The NBA’s annual player draft will be held this Thursday in the home of the NBA’s worst team, the Brooklyn Nets. If you’re a long-suffering Nets fan, you can still pay $72 (or more) to buy a ticket today to watch another team select what could have been YOUR first pick in the first round. Alas, on draft day in 2013, the Nets sent their 2017 first round draft pick to the Boston Celtics as part of a deal to acquire two aging Celtics stars, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. After making it into the second round of the 2014 NBA playoffs and a first round exit in the 2015 NBA playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets have languished at the bottom of the standings for the past two seasons.
So, it’s payback time now! The Boston Celtics will grab the Nets’ first pick, which happens to be the first overall selection, on Thursday night.
But wait! Fans around the league learned Monday that Boston has sent the first pick in this year’s draft to Philadelphia! Philly will now select #1, Boston at #3 and the Celtics will receive a first round pick from Philadelphia in either 2018 or 2019, depending on several factors.
For Philadelphia, it is widely reported that they will utilize this year’s first pick to select shooting guard Markelle Fultz from the University of Washington.
For Boston, the Celtics fans seem evenly split as to whether their General Manager, Danny Ainge, made a good deal with this transaction. Will this move come back to haunt the Celtics in the years to come?
As we await the name of the coveted first pick in the 2017 NBA draft on Thursday night, just how well have those players performed in the NBA over the last 20 years? Let’s grade them!
1997 – Tim Duncan – San Antonio. Five championship rings later, Timmy D was definitely an A+.
1998 – Michael Olowokandi – Los Angeles Clippers – Who dat, you say? Managed 8 years in the league. 8 points and 7 rebounds/game. “D-”
1999 – Elton Brand – Chicago Bulls – Rookie of the year. Still in the league (6th stop). Career 16 points and 8 rebounds/game. Nice stats, but “B-“.
2000 – Kenyan Martin – NJ Nets – 1 All-star game. Career 12 ppg and 7 rebounds/game. An injury-prone “C-“.
2001 – Kwame Brown – Washington Wizards – Blame Michael Jordan for selecting him. Somehow played 12 seasons for 7 teams. “F”.
2002 – Yao Ming – Houston Rockets – The big man from China was dominant when he wasn’t injured. Definitely helped his franchise. “B+”.
2003 – LeBron James – Cleveland Cavaliers – Love him or not, the man has earned an “A+”.
2004 – Dwight Howard – Orlando Magic – Superman played well but then injuries and attitude may have slowed him. “B”.
2005 – Andrew Bogut – Milwaukee Bucks – On his fourth team now. Good when healthy, but an injury prone player. “C”.
2006 – Andrea Bargnani – Toronto Raptors – Flashes of brilliance, but… He’s out of the league already. “D”.
2007 – Greg Oden – Portland Trailblazers – Wins my “Most injured #1 player” award. He tried and tried, but never quite made it back. “D-“.
2008 – Derrick Rose – Chicago Bulls – An All-Star some years, and injured in others. Let’s give him a “B” at this point.
2009 – Blake Griffin – Los Angeles Clippers – Rookie of the year and 5 All-Star appearances but oft-injured, too. “B+”
2010 – John Wall – Washington Wizards – 4 All-Star appearances and his game continues to improve. “B+”
2011 – Kyrie Irving – Cleveland Cavaliers – One championship ring and 4 All-Star appearances. “A”
2012 – Anthony Davis – New Orleans Pelicans – 4 All-Star appearances and 2-times All NBA. “A”.
2013 – Anthony Bennett – Cleveland Cavaliers – 4 teams later, he was quoted as having “lost his love of the game” and is now in Europe. “F”.
2014 – Andrew Wiggins – Minnesota Timberwolves – Plays on a bad team, but averaged 23 ppg this season. “B”.
2015 – Karl-Anthony Towns – Minnesota Timberwolves – Rookie of the year; 25 points and 12 rebounds/game last season. “A-“.
2016 – Ben Simmons – Philadelphia 76ers – Injured prior to start of last season and has no professional career to judge. “C”.
On a grading scale with 4 points for “A” and 0 points for “F”, my composite GPA for the past 20 seasons of #1 overall picks in the NBA is a lackluster 2.5. That’s a “C” in my grade book.
With no consensus “game changer” #1 pick in this year’s draft, the only way to judge this Philly/Boston deal is to wait. The probabilities are that neither team’s pick on Thursday night will produce the next Tim Duncan or LeBron James anyway.