| The History Of New York's Drafts Authored by Randy L. Barber - August 8, 2008 - 3:45 pm
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Danilo who? What about Jerryd Bayless? What’s wrong with Eric Gordon? Joe Alexander would have been nice. Anybody but the Italian guy.
Fear not Knicks fans, there is always next year’s draft. Another Gallinari or Balkman or Collins or Thomas will be available when David Stern comes calling
The Knicks have never ceased to amaze their fan base with some of the uneducated first round draft picks that they have made over the years. For every David Lee or Mark Jackson that has been picked, there have been far more of the Donnell Harvey's or Frederic Weis’ or even Dontae Jones’.
But what about the picks that were never made? What about those players that the Knicks passed up on that made a serious impact in the League?
You’ll be amazed by some of the biggest draft day mistakes that the Knicks have made in their illustrious history. You’ll also be surprised by how many years the Knicks had no first round pick. Here is how it breaks down over the 35 year period from 1974 through 2008.
In 1974, the Knicks had no first round pick and took Jesse Dark with the 32nd choice. I am in the Dark on how they selected Jesse, but bypassed a perennial All-Star in George "The Iceman" Gervin who went 40th.
In 1975, the Knicks chose Eugene Short with the 9th pick. Eugene’s game turned out to be much shorter than two-time All-Star and NBA champion Gus Williams, who went 20th.
Once again, no first round pick was available in 1976. The Knicks went with big Lonnie Shelton at #25. Lonnie actually led the NBA in personal fouls during his first two years as a Knick. The 29th pick, Dennis Johnson, however, led his teams to three NBA championships, was a five-time NBA All-Star and the 1979 NBA Finals MVP.
Ray Williams was actually a solid pick in 1977 at #10. Cedric Maxwell at #12 and Norm Nixon at #22 were nice players as well, but benefited from being on great teams.
At the time, Michael Ray Richardson turned out to be a solid choice for the Knicks at #4 in the 1978 draft. Teaming up with Ray Williams, they gave the Knicks a young and energized backcourt tandem. Richardson went on to lead the league in assists and steals in his second year and helped the Knicks to return to the playoffs in 1981.
Unfortunately, his career tailed off due to off-court issues. Reggie Theus at #9 became an NBA All-Star and scoring machine. Mo Cheeks at #36 and Michael Cooper at #50 both went on to have more productive careers.
Pickings were not great in the 1979 draft. It figures, because the Knicks actually had three first round picks. I can’t fault the selection of Bill Cartwright at #3. The choices of Larry Demic at #9, and Sylvester “Sly” Williams at #21 turned out to be quite uneventful, however. Cliff Robinson, taken at #11, was a very good NBA power forward for many years. They could have probably used Bill Laimbeer, who went #50 and was a leader during the Pistons' championship years.
The 1980 draft brought us another dud in Mike Woodson. A bruiser like Rick Mahorn, who went #35, would have given us some toughness. Imagine the Knicks with the Laimbeer and Mahorn anchoring their frontcourt instead of the Pistons at the latter part of that decade.
An interesting tidbit from this draft is that the Knicks actually drafted Kurt Rambis at #58. He was waived the same year, resigned the next, waived again and then signed with the Lakers. Guess who made out better in that deal?
Again, there was no first round pick available in 1981. Nothing much was available after Danny Ainge at #31, and the Knicks had no shot at anything worth while in the latter rounds.
In 1982, three-point specialist Trent Tucker arrived with the #6 pick. Although a nice long distance shooter, he was clearly not good enough to pass up on Lafayette “Fat” Lever at #11, Eric “Sleepy” Floyd at #13, Ricky Pierce at #18 or Paul Pressey at #20.
The draft of 1983 can be summed up simply as the year the Knicks passed on Clyde “The Glide” Drexler at #14 for Darrell Walker at #12. Are you kidding me? Uh, Phi Slamma Jamma and back-to-back NCAA finals!
The 1984 NBA draft is considered one of the greatest in NBA history. Alas, for the fourth time in eleven years, the Knicks had no first rounder. This would become a familiar theme.
Patrick Ewing was delivered at #1 in 1985. Does anything else need to be said?
Things took a drastic turn in 1986, when one of the deepest drafts in NBA history produced Kenny “Sky” Walker with the 5th pick. I remember praying that Indiana would draft William Bedford with the fourth pick as I loved Chuck Person, and knew that the Knicks were desperate for a small forward. The “Rifleman” would have been the perfect compliment to Ewing and Robinson. However, Person went to Indiana and the Knicks settled for Walker.
What makes this worse is that the Knicks passed up on Ron Harper at #8, John Sally at #11, Dell Curry at #15, Scott Skiles at #22, Mark Price at #25 and Dennis Rodman at #27.
It is also debatable on whether the underachieving Roy Tarpley at #7, Dwayne “The Pearl” Washington at #13 or Walter Berry at #14 would have been better selections. In any event, the Walker selection was a huge bust as he was more of a center in college and was unfit to play small forward.
In 1987, the Knicks took the best selection available in Mark Jackson. No one can argue with this selection, as Jackson became the rookie of the year, bringing an exciting style and necessary leadership to New York.
The good feelings soon turned sour as the Knicks peculiarly decided to take another talented point guard in 1988. The choice of Rod Strickland at #19 was doomed from the very start as he served no purpose on the team. The Knicks already had the reining Rookie of the Year in Jackson. Bringing in another young point guard to back him up was a bad move.
There is no doubt that Strickland was the best available player on the board. The only other pick worth mentioning was Brian Shaw at #24. The Knicks should have drafted Shaw as a combo guard or just packaged Strickland in a trade. The Knicks did neither and wound up trading Strickland the very next year for an aging Mo Cheeks.
Once again in 1989, the Knicks had no first round pick. See a pattern developing here? Fortunately for them, this was one of the worst drafts in NBA history.
Back to their wayward ways in 1990, the Knicks selected Jerrod Mustaf, a 6’10” sophomore out of Maryland. The problem was that they already had Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, and tried to make Mustaf a small forward a la Kenny Walker. Just like with Walker, this didn’t work either.
Better options at small forward would have been Toni Kukoc at #29 or taking Dee Brown as another shooting guard at #19. Also, Cedric Ceballos at #48 had a much better career than Mustaf did.
As far as power forwards to back up Oakley, better options existed with Jayson Williams at #21, Elden Campbell at #27 or even Antonio Davis at #45.
In another attempt to replace Mark Jackson, the Knicks used their 1991 pick on point guard Greg Anthony at #12. We all know that Greg couldn’t shoot a lick, and besides his stint on ESPN, is most remembered for falling on his face and allowing the second of Reggie Miller’s three three-point shots that cost us the 1995 playoff series versus Indiana.
More productive players that year included Dale Davis at #13, who is still in the league, Rick Fox at #24 and even Chris Gatling at #16.
The choking incident aside, who would you rather have drafted, Hubert Davis or Latrell Sprewell? Of course, you would have chosen Sprewell. He averaged close to 18 points a game playing at Alabama in the SEC, while also being a great defender. If anything, Davis was a better spot up shooter.
Of course the Knicks chose Davis at #20 and bypassed Sprewell at #24, delaying his arrival in New York City almost seven years. Sprewell went to four All-Star games and was an All-NBA First Team defensive player by the time Davis was traded to Toronto in 1996.
It should surprise no one that the Knicks had no picks in the entire 1993 draft.
The 1994 draft brought an uneventful haul in Monty Williams at #24 and Charlie Ward at #26. There was nothing much else available in this draft unless you count Howard Eisley at #30 or Voshon Lenard at #46. Both had solid NBA careers, but you can’t fault the Knicks for taking the two best available players.
Guess again if you think the Knicks had any picks in 1995.
The 1996 draft is widely considered one of the top three, if not the best draft of all time. The Knicks actually had three first round picks. Surely they would find some decent players, or maybe even package the picks to move up higher.
Unfortunately, this is the Knicks we are talking about. None of the three players chosen made any impact on the team.
What turned out to be John Wallace at #18, Walter McCarty at #19, and Dontae Jones at #21, could have easily been Zydrunas Ilgauskas at #20, Derek Fisher at #24, and Jerome “Junkyard Dog” Williams at #26. Even Ben Wallace went undrafted that year.
Sometimes I look back and think that the Knicks made their decisions by watching the Final Four, as each of their picks played in those games. To throw salt in the wound, the player that I really wanted went right before the Knicks at #17. His name was Jermaine O’Neal.
John Thomas was a complete bust as the 25th pick in the 1997 draft. Perhaps Jacque Vaughn at #27 could have assisted in the backcourt, even an undrafted Damon Jones is still in the League.
Anyone surprised that the Knicks didn’t have a first round draft pick in 1998? Didn’t think so. To make matters worse, in the second round they took DeMarco Johnson at #38, passing up on homegrown Rafer Alston at #39 and Cuttino Mobley at #41. Adding insult to injury is that undrafted players such as Earl Boykins, Anthony Carter, Mike James, and former All-Star and U.S. National Team member Brad Miller are still thriving.
In my opinion, the infamous draft of 1999 set the Knicks franchise back ten years. Fresh off of a surprise run to the NBA Finals, the Knicks were poised to add additional talent to a young and energetic squad.
After fourteen picks, the Knicks were in prime position to chose a local sports legend out of St. John's University. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. With the 15th pick in the 1999 NBA draft the New York Knicks select Ron, no wait a minute. That was not Ron Artest that I heard. No, it sounded more like Frederic Vise. Who the heck is Frederic Vise?
Well, we all know by now that the Knicks did not do the smart thing. Instead they drafted Frederic Weis at #15, passing up on future NBA All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year, Ron Artest, who Chicago gladly picked next at #16. In addition to Artest, James Posey was available at #18, Jeff Foster at #21, Devean George at #23 and Andrei Kirilenko at #24.
To this day, I have no idea what the Knicks were thinking. All I could envision was Artest as more of a point forward, playing along with Houston, Sprewell and Camby. I suppose the front office chaos during the post-Ernie Grunfeld period allowed an obviously uninformed Ed Tapscott to make one of the worst decisions in franchise history.
The year 2000 brought us another bust in Donnell Harvey at #22. I heard he is on the 2008 Bobcats Summer League team. Being an Ohio State fan, I was well aware the Michael Redd was good. However, I did not think that he was going to be as good as he turned out to be.
Even so, how 42 teams including the Knicks could pass up on a Big Ten player that averaged 20 points per game over three years is beyond me. In addition to Redd at #43, the Knicks could have taken DeShawn Stevenson at #23, Mark Madsen at #29, Eddie House at #37 or even Eduardo Najera at #38.
The 2001 draft class was loaded with talented players that are still making an impact in the League. The Knicks, of course did not have a pick. Their two second round picks never even made the team. Players still in the league that they passed up on include Earl Watson at #40, Bobby Simmons at #42 and Jarron Collins at #53.
The 2002 draft is probably the main reason why the Knicks have failed miserably this decade. The club was in prime position to address their glaring need at power forward and wound up making a colossal blunder by trading the 7th pick, Mark Jackson and Marcus Camby to Denver for Antonio McDyess, the 25th pick and a 2nd round pick in 2003.
The problem I had with this was twofold. First of all, McDyess was coming off of major knee surgery. Secondly, the Knicks already had Kurt Thomas and could afford to have taken a chance on the numerous young power forward prospects that were available. But, once again, these are the Knicks that we are talking about.
As everyone knows, the Knicks selected Nene at #7 for Denver and wound up taking Frank Williams, who turned out to be a huge bust at #25. The best option was clearly to take perennial All-Star Amare Stoudemire, who went 9th. I would have even been happy with Chris Wilcox at #8, or even keeping Nene at #7. Tayshaun Prince at #23 would sure have looked great in a Knicks uniform as well.
Even after the failed trade, the Knicks had a shot to redeem themselves. Instead of Williams, they could have drafted Carlos Boozer who went 34th. Even Udonis Haslem went undrafted that year. Obviously, the trade should not have been made. The Knicks could have come away with Stoudemire and even grabbed Matt Barnes, who went #45, in the second round.
In an attempt to redeem themselves for the prior year the Knicks reached on three power forward/center types in 2003 that turned out to be bums. Foremost of these was Michael Sweetney at #9, an undersized and overweight forward. I was pulling for David West, who had just finished averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds for Xavier as a senior. He went eighteen. Do you think ACC player of the year Josh Howard could have helped us? He lasted until #29.
Other suitable players that were passed up in the first round included Jarvis Hayes at #10, Nick Collison at #12, Boris Diaw at #21, Kendrick Perkins at #27 and Leandro Barbosa at #28.
There was again no first round pick in 2004, having traded it away in the failed Stephon Marbury deal. Had that horrible trade not been made, the Knicks would have kept the 16th pick and had their choice of either Josh Smith at #17 or J.R. Smith at #18.
The Knicks actually made a solid pick by selecting Trevor Ariza at #43. Of course, he would be later foolishly traded away.
The Knicks were in prime position in the 2005 draft, having the 8th pick as well as the 30th pick from the Spurs as a result of the Malik Rose trade. The Knicks selected Channing Frye at #8 and David Lee at #30 and received Nate Robinson at #21 as a result of the Quentin Richardson trade with Phoenix.
On paper, this looked like a promising draft for the Knicks as they were able to select three talented players that added youth, excitement and optimism to the team. When you dig deeper behind the scenes, you start to question some of their decisions.
First of all, it was admitted that the Knicks were considering either Frye or Andrew Bynum, who went 10th, with their first pick. The knock on Frye was that he was a soft, jump shooting center/power forward. The knock on Bynum was that he was right out of high school, young and unproven.
I didn't think Bynum would have advanced as quickly as he did. The main problem that I have is not only did the Knicks eventually trade Frye because he was the soft jump shooting forward that we knew, but they also signed Jerome James to a terrible contract to play center and then went out and made the dubious trade for Eddy Curry. The trade for Curry cost them a first round pick the following year as well as a swap of draft picks a year later. If the Knicks needed a center bad enough to go out and get two in the same year, why didn’t they just draft Bynum in the first place?
I obviously have no problem with the choice of David Lee at #30 as he has exceeded everyone’s expectations. I do still have some reservations about Nate Robinson at #21. Although I do love Nate as a player and highlight film, I do not believe that he was worth the price of taking on Quentin Richardson’s large and uninsured contract. Q has definitely not performed up to expectations and Robinson has been mostly a role player. If they were going to take a chance on a player, how good would Monta Ellis have been? He went #40. Other alternatives would have been Jarrett Jack at #22, and Jason Maxiell at #26. My decision would have been not to make the trade.
The 2006 draft took place after the Eddy Curry trade and the failed Larry Brown experiment. The Knicks had higher hopes than finishing with the second worse record in the league. Even worse, their second pick in the draft went to Chicago. The Knicks wound up with the 20th and 29th picks, selecting unheard of Renaldo Balkman and Mardy Collins respectively.
Although Balkman has been a high energy crowd favorite, I do believe that there were more talented players on the board. There is a wide belief that both of these players were drafted to appease their agent Leon Rose, the same agent for LeBron James. Could these choices eventually deliver us King James? It remains to be seen.
What is fact, however, is that the Knicks passed up on Rajon Rondo at #21, Marcus Williams at #22, Josh Boone at #23, Kyle Lowry at #24, Jordan Farmar at #26, Daniel Gibson at #42, Paul Millsap at #47 and Leon Powe at #49.
As a result of the Curry trade, the Knicks were forced to switch places with Chicago in the 2007 draft. The Knicks may have found a gem in Wilson Chandler with the 23rd pick. As a footnote, the Knicks wasted their second round pick in 2008, by trading it for Demetrius Nichols at #53. Nichols never even made the team as the Knicks did not have a roster spot available and he play over in Europe.
Fresh off of the 2008 draft, the jury is still out on the selection of Gallinari at #6. In the future will people believe that the Knicks made a huge mistake by passing up on Eric Gordon, Joe Alexander and Jerryd Bayless?
Who will remember that the Knicks traded their second round pick to Portland for Nichols, who never even made the roster? That pick became #36, costing them a shot at Chris Douglas-Roberts.
I myself will remember how the ping pong balls played a cruel twist of fate. The Knicks were slated for the 5th pick, until the ping pong balls dropped them down a slot to 6th. I was hoping that somehow, O.J. Mayo could be available. As the draft began to play out, I called my cousin and said that I had a strong feeling that the Knicks would take draft Kevin Love and trade him to Minnesota for Mayo. He just laughed. Eventually, Memphis pulled off the exact same move.
I sure wish that I had been the Knicks GM for the last 35 years, as I'm sure thousands of people do. Hindsight is 20/20, but here is how New York's drafts could have looked over the past 35 years:
1974: George Gervin- G/F
1975: Gus Williams- G
1976: Dennis Williams- G
1977: Cedric Maxwell- F
1978: Reggie Theus- SG
1979: Bill Cartwright- C
Cliff Robinson- PF
Bill Laimbeer- PF/C
1980: Rick Mahorn- PF/C
Kurt Rambis- PF
1982: Lafayette Lever- PG
1983: Clyde Drexler- G/F
1985: Patrick Ewing- C
1986: Ron Harper- SG
1987: Mark Jackson- PG
1988: Brian Shaw- SG
1990: Elden Campbell- PF/C
1991: Dale Davis- PF
1992: Latrell Sprewell- G
1994: Monty Williams- SF
Charlie Ward- PG
1996: Zydrunas Ilgauskas- C
Derek Fisher- G
Jerome Williams- PF
1997: Jacque Vaughn- PG
1998: Brad Miller- PF/C
1999: Ron Artest- SF
2000: Michael Redd- SG
2001: Bobby Simmons- G/SF
Jarron Collins- C
2002: Amare Stoudemire- PF
Matt Barnes- SF
2003: Josh Howard- G/SF
Kyle Korver- SG
2004: Josh Smith- PF
Trevor Ariza- SF
2005: Andrew Bynum- C
David Lee- PF
2006: Rajon Rondo- PG
Daniel Gibson- G
2007: Wilson Chandler- SF
2008: Danilo Gallinari- F
Chris Douglas-Roberts- G
Imagine the possibilities. Keep dreaming Knicks' fans and keep the faith. There is always next year. |
