What Grade Would You Give Joe D?
By toasterhands
With the NBA draft almost a month away I figure I’ll start my own coverage of it by looking at all of Joe D’s drafts.
You can’t get this kind of coverage anywhere else people.
2000
1st, 14th- Mateen Cleaves
2nd, 44th- Brian Cardinal
Cardinal turned out to have a better career than about half the players drafted in the first round, including Cleaves, sadly.
2001
1st, 9th- Rodney White
2nd, 38th- Mehmet Okur
Rodney has not appeared on NBA soil since 2005, mainly because he was allergic to defense, but probably because he’s a few cards short of a full deck too. He has played in places such as Puerto Rico, China, Spain, and Italy. Was waived by Maccabi Tel Aviv (good Euroleague gig) in early December last year. At least Detroit didn’t get stuck with Kirk Haston, drafted 16th by Charlotte. Now that would have been disastrous…
2002
1st, 23rd-Tayshaun Prince
On one hand, give it up to him, Tay has a gold medal, he did “The Block”, and he has played more NBA basketball games than anybody else on God’s green earth over the past 6 years or so. On the other hand, it has come down to a simple what have you done for me lately? Answer: You scored how many points and grabbed how many rebounds in the playoffs?!?!?
(faints)
And to think they missed out on Dan Dickau.
2003
1st, 2nd- Voldemort
1st, 25th- Carlos Delfino
2nd, 58th- Andreas Glyniadakis
— I used to read Harry Potter. I stopped at like the fourth book. The above is what I figured Voldemort would look like. Little did I know…
— Frankly, Delfino is virtually just like Sasha Pavlovic, but with more attitude, the kind coaches don’t like though (explains his short stay with Detroit). Carlos is one of the most talented players not in the NBA currently, for what it’s worth.
— Andreas the Greek giant never played a game for Detroit, but he played 13 of them for Seattle, starting 4. I used to have a blast saying Glyniadakis, but eventually ended up just referring to him as the “7 foot Greek guy”, until I forgot about him altogether about 2 years ago.
2004
2nd, 54th- Ricky Paulding
And to think they passed on another great Gonzaga point guard (Blake Stepp).
2005
1st, 26th- Jason Maxiell
2nd, 56th-Amir Johnson
2nd, 60th-Alex Acker
— Maxiell saw his numbers and minutes plummet this season. Maxiell’s inability to be a consistent offensive weapon (i.e. hit a jumper) and his lack of size for a power forward really limit his effectiveness against most squads. Maxiell can make up for his shortcomings by playing his absolute hardest, though that’s something that wasn’t seen as much as we would have hoped this past season. I guess babies everywhere are enjoying Max’s relative mellowing, but after a 20 million dollar contract, a mellow Max just does not cut it.
— David Lee and Brandon Bass were available at 26 mind you.
— Sort of unfair to call Amir Johnson a bust at 56, but that’s what it’s coming to. It irks me to think of all the trades Joe D passed up because of Johnson.
–On a random side note, there are plenty of undrafted players in 2005 currently in the league. Some of them include
Jose Calderon, Chuck Hayes, Kelenna Azubuike, Josh Powell, Ronnie Price, Shavlik Randolph, Fabricio Oberto and the one and only Will Bynum.
2006
2nd, 60th- Will Blalock
Will played a total of 166 minutes with Detroit in 14 games, 166 minutes more than anyone ever thought he would play in the NBA. Call me a stickler but maybe taking a flyer on a tall (taller than 5’11 at least) foreign player would be a better idea than drafting a lil’ point guard with marginal potential. Oh, wait, maybe Joe D just drafted the wrong lil’ point guard instead, considering the lovable and lightning quick Jose Juan Barea was available. Doh!
2007
1st,15th- Rodney Stuckey
1st, 27th- Arron Afflalo
2nd, 57th- Sammy Mejia
Both first round picks look like great value players, especially Arron. Day in and day out you know what you are going to get from him: hard work, a positive attitude, and a will to play defense. The jury is still out on whether he can be more than just a 12-15 minute rotational guy, but like I said, at #27, he was a nice value.
2008
2nd, 32th- Walter Sharpe
2nd, 46th-Trent Plaisted
2nd, 59th- Deron Washington
— Walter Sharpe’s potential is why I wouldn’t draft Austin Daye (topic for a future post). Too many projects already on this team, though Sharpe has the tools in my opinion to be a very solid NBA player, so it may be worth the wait.
— This Deron character can really jump and had Renaldo Balkman type hair at Virginia Tech. Deron played in the Israeli premier league this year, totaling 14.8 ppg (31% from downtown) 7 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 27 games. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the league someday, he sort of reminds me of former Clipper (05-07) and current Mav James Singleton. Singleton played overseas for a few years, improved his jumper, played great defense, won some awards, and overall made a nice impression. Ultimately the key for Deron is if he can improve his shooting.
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That wraps it up folks. Thanks for making it this far. I’ll post some links and some original 09 draft thoughts in the coming days.
Happy Mocking!