It’s easy to look back now and say the Wizards should have picked Klay Thompson instead of Jan Vessely, but back in 2011, it would have been considered a risky move. Vesely was much higher on the average draft board, and even went far enough to say “I think Blake Griffin is the American Jan Vesely.”
Vesely now plays for Fenerbahçe Ülker of the Turkish Basketball League while Thomspon finds himself 3 games away from winning the Golden State Warriors their first championship since 1975.
Current Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders, former Wizards head coach, admitted he was worried to pick Thompson with the sixth pick. The pick would have been a shocker to the rest of the league and would have given Thompson a much higher position in the draft than anybody expected.
Thompson had blown Saunders away during a pre-draft workout in 2011, when Saunders coached the Wizards. The Washington brain trust considered reaching for Thompson with the no. 6 pick before going the safe route with a big man — Jan Vesely, who ranked higher on most draft boards but is now out of the league. “We toyed with it,” Saunders says, “but heaven forbid you go out of the box and pick someone you’re higher on than anyone else.”
Had the Wizards chosen to take Thompson, the Wizards would have a completely different roster. The addition of Klay would have meant Bradley Beal would never put on the Wizards uniform, and Washington would have likely been too good to pick Otto Porter with the 3rd pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.
For all franchises, it’s tough to blow such an amazing opportunity such as what the Wizards had when they could have selected Klay Thompson, but in the end, it may work out in their favor. Beal is in line for a max deal and Porter seems to be growing as a player, which are both good signs towards future success in DC.
