30 Teams, 30 Years, 30 Drafts Intro

posted by Scott

Have you ever wondered which NBA franchise has been the best at drafting the pieces for their team? I have, many times. Its easy to think about some of the good and bad draft picks made over the years: Manu Ginobili, Gilbert Arenas and Tony Parker would be on the good side, while Kwame Brown, Darko Milicic and Hasheem Thabeet would be on the bad side. However, to get a full view of the draft landscape over 30 years of drafting (1978-2008) our friend Michael O’Brien or @thenotoriousmob delved deep into the depths of some of the darkest drafts in NBA history, as well as some fun ones like 2003 and 2008. All of this to bring you 30 Teams, 30 Years and 30 Drafts, a series chronicling the hits and misses of the 30 NBA franchises over the past 30 years.

These are Michael’s Criteria for evaluating the picks:

(Point value is the first number on left)

1 – 200 games

2 – 400 games

3 – 100 games started

4 – One season in which the player averaged 17 points, 10 rebounds or 6 assits a game

5 – See above, more than one season

6 – All Star game appearance

7 – 3rd team all NBA

8 – 3 time All Star

9 – 2nd team all NBA

10 – Any season in the top 5 of the MVP race

12-14 – Any Major Award (MVP, Finlas MVP, First team All NBA)

15-19 – HOF or Potential HOF

20 – The Greatest (this ranking will only be reserved for the most special players; Bird, Magic, Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan, Kobe, LeBron and that may be it…I’m not even gonna give Robinson, Barkley or Malone this ranking….you need to be the best player on an NBA Champion)With more recent players I will sometimes make non-unrealistic projections. Negative points will be assessed as follows:
-5 – for first round picks who never played a game in the NBA
-2 – for first round picks who played fewer than 100 gamesNegative points for the following…discretion used:
-5 – for a marginal player drafted above a HOF
-2 – for a marginal player drafted above an All Star
If the team already had say Larry bird at SF and missed at a SF because they needed a PG, I will not penalize them.Each pick is also accessed a multiplyer based on draft slot:

x1 for picks 1-15 (aka none)

x1.5 for picks 16-30

x2 for 30+

Boston Celtics – 3.885

Philadelphia 76ers – 2.561

Toronto Raptors – 2.659

Orlando Magic – 2.861

Charlotte Bobcats – 2.225

New York Knicks – 2.471

New Jersey Nets – 2.49

Atlanta Hawks – 1.258

Miami Heat – 2.743