[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

San Antonio Spurs by far.  When you can get Manu Ginobili at number 57, Tony Parker at the end of the first round who has become a top five point guard and Dejuan Blair as a second round steal, you have earned this distinction. Who else drafts well?

[carefulParticipant]

 Even though the Thunder have had great draft positions, its still hard to set up 2 all stars (one MVP candidate), a potential 6th man of the year, and a potential DPOY in 3 consecutive years of drafting.  I’d have to go with the Thunder.

[JoeWolf1]

 Yeah, the Spurs have done a great job bringing in new players, despite not having lottery picks.  They’ve been an NBA model for international scouting in the past 10 years.

The Bulls drafted the core of their team.  Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Taj Gibson were all drafted by Chicago and they acquired Omer Asik’s draft rights on draft night.  Jimmy Butler also looks like a promising young player picked 30th.

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

good call with the Thunder.  Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka, can’t go wrong there.

[DanEboyParticipant]

The Bucks have a great track record in the second round. From Redd (43), Bogans (43), Sessions (56), Alston (39) to Meeks (41), Mbah a Moute (37) and Ilyasova (36) they have a knack for finding some gems and players who stick around the league for a long time.

Also, the Knicks recently with Shumpert at 17, Fields at 39 and Wilson Chandler (23) and David Lee (30)

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Jazz. Great draft picks:Kanter, Burks, Hayward, Millsap, Eric Maynor. The Jazz have been sneaky good with their draft picks ever since 2009. Hayward was a real surprise. Everyone thought he should have gone later (probably mid first round) but the Jazz surprised us all by picking him in the lottery, and he has not disappointed. Kudos to the Jazz. Jazz also have a knack for making something out of nothing. There wasn’t much to go with last year even though they had the 3rd and 12th pick. That year the draft seriously widdled off after pick 2, yet the Jazz kept their pick and got a pretty nice player out of it. How many rookies average 4 rbds their rookie season with only 15 minutes a game? Not many, The Jazz have quite a player in Kanter.

Millsap has been quite a surprise. Who would expect a tweener, who was only a good rebounder, would all of a sudden become a great defender, good shooter and a starter in just 3 years? Might I remind you he was picked at 42 in 2006. Like I said the Jazz have been sneaky good as of late and if they do get the Warriors pick then they will once again do well, mark my words.

[JordoParticipant]

 Hard to name another team. San Antonio set the bar so high for consistently turning low draft picks into solid players. Look at their roster. Besides Tim the guys that they have drafted are low first rounders(Tony Parker,Tiago Splitter,Leonard) second rounders(Manu,DeJuan Blair). You could add the role players they have picked up but that’s a another conversation. 

[CynthiaParticipant]

Thunder have done pretty good too.

Drafted Starters: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka.
Drafted Role Players: James Harden, Nick Collison.
Drafted Potentials: Eric Maynor, Reggie Jackson, Cole Aldrich.

They also did pretty bad recently with that string of Lottery Centers they picked though. =P

[Memphis MadnessParticipant]

The Pacers have done fairly well. Sure, maybe they shouldn’t have traded Kawhi Leonard on draft night but they got George Hill and he is doing well. Lance Stephenson is a work in progress but they did draft their core. The Pacers drafted Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, Paul George, and even Psycho T. Not too bad.

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

I forgot Redd was a second rounder, good call on that one.  Too bad he had all those injuries and the Bucks let him go because he was a great great shooter, still a solid one.

[Counting StarsParticipant]

The Rockets have been doing a fairly decent job in the second round lately – Chandler Parsons, Chase Budinger, Carl Landry.

 

[scootover7Participant]

I have to go with one team in the east and in the west for me

 

East-  got to be the Indiana pacers. When most or all of your players are lottery players, late first rounders or second rounders and they come together you get mad props from me.  I find the Pacers more impressive than the Miami Heat.

 

West-  San Antonio Spurs because of most of there players with the exception of Tim Duncan are late first rounders, second rounders and late secound rounders.   close second is Thunder.

[Chilbert arenasParticipant]

Thunder didn’t draft Maynor, Jazz did and he got traded half way through his rookie year 

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

hmm wouldn’t you say the Spurs are the best at developing their talent regardless of their draft position?  

[CynthiaParticipant]

@Chilbert arenas — Yeah I forgot on that one. Thanks for correction!

[TruettParticipant]

 I think it was at 82 games dot com or something but, the spurs came out on top… Buck did good too… The study put a lot of weight on getting production from your players that was outside and beyond expectations… So if your second rounder was an all star that would weigh more than if your lottery pick was one… I am not a clerics fan but I think they tend to draft well… Also what do people think about the stability of an organization? What role does that play? SA is probably the most stable team for the last 10-15 years… Do you think that has anything to do with their success in the draft

[HitsterParticipant]

 The Spurs seem to have a knack of finding the right players late in the first round and I like their totally pragmatic approach to drafting, sometimes they trade up, other times like this year they might trade a pick, they can leave players abroad for a year or more. I cannot think of a really major bust they have had and when they got the top pick they took two of the greatest big men ever in 1987 and 1997 respectively.

I agree that the Pacers have also done a great job extracting the right alent in late lottery to mid to late first round, they were in the lottery for several years but never got a top 3 pick. It will be interesting to see what they do with their late first rounder this year.

[fastdanParticipant]

Even though the Thunder have had high picks, they wern`t all as easy as taking Durant in `07. Westbook was considered a huge reach at 4, with most people considering DJ as the better PG prospect. And in `09  many believed Rubio would have been the better player with Russel in the backcourt. But teams like the Jazz and Spurs constantly have kept their teams deep with smart picks in the late first and 2nd rounds, something that has made them (especially the Spurs) so consistant for so long.

[inukawaii8Participant]

hmm… its arguable which team is the best in drafting talents. The Spurs have drafted well in the past decade and a half, and the Thunders have drafted well in recent years. There are many other teams that have done well

However, there is no argument which team is the worst: Charlotte Bobcats. It is not surprising that this team just had the worst season in the history of nba. The followings are their past first round picks:

2004 – Emeka Okafor (2nd)… Reasonable pick at the time since they wanted a big man to start a franchise. However, they could’ve had Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, and etc…. He is no longer with the Bobcats

2005 – Raymond Felton (5th), Sean May (13th)… Felton as the future PG never worked out for the Bobcats, and May is not even in the league anymore

2006 – Adam Morrison (3rd)… 2 Rings but not with the Bobcats

2007 – Brendon Wright (8th)… Lengthy potential type of guy, but never bulked up and developed. He is also no longer with Bobcat. 

2008 – DJ Augustin (9th), Alexis Ajica (20th)… DJ is the starting PG for the Bobcats now. Some might say he is the best player on this team as of now. A quick guard, but definitely not someone to build a franchise around. 

2009 – Gerald Henderson (12th) … Henderson continued to develop this year, but he is very inconsistent. 

2010 – None

2011 – Kemba Walker (9th), Tobias Harris (19th)… Too early to tell. 

 

It seems like the Bobcats like to draft players from good college teams. However, these players havent panned out  for the Bobcats. They might be winners in the college level, but their games dont translate to the nba that well. 

 

 

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

inukawaii8, the Bobacts traded Tobias Harris on draft day to the Bucks, so technically they didn’t draft him, but drafted for the Bucks. You forgot about Bismack, but agreed the Bobcats are the worst team at drafting.

[Zeke313Participant]

Pistons have been drafting well in recent years landing Tayshaun Prince, Jason Maxiell, Jonas Jerebko, Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight, Chase Budinger, Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Amir Johnson, Mehmet Okur and Carlos Delfino. Now… if only we kept some of these players >_>

[jmarg25Participant]

Nobody mentioned the Grizzlies. They drafted Pau Gasol, Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, and Kevin Love. If they didn’t trade Love for Mayo on draft night, or if picked someone other than Thabeet, they would be pretty high on the list. But Spurs are the best drafting team anyway.

 

[HitsterParticipant]

The Bobcats have made some dodgy decisions but a lot of that 2006 draft haven’t turned out great and ironically they ended up with the 4th pick from that year in Tyrus Thomas on their roster eventually.

Detroit have drafted solidly apart from choosing you know who in 2003 but hindsight is a great virtue.

[r377Participant]

I think a quick mention should be mentioned to the Utah Jazz GM at the time…

Stockton at 16th in 84   and Karl Malone 13th in 85.  Even taking Dell Curry at 15th in 86 wasn’t bad either…

 

[akhan786Participant]

You forgot about Danny Green on San Antonio picked 46th.

Kid is Mr. Do Everything and has been starting for the Spurs for quite awhile. Who would’ve thought that he would arguably be one of the top 5 UNC players in the league and the 2nd best out of the group of Lawson, Hansborough, and Ellington?

Him and Matt Bonner are two of the best 3 point assassins in the league.

[r377Participant]

The Phoenix Suns also had a knack at finding talent. In the space on 11 years, have a look at all their "non lottery" picks…

Hornacek – 46th – 86

Marjerle – 14th – 88

Steve Kerr – 50th – 88

Cedric Ceballos – 48th – 90

Richard Dumas – 46th – 91 (not sure what happened to him but I remember he looked good, averaged 16ppg as a rookie)

Oliver Miller – 22nd – 92

Wes Person – 23rd – 94

Michael Finley – 21st – 95

Steve Nash – 15th – 96

Stephen Jackson – 42nd – 97

[DuncanRulesParticipant]

The Spurs would be my selection. I always get the feeling that no matter who they pick that player will be successful. That is the ultimate sign of acknowledging their scouting genius.

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

r377, check your sources on Stephen Jackson. When I looked at this site’s history of the ’97 draft I noticed that your Stephen Jackson came from Butler CC Kansas, yet according NBA.com, Stephen Jackson actually came from Oak Hill Academy (HS).

[Krypt14Participant]

 @UnderKanter, on wikipedia it says he went to Oak Hill, was supposed to go to Arizona but was academically ineligeble so went to Butler CC and then spent a few years playing in Australia and South America.

[Author]

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