Best: Dwyane Wade (2003)
There are a lot of worthy contenders here. Scottie Pippen, Kevin Garnett and Charles Barkley all received strong consideration. I tried to stick with the theme of the player that did the most for the team that actually drafted him. Wade played 15 of his 16 nba seasons with the Heat and helped lead them to three titles. He is unquestionably the best player in franchise history, when longevity is factored in. Wade wasn’t the consensus can’t miss prospect that Lebron and Carmelo were considered to be, but he definitely panned out for Miami.
Other contenders: Walt Frazier (1967) Charles Barkley (1984) Scottie Pippen (1987) Kevin Garnett (1995) Ray Allen (1996) Vince Carter (1998) Kevin Love (2008) DeMarcus Cousins (2010) Trae Young (2018)
Worst: Nikolz Tskitishvili (2002)
With respect to Jonanthan Bender, Thomas Robinson, and Shelden Williams, Tskitishvili gets the dubious distinction of being the worst 5th pick in history. Much like Darko Milicic, he came around at a time when everyone was searching for the next Nowitski and overseas scouting was far less advanced. But his career was actually much worse than Darko. It became clear very quickly that he was not Dirk, and also wasn’t good enough to play in the NBA. He played 172 games over 4 NBA seasons, shot 30% from the floor and averaged 2.9 pts and 1.8 rebs.
Other contenders: Thomas Robinson (2012) Shelden Williams (2006) Jonathan Bender (1999) Kenny Walker (1986) James Ray (1980)
dmo21 6 years, 3 months ago.
