[llperez]

1990-who went first:derrick coleman. Who should have gone first: gary payton

1991-who went first: larry johnson. Who should have went first: larry johnson(although mutombo is also in consideration considering his consistency year after year even though he was never a star)

1992-who went first: shaquille oneal. who should have gone first: shaq, easily

1993-who went first: chris webber. who should have gone first: chris webber(what could have been if the magic didnt trade this pick for penny we’ll never know)

1994-who went first: glenn robinson. who should have gone first: jason kidd(without injuries, grant hill would be the top guy from this class)

1995-who went first: joe smith. who should have gone first: kevin garnett

1996-who went first: allen iverson. who should have went first: kobe bryant(they loved AI in philly, but they would have loved kobe as well if he was with them instead of beating them)

1997-who went first: tim duncan. who should have went first: tim duncan

1998-who went first: michael olowokandi. who should have went first: dirk nowitzki(some will say paul pierce, but ill take dirk over paul. Paul was never an mvp candidate like dirk and while both have a finals mvp, dirk carried his team much more)

1999-who went first: elton brand. who should have went first: elton brand(another tough call with guys like elton, baron davis and steve francis all having superstar potential but fell off too quickly. Ill take the big man who was an anchor down low over the flashier gaurds)

2000-who went first: kenyon martin. who should have went first: michael redd(weak draft with no hall of famers where a second rounder ended up being the best player)

2001-who went first: kwame brown. who should have went first: pau gasol/tony parker(hard to pick, joe johnson in the mix too)

2002-who went first: yao ming. who should have went first: yao ming(amare stoudemire can be argued here as well, but yao had a big impact during his time and amare wasnt as dominant a piece and didnt draw fan support like yao did althougha amare is having the longer career so it can go wither way)

2003-who went first: lebron james. who should have went first: lebron james. (One of those no duh drafts similar to shaq and duncan where everyone knew who was number 1 years in advance)

2004-who went first: dwight howard. who should have went first: dwight howard

2005-who went first: andrew bogut. who should have went first: chris paul

any thoughts or disagreements?

 

[bedrock23Participant]

I remember when I made 1 of these. http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/players-should-have-been-number-1-pick

They negged me like crazy lol.

But I agree with every pick you made.

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Would take Pau Gasol in 2001 though ll, you can’t pick two guys first. Tony has won 3 titles, but Pau has won a couple and is a legit 7 footer with vision. I guess I would take Redd in 2000, though I just think the first pick should have been forfeited. At the time, it was 100% Kenyon and I think he was indeed one of the best players out of this weak draft. For a while, I thought Turkoglu might have been the best and we know that Mike Miller was one of the worst rookies of the years in a long time (He deserved it, just a bad year for Rookies).

Like the list and think it is pretty legit. Would be cool to do a top 10 from each draft, though doing it hypothetically would be a chore. If you base it on career, Terrell Brandon might be top 5 in 1991 (Definitely one of the top 5 Oregon Duck players of All-Time). Anyone remember this (it was a pretty ridiculous method, but TB was #1)? 

[JoeWolf1]

 I think you could make a case for Jamal Crawford in 2000, just because Redd’s injuries killed his career.

[JunkYardDogParticipant]

You can hardly say tony parker should have been first overall in 2001 (even if he has had a wonderfull carreer) … cause you can’t judge a result 10 years after. Same thing for dirk… they were relatively unknown prospects towards others and were too risky picks (as HS players of the mid 90’s : garnett & bryant). If parker would have been 1st overall he wouldn’t have had the carreer he has…

in the end IT IS WHAT IT IS and you have to accept the draft process is about taking risk and developing accurately prospects who are bets.

But that is always interesting to look back on the past to upgrade the draft process (and see clearly the different trends : proven ncaa players, HS prospects, international bigs…) and there is some true things : maybe pau could have been n°1… with better scouting.

[llperez]

i remember that sports illustrated article mikeyv. Brandon was always an under the radar pg and at the time that article came out he was playing super efficient and the cavs as a team actually looked like they were in better hands with brandon at that moment then mark price who had just left town and was considered one of the best pg’s during his time.

[llperez]

@ junkyarddog, you are missing the point of this thread. Obviously its all about looking back with taking careers into account.

[JoeWolf1]

 I remember Brandon, he had a nice few years.  Remember Dana Barros’ 20 and 7 All-Star season?  I just bring him up because I remember having both on FLEER’s Hardwood leader set, showcasing the best player on every team.

 

[JunkYardDogParticipant]

@llperez : yeah I see…

If it’s only about looking back at their careers I’m agree with already all the picks :

maybe gasol over parker and maybe pierce over nowitski (2 very hard choices indeed)… and why not keeping K-mart over redd ? 2 trips to the finals afterall whereas redd was a scorer (brilliant) on an average team. 

[llperez]

yeah, barros had a break out year i remeber well. He was quick and could shoot it. He went from being on a real deep sonics team playing behind payton to having the sixers to himself and he made the most of it.

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

still can’t believe Olowokandi went first in 98.  He’s the worst number one pick in history by far.  At least Kwame is still playing and was at the least a serviceable player.  The Kandi man was horrific.

[JoeWolf1]

 Kandi man was athletically on par with a young Shaq in size, mobility and strength….but yeah, NBA player wise…not so much.

He had scouts’ eyes popping out after workouts if I remember right.  

[llperez]

kandi man vs kwame, thats a tough one. Both were able to start for a handful of teams at some point and get about 10 points and 8 boards and play above average defense.

[benny15Participant]

i still find the 96 draft more difficult than what others feel. i understand why most people would say Kobe, i dont need to jot down his resume, we all know it. and nothing to take away from him, but with iverson, it seemed more. i guess it was the way he captured the league and the fans. people always asked after Jordan, whose era was it? some said Duncan since he had the most rings, others said Shaq and Kobe. but honestly, i would say it was Iverson’s.

 

to me, defining of an era is more than individual awards. more than championship rings. more than what the fans know. more than what the sports analysts and reporters said, wrote or broadcasted. its the culture of the league. its what the NBA is to those who dont follow it. what the average person knows of the league when they are not a fan. and despite David Stern’s biggest wishes, that was Iverson. He changed the culture of the league. He may not have done it single handedly, but he was the poster boy for the Hip-Hop generation of the NBA. Went from the afros to the cornroast, brought in the gangsta feel and swagger. Iverson was more than what he was. more than what he dried to do or accomplish. He changed how the league was.

and when you have the chance to draft that special player, with all his short commings, you take him first over-all. at least, i know i would given the chance. 50 to 60 years from now, when i try to think back on who were the players back then, i know sixers number 3 would be the first one to pop in my mind.

[JoeWolf1]

 Kandi Man had a two year stretch where he averaged 12 ppg 9 rpg and 2 blocks.  I don’t remember if it was mental or physical, but right after that he really fell off the map.

Kwame’s best season was 11 ppg 7.5 rpg and although he was a better defender, he was never good enough to be a full time starter. 

I give the edge to Olowokandi, because he was at least a starting caliber player.  Both are nothing to write home about, lol.  Pervis Ellison beats them both, IMO

[llperez]

iverson was phenomanal and added a lot of street culture to the leauge. I and most the people i played ball with out here on the west coast were wearing iverson low top shoes in the 90’s. But if you would honestly draft him number 1 based on marketing/cultural impact/street cred over a guy who is better, then good luck running a franchise. Unless you are saying iverson was a better basketball player then kobe?

[llperez]

never in service pervis as he was called back in the day

[JoeWolf1]

 ^broke his foot moving his friend’s coffee table one year, lol

[benny15Participant]

i believe i could draft either of the player and build a winning team around either of them. it takes more than one player to make a successfull franchise and i wont go wrong taking either guy. might as well select the Icon of the league.

[drew619Participant]

 i know kobe ended up being the best player out of one of the greatest drafts of all time but iverson fit better you can’t forget that the 76ers had just got stackhouse the year before and he averaged like around 20ppg his rookie year

[llperez]

iverson nad stackhouse didnt fit together either though and neither did any good scorer they put around iverson. They had to put defenders around iverson who would do the dirty work while iverson shot. While kobe didnt get as many assists as iverson, he was more capable of playing alongside another great scorer and both being able to flourish. plus you didnt have to surround kobe with great perimter defenders like eric snow, george lynch and aaron mckie becasue kobe was the best perimter defender and was gonna gaurd the other teams top wing himself. At the end of the day, im taking the better player and not only was kobe better then iverson but hes still going strong and all-nba first team a good 4 years after iverson stopped being relevant.

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

Iverson and Larry Hughes was a debacle as well.

[llperez]

glenn robinson and derrick coleman also both had trouble playing with iverson becasue they needed the ball in their hands. Even when AI and melo were both getting their numbers in denver, the team looked like they were playing "okay your turn" on offense as they didnt really compliment each other although that has as much to do with melo as iverson.

[dede21]

1999 Manu Ginobili

[dede21]

 2005: Deron Williams

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