In no way shape or form was the 2001 NBA Draft as bad as the
year before. It was a bright outlook inching the league closer to that
benchmark 2003 draft. This draft with ripe with potential, but still in the era
of high school to the pros and international appeal, there was a lot of
underdeveloped as well as untapped potential.
But it was still close to 2000 and there was still little
draft hangover (see Brown, Kwame and Griffin,
Eddie). The highlight of this draft was what the Chicago Bulls tried to do. They
traded franchise centerpiece Elton Brand for the second pick Tyson Chandler and
drafted a second high schooler in Eddy Curry. It was a bold move that paid some
dividends, but not enough for having the second and fourth picks, especially
looking as some of the talent that was left in the wings.
The year was also another eye opener with high school kids. And not just because only one of the three from the lottery panned out, but because of a high school kid going 43rd, therefore having no guaranteed contract. That pick, Ousmane Cisse would ultimately never play in the NBA after forgoing his high school eligibility.
Pick 1: Washington
Wizards
Who they took: Kwame Brown
Who they should have took: Pau Gasol (3rd pick)
Why: My only thought is that Washington
knew Michael Jordan was planning on coming back and that is why they gambled.
However, when you have the greatest ever playing past his prime and Rip Hamilton…and
that’s it….you should probably plan better. The season after this draft
produced the Wizards third best scorer as Chris Whitney. Yes, that Chris
Whitney. Yes, the Chris Whitney that you have never even heard of before. And
granted, I get the appeal of the big strong high school potential, but this is
clearly where you take advantage of adding a guy who was just named the MVP of
the Spanish National Cup. And that is even not knowing what we know now, which
is that Gasol has become one of the more dominant and diverse big men of the
modern era.
Pick 2: Los Angeles
Clippers
Who they took: Tyson Chandler (traded to Bulls)
Who they should have took: Tony Parker (28th pick)
Why: If you are the Clippers of 2001, you make this trade
with Chicago no matter who you are giving in return. It was a wise move then,
even if this pick had been Parker because of the (again, then) high level
commodity that Elton Brand was. And the Bulls with Tony Parker? Intriguing. But
what we know now if you are LA is that you take the Frenchman and you ride with
him for years and years to come. Knowing Parker’s love of the Western
Conference, his loyalty and his enjoyment of actresses, it is not a stretch to
say that Parker would still be a Clipper today. Imagine adding him to the
Griffin/Paul express? I doubt they would have fizzled out.
Pick 3: Atlanta
Hawks
Who they took: Pau
Gasol (traded to Grizzlies)
Who they should have took: Joe Johnson (10th
pick)
Why: You can’t blame Boston
for shipping Joe out after a year, he was a dud. But if you are a pretty much
always directionless Hawks club, you want to add one of your best players ever
a little earlier. By the time Joe made his way to Atlanta
in real life for his sixth season, he became a prolific scorer and only got
better. This would have been a bad pick for Atlanta
if Joe gave them the same 6.3 ppg/2.9 rpg effort he gave the Celtics, but if
living in the ATL would have jump started him earlier in his career, this is
the pick all the way.
Pick 4: Chicago
Bulls
Who they took: Eddy Curry
Who they should have took: Tyson Chandler (1st
pick)
Why: Chandler
was the right guy for the Bulls, just at the wrong spot. He was too lean and
kind of meek for a kid from Compton
to achieve early in the league. But he sprouted and became a force. He still is
that force. Chicago was right in
wanting him and going out and getting him. But, say they still make that trade
for the 2nd pick, there were probably better instant impact guys to
take to fill Brand’s role.
Pick 5: Golden State
Warriors
Who they took: Jason Richardson
Who they should have took: Zach Randolph (19th
pick)
Why: Randolph’s
knock was his weight coming out of Michigan
State and in the age of the muscular
big man (thanks Shaq), the doughy Randolph
didn’t fit in, hence his drop in stock and draft pick. But what he went on to
prove was that when used the right way, a little of that Charles Barkley ‘round
mound of rebound,’ could work in today’s age. And while he hasn’t had the exact
right people around him to make a big contender run, he’s done his part for
years in Memphis and is the type of player that the Warriors keep failing in
trying to develop (David Lee, Andrew Bogut, Erick Dampier, etc.)
Pick 6: Vancouver
Grizzlies
Who they took: Shane Battier
Who they should have took: Jason Richardson (5th
pick)
Why: Vancouver
(weeks away from being Memphis) was
lucky here that they weren’t trying to draft the face of their franchise
because of their trade for the 3rd pick Pau Gasol. But in this
redraft, Atlanta doesn’t trade Joe
Johnson, so this has to be a guy to immediately delight in the new confines.
Shane Battier is a lot of things (see the next pick), but Shane Battier is not
THAT guy. Richardson was a delight
in the Bay Area immediately, scoring 14.4 ppg in 80 games as a rookie and
improved every year in Golden State
save for his last, an injury shortened 2006-2007. The Grizzlies, with a lot of
bad draft mojo (their best pick demanded an immediate trade) want a guy to lead
the franchise into the future and Richardson
could have slammed that future home.
Pick 7: New Jersey
Nets
Who they took: Eddie Griffin (traded to Rockets)
Who they should have took: Shane Battier (6th
pick)
Why: Try to find a better “team” guy that Shane Battier. I
dare you. Ignore the prolific shooting (I still say Miami
has been lucky he’s been on the roster the last two NBA Finals) and look at how
well Battier brings it all together. He is the glue for any organization,
always has been. The day after this draft, the Nets traded troubled Stephon
Marbury for Jason Kidd and Battier would have been a better mate than Richard
Jefferson in my opinion. Battier’s shooting touch would have been essential on
a Nets team that advanced to the NBA Finals the season following this draft and
his outside game would have been a perfect compliment to Kidd’s slashing and
Kenyon Martin’s inside presence.
Pick 8: Cleveland
Cavaliers
Who they took: DeSagana Diop
Who they should have took: Gilbert Arenas (30th
pick)
Why: This is one of those areas where you just have to take
a shot at Gilbert Arenas (no pun intended). Before he played shoot em up, or
tried to, Arenas was a high motor guy who made three All-Star teams. He
averaged over 10 ppg right out of the gate and built up to a fifth year
averaging 29.3. Cleveland would
have gotten a guy who was not peaking, but building his way to the peak at the
same time LeBron James came in. And even if the balls hadn’t rolled the Cavs’
way in 2003 for Bron Bron, Arenas would have been a more than viable option to
build the franchise around.
Pick 9: Detroit
Pistons
Who they took: Rodney White
Who they should have took: Gerald Wallace (25th
pick)
Why: I’ve said this in previous blogs and I mean it. Detroit
would have done well in building around guys who could have fit in with the Bad
Boys of the 80’s and Wallace is one of those guys. Yes, they did win a NBA
Title with the core they put together, but how many of those guys themselves
would have fit in with Dumars and Mahorn? Wallace needed some fine tuning and
used his years in Sacramento to
grow the same way he should have used his remaining years of eligibility at Alabama.
When he did reach his peak, he was a decent scorer that did the intangible
things on the floor and got after the ball every possession.
Pick 10: Boston
Celtics
Who they took: Joe Johnson
Who they should have took: Mehmet Okur (37th
pick)
Why: Poor Boston.
They sucked at the draft for so long. They finally took a good player in
Johnson and he produced the worst year of his career. Okur could have been for
them what they were looking for one year earlier with (shudder) Jerome Moiso.
They had a who’s who of veteran garbage behind Paul Pierce and still managed to
advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where they had to rely on a combo
forward to handle the brunt of the rebounding. Okur, a career 7 rpg guy, would
have helped in those finals to offset what Kenyon Martin was doing and given
the Celtics another building block in the middle, something that was a constant
struggle, even 8 years later when they won the NBA title.
Pick 11: Boston
Celtics
Who they took: Kedrick Brown
Who they should have took: Richard Jefferson (13th
pick)
Why: Kedrick Brown was supposed to be Kendrick Perkins
before Kendrick Perkins was Kendrick Perkins. He was not. Picking up Jefferson
here would have taken some of the load off Paul Pierce in the aforementioned
Eastern Finals because Jefferson and Pierce were very similar in their play
styles at this point. It also would have afforded Jefferson
the proper time to grow behind Pierce instead of needing to be as prolific as
he could be from the outset in New Jersey.
Maybe he wouldn’t have washed out as quickly and become the mediocre veteran
that he is, but shouldn’t be, today.
Pick 12: Seattle
Supersonics
Who they took: Vladimir Radmanovic
Who they should have took: Jamaal Tinsley (27th
pick)
Why: Ray Allen needed someone to pass him the ball
correctly.
Pick 13: Houston
Rockets
Who they took: Richard Jefferson (traded to Nets)
Who they should have took: Brendan Haywood (20th
pick)
Why: This was a big man draft and the case would be the same
here for the Rockets as it was for Cleveland
when they draft him (and Orlando and Washington when they received him before
he ever played a pro game): it was him or Zach Randolph. Randolph
went one pick before him in the draft and the two had similar games. Ultimately
Cleveland showed they wanted Randolph
more and shipped Haywood out. But, in a post-Hakeem era beginning in Houston,
Haywood would have been a solid pick up here, but not sensational. As Randolph
separated himself, Haywood still played decent for many years in Washington
as a key reserve.
Pick 14: Golden State
Warriors
Who they took: Troy Murphy
Who they should have took: Troy Murphy
Why: Murphy was a motor guy who would get on the floor. Golden
State didn’t know their identity
like they did during the RUN TMC era or today, and in trying to find it, they
acquired blue collar guys. And Troy Murphy never let them down. He rebounded
the ball well (five years in double digit average) for a guy who wasn’t a prototypical
rebounder and bought himself a couple of extra stints in the league (in New
Jersey, Boston, LA
and Dallas) because of his stingy
defense, which helped the Warriors (planned or otherwise), establish their
mid-2000’s strong defensive philosophy.
Pick 15: Orlando
Magic
Who they took: Steven Hunter
Who they should have took: Samuel Dalembert (26th
pick)
Why: Lather, rinse, repeat. See 2000’s redraft #15. See the
first sentence of 2001’s #13 pick. It was a big man draft. Dalembert had
height, looked athletic and moved ok. Welcome to the selling point of players
in this early-2000s time period.
