In life we catch ourselves looking at the past, sometimes facing regrets, or remembering a good memory, but the times we regret are the ones we focus on the most. NBA Fans tend to do the same. Some franchises have had the blessed opportunity to mess up promising situations, whether it be via a trade or a draft selection. These situations can make most past GM’s and owners kick themselves for making such a bad decision.
Here are the top 5 “What Ifs” over the past 15 years in the NBA Draft. Things that have made fans wonder how else it could have gone, and how it would have affected the league right now. Some of these will honestly irritate someone.
5. What If Chris Paul Was Selected By Atlanta Instead Of Marvin Williams?
In the 2005 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks had the 2nd overall pick after the Milwaukee Bucks. The Hawks were a team desperate for a point guard, with a young team of Josh Smith, Josh Childress and soon to be Joe Johnson to join the team, they needed someone to run the team. When the Bucks selected Andrew Bogut, it was clear the Hawks choices were only two of the best point guards in the nation, Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Instead they went for a forward in Marvin Williams, who didn’t even start for his college team. Williams played a very small role in all of the Hawks Playoff runs up until he was moved by them in 2012. How crazy would that have been? A young Josh Smith with lobs being thrown by Chris Paul is a scary force to be reckoned with in the East. Could Chris Paul’s career have gone different? Would he have maybe not had a Chris Paul curse for the Playoffs?
4. What if the Indiana Pacers didn’t trade Kawhi Leonard for George Hill?
In 2011, 14 teams messed up on Kawhi Leonard who would become a Finals MVP not 3 years later against LeBron James’ Miami Heat. The Indiana Pacers selected Kawhi, but shortly traded him to the San Antonio Spurs for none other than George Hill. Now it only made sense for the Pacers to trade Kawhi because they had Paul George and Danny Granger, who were both rising superstars in the league. Kawhi wouldn’t make sense on Indiana, but the fact that the Spurs essentially stole him away for close to nothing (no offense to George Hill), and they got a Finals MVP out of it. Without Kawhi, the Spurs would not have won their 5th title to add to the dynasty.
3. What if the Detroit Pistons selected Dwyane Wade or Carmelo Anthony instead of Darko Milicic?
Just a year before the Atlanta Hawks messed up with the 2nd overall pick, the Detroit Pistons had made the same mistake in 2003. They selected Darko Milicic. For those new NBA Fans out there, ‘Who is that?’ is a perfect response to his name. You may know him as a boxer? Either way, the Pistons essentially led to their own demise with an aging Pistons squad who would be able to battle LeBron until like 2008, then completely fell off. If they had drafted Carmelo Anthony or Dwyane Wade their franchise would have went in a completely different direction, and possibly more championships. Melo or Wade would have won a ring in just their second year in the league with the Pistons. If Melo was selected, could he have possibly gotten a ring? Could his attitude towards basketball have changed while he played for Chauncey Billups? Would Dwyane Wade have made LeBron go to Detroit? Would the big-3 that would dominate the early 2010’s of LeBron, Bosh and Wade have ever been created? The entire dynamic of the NBA could have changed with this draft pick.
2. What if the Minnesota Timberwolves (at least one) selected Stephen Curry?
In 2008, Stephen Curry shocked in the NCAA world when he led Davidson to the Final Four. In 2009, he was drafted 7th overall by the Golden State Warriors, and obviously to the shock of the 5 teams who skipped out on him, he won the 2015 MVP and 2015 Larry O’Brien Trophy. Burns doesn’t it? It’s doesn’t burn for anyone as bad as it does for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who decided to draft 2 point guards ahead of Stephen Curry. There names were Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn. 6 years has passed, one is barely in the league and the other one is one of the hardest players to trade for the Timberwolves because of his injury problems. Could Curry have helped Kevin Love put Minnesota on the map again? How funny would it have been if Kevin Love did get traded for Klay Thompson and the splash brothers were in Minnesota? This ends up at the top of the list because you don’t miss out on Stephen Curry twice, it’s just not right.
1. What if Portland selected Kevin Durant over Greg Oden?
The Portland Trail Blazers have one of the worst luck as an NBA franchise. Over the past 15 years, they seem to catch the injury bug literally every year. From not drafting Michael Jordan in 1984, to getting Clyde Drexler when he’s too old, to shortening Brandon Roy’s career, the Blazers don’t have much luck. In 2007, they missed out again. They drafted Greg Oden with the 1st overall pick in the NBA draft over Kevin Durant. Durant was selected 2nd with the Oklahoma City Thunder and eventually got 1 MVP and one Finals appearance with them. Greg Oden has been bouncing around the league and has supposedly been apart of the Mavericks free agent camps. The Trail Blazers would have had Lillard, Aldridge and Durant, and quite honestly a chance to win an NBA title, but now they are hoping to keep LaMarcus Aldridge from leaving. If LaMarcus does leave, he pushes Portland into rebuild mode, something they don’t want to go through again, because they don’t have much luck with it.
As a Raptors fan, I know what it feels like for a team to make constant bad decisions about their NBA Draft picks. You sit down at the end of June and you think to yourself “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”. But the realistic response is that scouts and GM’s, at the end of the day, are making the same guess that us NBA Fans are. Their guess is more educated and more technical, but their guess is as good as ours as to how the transition to the NBA will be for a lot of these players. Some players shrink in the spotlight while some players rise. That’s what separates the Kevin Durant’s from the Greg Oden’s and the Stephen Curry’s from the Johnny Flynn’s in the world. That is why we call ourselves basketball fans, so that we can see the development of these young talented athletes and grow to love them. The unpredictability is why we watch sports.
Now as we look on to the 2015 NBA Draft, where uncertainty seems to be a central theme. Other than knowing that Karl-Anthony Towns will be selected first overall, the whole draft and all parts to it (including trades) are confusing. The Lakers may end up losing their second overall pick, but may leave on Thursday with a franchise player in DeMarcus Cousins. The Knicks may get Eric Bledsoe or lose their 4th overall pick in order to develop their team. What will the lottery bound Sixers do in this situation? All will be told on Thursday.
