Welcome to the seventh installment of 30 Teams, 30 Years, 30 
Drafts featuring the New Jersey Nets. This series takes you through each of the teams’ draft picks from 1978-2008 and evaluates how they fared. The Nets are a team full of ups and downs over the years, so it makes sense their draft history would look similar. They have some of the more interesting picks in the series so far, including PJ Brown, Rex Walters and the White Mamba, Brian Scalabrine.
Total Score: 2.49
View the previous teams and their scores here:
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
Let us know in the comments below who you think their best and worst draft picks were.
To see how the score was calculated, check out the intro post here.
[table id=105 /]
1 – Winford was the leading scorer for the Mavs in their first ever game.
2 – After his NBA career Calvin went on the become a minister and owns a funeral home, which is kind of creepy.
3 – Drafted over Toney
4 – I had to look this up to believe it because my memories of Buck Williams were of him coming off the bench for the Knicks towards the end of his career. Yes, Buck Williams was a 2nd team All NBA. He is also the Nets all time leader in points, rebounds and free throws made. Which is nice if you are Buck Williams, but is very telling if you are the Nets.
5 – In 2008 it was reported that an individual by the name of Ronnie Craven was posing as Jeff in online chat rooms in order to meet up with random women and have sex with them. I would just love to witness the thought process where one would come to the final game plan of, “I should pretend to be Jeff Turner in order to have sex with random women.” I really would. Oh, and he won a gold medal with the ’84 team.
6 – You may remember Fernando Martin as the guy that Rudy Fernandez played homage to when he donned his number 10 in the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest.
7 – Drafted over Scottie Pippen
8 – Drafted over Mitch Richmond
9 – Tate was arrested in 2011 and faces up to 20 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme.
10 – PJ never actually recorded 10 rpg, but he did have 9.8 once. I’m bumping that up to 10. The man started nearly 1,000 games in his NBA career, has an NBA Title ring, and three second team All Defense nods to his name, giving him the same amount of points as someone who had 101 NBA starts, just seems wrong. Also, I hate the Nets, so this isn’t me trying to bump their score. Also PJ has the distinction of being the only player to play in all 3 Hornets cities (NO, OKC and CHA).
11- Would you believe that Kerry Kittles made over $50M in six years in the NBA. Wow! I’m willing to bet Kerry got some GM’s fired. Don’t worry though, I’m sure they were hired again.
12- Drafted over Tracy McGrady
13- Fun fact: Every fact about “The White Mamba” is in fact, a fun fact.
14- Drafted over Danny Granger
15- Sean has 137 games played, however he has gone from 73 in year one, then 33, 20, 11…It is hard to project him getting to 200 with that trend.
16- I do not see Brook ever making an ASG. When you are 7 feet and can’t rebound or shoot over 50%, you just aren’t that good.
17- Ryan has one season clocked in at 16 ppg. Call me crazy, but a 6’10” player who can shoot threes will likely get there again at least once.
18- I couldn’t give CDR a grade. He missed last year because he played overseas during the lockout, and for some reason has fallen of the face of the earth. A thorough internet search told me he was practicing with the Pistons but not on their summer league team. CDR is a nice player and should be able to catch on somewhere else, then who knows? But for now, it is an N/A
