 ppg and Radojevic’s three games played for Rip Hamilton and AK-47.
Yes please.
Pick 13: Seattle
Supersonics
Who they took: Corey Magette (traded to Orlando )
Who they should have took: Wally Szczerbiak (6th
pick)
Why: Wally deserves to be graded with an incomplete for his
career because injuries really prevented us from seeing what kind of longevity
he could provide. He was a fresh face in Minnesota
and a very different look from the KG run show, which helped him thrive. He
averaged 20 ppg in the 2002 playoffs and peaked with 20.1 ppg in 2006 and while
he would end up in Seattle
eventually, they could have used his diversity, defensive enthusiasm and
shooting (a career 40.6-percent shooter from downtown) at this point as they
too looked for an identity in the early post-Kemp/Payton era.
Pick 14: Minnesota
Timberwolves
Who they took: William Avery
Who they should have took: Raja Bell (undrafted)
Why: Raja was never going to significantly turn heads, but
he was another guy who (as a sixth man) was crucial to the mid-2000 Phoenix
Suns teams that looked like they may win an NBA title. Bell
would have been great relief for Garnett in Minnesota ,
especially in his 2005-06 and 06-07 seasons when he averaged career high 14.7
ppg for the Suns.
Pick 15: New York
Knicks
Who they took: Frederic Weis
Who they should have took: James Posey (18th
pick)
Why: Look, I know James Posey isn’t Michael Jordan. However,
he also isn’t Frederic Weis. Thankfully. Posey averaged only 8.6 ppg throughout
his career but was strong defensively and eventually a surprising revelation of
a player during the Celtics’ ‘Big Three’ championship run. And he was
consistent, providing about the same level of work until his final two seasons.
He would have been the kind of blue collar player that the Knicks used years
earlier at their peak and although he would have never been a star, he would
have played harder than anyone else they really had at this point.
