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Donovan Mitchell and the great draft day robbery.

Rubashov

Well-Known Member
2019 Award Winner
It's looking like the Utah\Denver deal could turn out to be one of the better draft day rip offs in NBA history so I wanted to start a thread with other great draft day rip offs and other one sided trades in general.

I'll kick it off with the baffling decision by the Seattle Sonics to trade Scottie Pippen for Olden Polynice.

Polynice scored about 1300 points in 3 and a bit seasons for the Sonics, Pippen was Pippen.
 
The jazz aren't blameless in this. They traded the #1 that turned out to be Magic Johnson

In 1976 the New Orleans Jazz signed Gail Goodrich away from the Lakers. League rules at the time required one team to compensate another for signing away veteran players. As compensation, the Jazz and the Lakers traded a handful of picks, including the New Orleans’ first-round pick in 1979.

Also we traded Wilkins for money I believe. He was the third pick I believe.


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Easily the biggest fleecing in NBA history is The Celtics swapping picks with The Golden State Warriors and getting Robert Parish at # 8. The Warriors ended up with Joe Barry Carroll, who was unaffectionately nicknamed by GSW fans as "Joe Barely Cares"

Oh yeah, The Warriors also gave Boston a future first that turned out to be Kevin McHale.

I'm going to guess that was the only time in NBA history a team got two cornerstone players for multiple championships and future HOF'ers for one draft pick.
 
The jazz aren't blameless in this. They traded the #1 that turned out to be Magic Johnson

In 1976 the New Orleans Jazz signed Gail Goodrich away from the Lakers. League rules at the time required one team to compensate another for signing away veteran players. As compensation, the Jazz and the Lakers traded a handful of picks, including the New Orleans’ first-round pick in 1979.

Also we traded Wilkins for money I believe. He was the third pick I believe.


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Yeah the Wilkins one was a whopper I'd forgotten about that, I didn't know about the Magic.
 
Wilkins wasn't a draft day trade - The Jazz didn't trade him until right before training camp because (in part) they were afraid he wasn't going to show up.

Do any old timers know - did Wilkins play in the summer league for Utah? Probably not.

Wilkins says to this day he would have played for the Jazz but who knows for sure

Would have been nice though.
 
I'm going to guess that was the only time in NBA history a team got two cornerstone players for multiple championships and future HOF'ers for one draft pick.

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I don't post a lot but I think about this stuff a lot. As much Nuggets appear to be losers in this one how about other 12 picks that passed on Mitchell... They should feel just as bad (except for maybe Tatum pick. He'll also be pretty good).

And speaking of players and misses, when we drafted Burk at 9 Giannis went 15. When we drafted Burks at 12 Kwami went 15. That's where we end up on the wrong side of the stuff.
 
And speaking of players and misses, when we drafted Burk at 9 Giannis went 15. When we drafted Burks at 12 Kwami went 15. That's where we end up on the wrong side of the stuff.

I think both picks might have been influenced in part by the fact that both Giannis and Kawhi were listed as SF, imagine the impact on Haywood's fragile ego if the Jazz were picking guys playing his position.
 
I think both picks might have been influenced in part by the fact that both Giannis and Kawhi were listed as SF, imagine the impact on Haywood's fragile ego if the Jazz were picking guys playing his position.

Jazz drafted for a need, not BPA.
 
People bitch and moan about Kawhi but it's not like the guy was projected to go number 1 or something. He was all over the map in the mock drafts. I saw several that didn't even have him going lottery.

He went to a small school (San Diego State), did not put up big numbers in college. Shot something like mid-40's FG%. No range.

Pop saw something in him that a lot of other folks didn't - that's why he's Pop.

Get over it.
Agreed. He was viewed as a tweener that couldn't shoot. How he developed handles and a jump shot, I will never no, because he couldn't do those things in college
 
Wilkins wasn't a draft day trade - The Jazz didn't trade him until right before training camp because (in part) they were afraid he wasn't going to show up.

Do any old timers know - did Wilkins play in the summer league for Utah? Probably not.

Wilkins says to this day he would have played for the Jazz but who knows for sure

Would have been nice though.
The teams financial problems at the time were no secret. My recollection is that fans were happy about the cash infusion far more than being sad about losing Wilkins. We were sort of amazed that Salt Lake had an NBA team and hoping and praying that they would somehow figure out a way to keep it here.

I have no recollection at all of Wilkins threatening not to show up. I don't think that happened.
 
Biggest draft day robbery ever is Kawhi for George Hill imo. Gobert and Mitchell got to be up there though.
 
I must say, in some alternate universe, or in the brightest time line, The Jazz drafted Klay at 3 and Kawhi at 11 in 2011, Giannis at 9 and Gobert at 27 in 2013, kept Hayward and still drafted Mitchell. And Bill Gates became a Jazz fan, and paid the luxury tax (after buying .00000001% of the team; rest of the team went to the legacy trust) on the grounds that the Jazz would resign all these guys.

Mitchell/Neto/Jimmer (why not)
Hayward/Ingles
Giannis/Kawhi/Hayward
Kawhi/Giannis/JJ
Gobert/Udoh
 
The teams financial problems at the time were no secret. My recollection is that fans were happy about the cash infusion far more than being sad about losing Wilkins. We were sort of amazed that Salt Lake had an NBA team and hoping and praying that they would somehow figure out a way to keep it here.

I have no recollection at all of Wilkins threatening not to show up. I don't think that happened.

I think the back story here is that we NEEDED cash to keep the team. So, Wilkins was traded for the Jazz to stay in Utah. I'd say we got the better deal long term. I think Miller was either going to sell the franchise or get operating cash. So, I don't blame us for that. And the Lakers getting Magic sounds more like the pick was taken from us than the pick was traded. But I don't know the back story well enough.
 
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