Year by year teams get a chance to improve their roster by selecting one of the many young prospects available in the draft. And year by year, you see players emerge from the bottom of the drafts and become solid contributor. Some even turn out to be NBA stars.
Why the article? I was browsing around in NBA.com and saw an article about Danny Granger and how he's really growing into a solid NBA player so I decided to check out the past couple of drafts and what the Warriors got vs. what was available. I found some interesting stuff so I thought I'd share some with you. I went 5 drafts back not counting the 2007 and 2008 draft.
2002 - I decided to exclude this draft year on the poll because, at the moment, it is the landslide winner. Not only did we pass on what turns out to be really really good players (not blaming anyone), we have the #3 pick, the highest we've picked since 2005. If only we got that spot one year later (the Pistons already took the bust of the draft at #2).
Who we picked: Mike Dunleavy
Who was available at the time: Amare, Caron Butler, Tayshaun Prince, Boozer, Haslem (undrafted).
2003
Who we picked: Mickael Pietrus
Who was available at the time: David West, Boris Diaw, Travis Outlaw, Leandro Barbosa, Josh Howard.
2004
Who we picked: Andris Biedrins
Who was available: Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, Kevin Martin,
2005
Who we picked: Ike Diogu
Who was available: Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger, Hakim Warrick, Nate Robinson, Jarrett Jack, Jason Maxiell, David Lee, Ronny Turiaf, Louis Williams.
2006
Who we picked: Patrick O'Bryant
Who was available: Ronnie Brewer, Rajon Rondo, Marcus Williams, Kyle Lowry, Sergio Rodriguez, Craig Smith, Paul Millsap, Leon Powe
What's interesting to me is that everybody but Biedrins is gone. POB and Pietrus did not field us anybody in return. Dunleavy & Diogu (w/ Murphy) got us SJax. What's even more interesting is that notice how alot of the names being thrown around lately are in here. You got David Lee, Sergio Rodriguez, Travis Outlaw, Prince, a couple of other point guards. Then you have Warrior Killers David West, Boozer, Millsap, etc.
We're talking about wanting to get these players now when the Warriors could've picked them in the draft and provide better value for our picks.