We Picked Who? Part Deux

2000
1st round 2nd pick- Stromile Swift: First off this is possible the worst draft ever. Can’t fault the Griz for that. Swift was pretty good pick from my beloved bayou bengals, however he’s dumber than a bag of hammers. To let you know how bad this draft was, the Griz had 4 players on their team from this draft (Swift, Mike Miller, who is good, Big Jake, Brian “Coustdian” Cardinal). Mike Redd was taken in the 2nd round late and a beardless Deshawn Stevenson jilted Kansas to enter the draft. This was the only pick the Griz had.

2000 recap- Full of promise then, but crappy in the end.

2001
1st round 3rd pick- Pau Gasol: Caliente! Quick barkeep I need 3 buttery nipples. Great pick here. The NBA got caught up in the high school class and Billy Knight had great foresight by drafting Gasol. Did I just say that? An all star and great low post scorer. However, Pau never wanted to be the guy.

1st round 6th pick- Shane Battier: Not a bad pick. I hated it. I hate Duke and Battier is a Duke guy. One of those guys who is necessary to have to win a championship. But he turned into the face of the franchise. He embraced Memphis and in turn Memphis embraced him.

1st round 27th pick- Jamaal Tinsley: Good PG from ISU. Little chunky but not Khalid El Almen fat. Traded to Pacers on draft night.

2nd round 33rd pick- Will Solomon: PG from Clemson. No clue then and no clue now. Played on season and then went to Turkey. Great pick.

2nd round 44th pick- Antonis Fotsis: First Greek born player to suit up for an NBA team, so he’s got that going for him. Played in 28 games and was gone. I guess one out of two foreigners aint bad.

2001 recap- This is right before they moved to Memphis and I was so excited. Then the drafted some Spaniard and a Dukie with lines in his head. I was pissed to say the least. But it was solid draft. However, this is what the Griz passed on: Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson,ZBo, Gerald “Stat Machine” Wallace, Mr. Eva Longoria, AGENT ZERO (quickly becoming my favorite player of all time, dudes bat shit crazy)Mehmet Okur (who should just go by Mehmet). Gasol was a great pick and Battier a safe one but there’s some enticing talent left that they could have picked up.

2002
1st round 4th pick- Drew Gooden: Jerry West takes the reins of the team and Memphis was elated. He took another PF after 2 1st rounders in the last 2 drafts were PFs. He stated he was picking the best talent available not need. Oh really. Way to pass on Amare Stoudamire, who had committed to the U of M that year. Apparently he had character issues. Also he passed on Caron Butler who had a great year and tourney. He had durability issues. Ok he’s the Logo so I’ll give him a pass. I assumed he was going to trade him but there were no takers.

2nd round 31st pick- Robert Archibald: I didn’t hate this pick. Matter of fact I thought this guy wouldn’t be that bad. I followed the Illini quite a bit that year (closet Illini fan) and I thought he could be developed. What I didn’t know was that there was a bushy eye browed Eskimo that would be taken 3 picks later and turn into a monster. That monster was Carlos Boozer. Seems like the Logo got them confused.

2nd round 46th pick- Matt Barnes: Didn’t even care about this pick. He was later traded to get Wesley Person, the rifleman’s lil bro. Not nearly as good as Chuck. Barnes turned into a pretty decent player.

2002 recap- I thought the Logo knew what he was doing but I had always hated Drew Gooden, still do. Turns out he could have changed the future of the team by getting Butler or Stoudamire. Oh well.

2003
Preface (aka Rant): The 03 draft is one of the best drafts ever. It had King James, Melo, Flash, CB4(great movie) Josh Howard, David West, Spock, Leo Barbosa, Chris Kaman, Boris Diaw, and Kyle Korver. However Stu Jackson’s stint as GM was still not done haunting the Griz. Before the 1997 season, Stu thought the Griz could use Otis Thorpe’s geriatric ass for 40 games. So in his infinite wisdom he decides to trade a future lottery unprotected pick to the Pistons. I mean who needs to build thru the draft with the way he was wasting picks? The only way the Griz could keep the pick is if it is was the 1st pick. Even the Mexican that rakes my yard knows that you lottery protect picks, but it looked like it was destiny for King James to come to Memphis. Alas, Memphis got the # 2 pick which could have turned into any of the gems above, but would be property of Detroit. As fate would have it, the Pistons would take Darko with that pick, and he would arrive in Memphis 5 yrs later.

1st round 13th pick- Marcus Banks: The only time you hear this guys name is when people are trying to trade him. However, Memphis drafted him for the Celtics who drafted Troy Bell for Memphis. Troy is now a boxer. I repeat, Troy is now a boxer. Shrewd choice West.

1st round 27th pick- Kendrick Perkins: Loved this pick. Big guy out of high school that could turn into something special protecting Pau. But, we trade him to Boston who picked for the Griz at 20th and got Dahntay Jones. What the hell was West thinking. Jones did nothing but play good D and dunk. No jumper, no handle.

2003 recap- Then: Boston fleeced us and West has no clue what is going on. Now: Both teams were screwed.

2004
2nd round 49th pick- Sergei Lishouk: Some Ukrainian who was traded to Houston for some other foreign dude who sucks.

No more picks but the Griz made a few trades and had 2 players drafted for them.

2nd round 35th pick- Andre Emmett: Played for Bob Knight at TT. Can you name any players, other than the guy who is destroying the Knicks, under the General that has been success in the NBA? What’s that? Can’t hear you?

2nd round 36th pick- Antonio Burks: Loved this pick because I live in Memphis. I think the Logo felt the hometown pressure on drafting a hometown guy and caved. Your looking at a lighting fast PG with a non existent 3 point shoot, shaky jumper, not great vision, good D, and avg handle. Not exactly your typical PG.

2004 Recap- Not the greatest draft. West seemed to be feeling the pressure that Memphis was putting on him to make a splash in the draft and gambled. And then lost leaving him with brown stained undies and no clean boxers. Solid players were in this draft, just really none Memphis could get.

2005
1st round 19th pick-Hakim Warrick: Pick 19 huh, looks like somebody’s getting better. Warrick had a nice college career, but I never thought he would do anything at the next level. He’s like a homeless man’s KG. He’s like the plastic man with more height and a worse shot. Tough for him to do much behind Pau. I would have dug Maxiell here. Less height but bigger body and a bad ass attitude.

2nd round 55th pick- Lawrence Roberts: Nice player, good college career, but like every other 6’9 SEC player. Can move around, shot, board, but is used to being big man out there. For some reason it just doesn’t translate well to the NBA. Not a bad pick. Not much else out there. By the way Supersonics drafted him and traded him for Earl Watson I believe. Doesn’t matter.

2005 Recap- Then: Eh. Now: Whatever. Again some quality stars in this draft but no way for the griz to get them.

2006
1st round 8th pick- Rudy Gay: Houston opted to draft Gay and trade him for Battier. Great move by West. Finally cashed in the Battier chip, his most valuable one. Tough move b/c everybody loves Shane, but the right move. Battier wasn’t going to help the Griz any more. Gay is the future. Gay, Super Gay, Uber Gay, Real Gay, So Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay. Sorry about that. I would have loved Roy since he was a monster in college and was so smooth, but I think the right choice was mad. Kudos to you sir.

1st round 24th pick- Kyle Lowry: Not bad. I like Lowry. He adds toughness to a team that is as rough as the 3ply charmin extra soft with Aloe. He’s not flashy, but he gets the job done and still gets pissed when the team loses.

2nd round 45th pick- Alexander Johnson: Liked this pick. Has some nice offensive moves, mean streak and it looked like he was going to be force inside. Might be crazy

2006 recap- Great draft. Got what was needed. Still a good draft.

2007
Sweet we’ve got the best chance of Oden. The dude is goofy, tall, and the beast that Memphis needs to protect Pau. It’s ok we can still get Durant. He’s an offensive freak. Gay, Durant, and Gasol, wow. Not all is lost, Horford is a big guy that can board, and down everything we need down low. Fuck!

1st round 4th pick- Mike Conely Jr.: It’s cool we got the 4th best thing. He could be great, but it seems like the Griz are always a day late and a dollar short. PG of the future, super quick, needs to improve jumper, good vision.

2007 recap- One pick, not bad at all. However we ended up with Crittenton, and Marc Gasol. Killer. I’m just stoked we didn’t get Noah. I don’t care if he’s the next Wilt, sometimes you got to take a stand. Also I would have liked to get DJ Strawberry for 2 reasons. A, I could get some really good blow from his pops and I could sit next to his lady at games. Nice huh.

Staye tuned for the Future…