Tyson Chandler, Dajuan Wagner:The biggest draft lottery mess ups – NBA Draft Special (Part 2)
Chicago Bulls, trading Tyson Chandler
After the retirement of the legendary Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls were struggling to keep the momentum going. In 2001, the Bulls wanted to go after the big man Tyson Chandler, who was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the second overall pick. Chandler was a decent performer and the Bulls were at odds on selecting a player to relinquish.
Eventually, they gave up the prolific power forward Elton Brand who averaged 20 points per game in his first two seasons with the team and went on to average between 18 and 24 points with the Clippers for the next six years. Chandler, on the other hand, averaged well below 10 points per game during his five seasons with the Bulls.
Cleveland Cavaliers, Dajuan Wagner
Dajuan Wagner’s selection by the Cleveland Cavaliers in front of the kind of available talent makes his pick a biggest s***w-up for the team.
Wagner was drafted by the Cavaliers in 2002 as the sixth overall pick, few picks ahead of the offensive machine Amare Stoudemire and just ahead of the defensive stalwart Nene. Any one from Amare or Nene could have provided a lot of depth in the Cavaliers roster. However, they got a certain LeBron James, the very next year which helped somewhat. Imagine, a Stoudemire and James combo in Wine and Gold.
Dallas Mavericks, Randy White
In the 1989 draft, the Dallas Mavericks selected power forward Randy White who played only five years in the NBA as a Maverick. During his professional career, White never managed a scoring average of 10 or more points.
The Mavericks drafted Randy above the likes of Clifford Robinson, Shawn Kemp, B.J. Armstrong, Vlade Divac, Nick Anderson, Mookie Blaylock and Tim Hardaway, all of whom proved to be far better options in the years that followed. Had the Mavs drafted anyone of these players instead of Randy, they could have avoided the 1992-1994 meltdown, when they managed to win only 24 games in two years.
Denver Nuggets, Nikoloz Tskitishvili
The Denver Nuggets had a complete swing and miss in the year before drafting the All-Star Carmelo Anthony, just like Cleveland did a year before selecting LeBron James. The Nuggets selected Nikoloz Tskitishvili in the 2002 draft with their fifth pick when they could have easily procured Stoudemire or Nene.
Tskitishvili was the worst ever pick for the Denver Nuggets and he maxed out in his rookie season with an average of 3 points and 2 rebounds per game.
Detroit Pistons, Darko Milicic
Picking Darko Milicic in the 2003 draft is without any doubt one of the biggest mistakes in the draft history and for the Detroit Pistons. Sandwiched in between James and Anthony, the Pistons selected the power forward Milicic who never proved to be productive for the team.
Although, at this point of career Darko is a good shot blocker, but he is no match against the brilliance of LeBron and Carmelo. During his three seasons with the Pistons, Darko failed to impress and scored with an average of less than 2 points per game.
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