mellow
Well-Known Member
Friday the 13th and 13 Days to Draft Countdown
Today is Friday the 13th. There are 13 days until the NBA draft. In honor of this unlikely coincidence I thought I’d start a draft countdown by reviewing thirteen unlucky draft selections by our beloved Jazz. The criteria was simple, find 13 picks that if the Jazz would have done differently could have changed team history for the better.
Here is the list in no particular ranking order.
1993 Luther Wright. On paper it seemed like a no brainer for the Jazz to select the young, athletic 7-1 260 lbs center out of Seton Hall to help replace Mark Eaton and make it difficult for opponents to double Karl with a C and PF. There were rumours of off-court issues with young Luther, but not to worry PJ Carlisemo, Coach of Seaton Hall and a Judas friend of the Laydens, assured the Jazz that everything was just fine. On his recommendation the Jazz selected Luther with the 18th Pick ahead of familiar players Sam Cassel (a career Jazz killer) and Nick Van Excel. And some less familiar players who had decent NBA careers Ervin Johnson, Corie Blount, Chris Mills, and Lucious Harris. I don’t think it was a bad pick, sometimes you need to swing for the fences, and sometimes you get lucky. This time all the luck was bad.
2004 Kris Humphries and Kirk Snyder. The first season without the Legends Karl and John was a surprising success. Sloan led a rag-tag bunch to the 7th seed in the west which netted the jazz the 16th pick. The Jazz also had the 14th pick from a previous trade with Phx. The 14th pick was the highest jazz pick in 19 seasons. The 16 was the highest since 1988. With two picks close together it seemed like a surety that the Jazz would work their magic and get a player to make a difference. The Jazz selected Humphries 14 and Snyder 16. Humphries is best known for briefly marrying a Kardashian, Snyder is in prison. Humphries tenor with the Jazz was tainted with stories of glamour boy wanting to look good but not wanting to do things the Jazz valued…like work hard. Snyder was an idiot from the first. Ironically future Jazzman and current All NBA 3rd team player Al Jefferson was selected 15th. Players drafted after 16: Josh Smith, Dorell Wright, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin, Beno Udrih, Anderson Varejo, Trevor Ariza and Chris Duhon. Neither of the Jazz picks were on the team by the time Deron entered his 2nd season and the Jazz were starting to look good again. If one of the two picks had resulted in a real player who knows where the Deron/Okur Jazz could have gone.
2007 Morris Almond. The Jazz had just made an unlikely run to the Western Conference Finals. The talk in the NBA was that Deron was greater than Chrissy Paul, Jerry Sloan was a genius and KOC was lauded for assembling a contending team so soon after the Legends. The one glaring weakness on the Jazz team was shooting and spacing. Everyone knew Ronnie Brewer was not a threat from outside, CJ was young, and Gordan was always in Jerry’s doghouse. The jazz thought they had the answer with scoring machine Morris Almond. Unfortunately the Jazz didn’t know that Almond was, what Dennis Lindsey would later characterize as a “Pig Scorer”, and couldn’t be taught to do little things like pass, rebound, or play defense. The next three picks after Almond? Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo and Tiago Splitter also after Almond were Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Marc Gasol and Ramon Sessions. Focusing on finding a shooter, the Jazz were unlucky and shot themselves in the foot.
Speaking of feet…. 2002 Ryan Humphrey. In the waning years of Karl and John the Jazz found themselves routinely winning enough regular season games to get swept out of the playoffs and earn late draft picks. In 2002 the Jazz roster of the legends, Tag, Russell, Padgett, Collins, Starks, Stevenson and a rookie AK won 44 games. With the 19th pick in the draft they selected Ryan Humphey and then for some inexplicable reason the Jazz traded with the Orlando Magic for the 18th pick Curtis Borchardt. Borchardt was a skilled big from Stanford, who had problems with his feet. He fell on draft day and it has been rumored the Jazz were caught off guard by the fall, and had not done their homework on his condition. Borchardt did not play a game for the Jazz until the 2003-4 season, he got injured again after only 16 games. In the 04-05 season he only played 67 games. It was clear he could have been a decent player, he was smart, tall, and I thought he could pass it and shoot fairly well, but who could have known that his bones were made of glass (besides the other 18 teams that passed on him). Selected after Humphrey…Carlos Boozer, Tayshan Prince, John Salmons, Dan Gadzuric, Matt Barnes, Rasual Butler and Luis Scola. Perhaps the most unlucky part of this was the Jazz had worked out Boozer (was it twice?) and liked him but jumped at a chance to get a taller prospect. Jumping at chances is often unlucky. Had the Jazz drafted Boozer in 2002 he would have still been on a rookie contract in 2004 when the Jazz had all that FA money to spend. Perhaps they could have landed another player in free agency along with Okur to push the Jazz through the Deron/Okur years? Would AK have gotten the big raise if Boozer was on the Jazz before AK signed his extension? Boozer himself might have got a big extension with the Jazz or signed with another team --either way he was getting a raise. But we will never know how that might have played out because the Jazz jumped at a chance and chance showed them just how fragile she is.
1986, After having drafted Thurl Bailey (#7, 1983) John Stockton (#16, 1984) and Karl Malone (#13, 1985) it seemed the Jazz could draft no wrong. And then followed three terrible drafting years. It seemed like the good luck was all used up. The most tragic part of these three successive unlucky drafts was that the jazz failed to put players around John and Karl. Had any one of these three picks panned out the Jazz could have been “championship caliber” many years sooner. In 1986 the Jazz drafted sg Dell Curry, father of current NBA players Steph and Seth. Dell was a terrifc sg who had a very good career and was noted for his three point shooting. But the Jazz traded him to the Cavilers for Mel Turpin and the corpse of Daryl Dawkins. There may have been some pressure from Dell to force the trade or other issues at work. But the end result was the Jazz gave up one of the NBAs greatest three point shooters for back-ups. Curry would’ve been hitting his prime just as Karl and John hit theirs. What might have been we will never know. Selecting Curry the Jazz passed on Scott Skiles, Arvidas Sobonis, Mark Price, Dennis Rodman, Larry Kryskowiak, Nate McMillian, Kevin Duckworth (a Jazz killer) and another Jazz killer from Iowa State…Jeff Hornecek.
1987 was a bad draft. There just are not a lot of players who were selected after the Jazz Gambled on Jose Ortiz at #15. But Ortiz was done in two seasons while other draftees were still playing. Drafted after Ortiz…Mark Jackson, Greg Anderson, Reggie Lewis, Vincent Askew and Brad Lohas.
1988. Once again the Jazz tried to repeat their luck by going back to a player from a small school who was under-noticed. Leckner was supposed to be the mobile scorer that Mark Eaton wasn’t. He wasn’t. Drafted after Leckner….Rod Strickland, Mark Bryant, Kevin Edwards, Brian Shaw, Vernon Maxwell, and Anthony Mason. Jazz president Dave Checketts wanted Dan Majerle…how lucky would that have been?...but Majerle was picked 14th. Checketts was quoted in the DesNews, “This is not saying much, but we got one of the best big men in this draft.” Yes Dave, it was not saying much. Unlucky jazz.
2003 Sasha Pavlovich.#19. Stockton retires, Malone Leaves for LA. Jazz draft a guy named Sasha. It seemed troubled from the start. The 2003 Draft class was loaded (why did Stock and Malone hang on one more year?) but the Jazz won enough to get swept out in the first round again. Selected #18 was David West. Then 20 Dhanty Jones, 21 Boris Diaw, Travis Outlaw, Carlos Delfino, Leonardo Barbosa, Josh Howard, Willie Green, Steve Blake, Matt Bonner, Kyle Korver, Mo Willams were all drafter after Sasha who had a decent career but only lasted one season with the Jazz because the Jazz left him unprotected in the expansion draft thinking they would get lucky and Charlotte wouldn’t notice. But they did.
1999:19 and 28 If this draft were baseball the Jazz would be considered lucky, after all 1-3 with a homerun isn’t bad. But it isn’t baseball and when a small market team like the Jazz has multiple picks they need to find players with each pick. As new GM Dennis Lindsey said yesterday on 700 AM, “Every decision is critical, and the Jazz need to get everyone right.” At least it was close to that listen here https://espn.kall700sports.com/dennis-lindsey-jazz-gm-6-12-14/
The jazz had 3 first round picks #19, #24, and #28 they selected Quicny Lewis, AK-47 and Scott Padgett. Despite AK being a very very good draft pick it can be argued that the Jazz were unlucky with the other two and overall they missed on the best player in the draft with all three. 1999 was 3 seasons before the legends retired, and once again the jazz were looking to fill that ever elusive sg position. They drafted Quincy Lewis who only lasted two seasons with the team. James Posey was drafted 18th. Between Quincy and AK-47 were Kenny Thomas, Devan George, and Jeff Foster. Between AK and Padgett Jumaine Jones. After Padgett Gordan Giricek, Francisco Elson, and some guy named Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick. The jazz had the 58th. There is no way to know if Manu would have come to play for the Jazz, but as luck would have it he did come to play for the Spurs.
2011 #3 and #12 The jazz had just gone through the loss of Jerry and the expulsion of DWill. Owning two lottery picks was a great way to rebuild. The Jazz even beat the odds and moved up from the 5th position to the third with the New Jersey pick. Unluckily for the Jazz the draft class was a weak one with only two Tier 2 players. The Jazz picking third had their choice of a bunch of players with unknown potential and obvious deficiencies. They selected the mysterious Enes Kanter who maybe just as much of an enigma today as he was in June of 2011. Unluckily for the Jazz other players picked well after Kanter have thus far demonstrated much more ability. Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Nikola Vucevic, Kenneth Farried, Kawhi Leonard (more on him to come) Chandler Parsons Reggie Jackson, Jimmy Butler, and arguably others.
Alec Burks is included here too because of the number of players selected after him that have demonstrated more promise, but more so because of a little unlucky situation for Jeff Hornacek. Shortly after selecting Burks a Utah reporter asked coach Hornacek about selecting Burks ahead of Leonard. Hornacek responded frankly that he was shocked Leonard was on the board and was arguing for the Jazz to take him. Later the same reporter was questioning KOC and the reporter retold what Hornacek had said. KOC became instantly irate. He blasted coach Hornacek for speaking out of place and not keeping private discussions private. KOC was probably right about telling reporters your business, but Hornacek was probably right on the player evaluation, but he was not given enough consideration within the organization and now he is gone. He won 48 games last year, has a bunch of young players, draft picks, and cap room. He likes Gordon Hayward and Hayward likes him. Unlucky for Jazz fans.
There you have it, 13 unlucky draft picks. Enjoy this year’s draft.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0212_040212_friday13_2.html
Today is Friday the 13th. There are 13 days until the NBA draft. In honor of this unlikely coincidence I thought I’d start a draft countdown by reviewing thirteen unlucky draft selections by our beloved Jazz. The criteria was simple, find 13 picks that if the Jazz would have done differently could have changed team history for the better.
Here is the list in no particular ranking order.
1993 Luther Wright. On paper it seemed like a no brainer for the Jazz to select the young, athletic 7-1 260 lbs center out of Seton Hall to help replace Mark Eaton and make it difficult for opponents to double Karl with a C and PF. There were rumours of off-court issues with young Luther, but not to worry PJ Carlisemo, Coach of Seaton Hall and a Judas friend of the Laydens, assured the Jazz that everything was just fine. On his recommendation the Jazz selected Luther with the 18th Pick ahead of familiar players Sam Cassel (a career Jazz killer) and Nick Van Excel. And some less familiar players who had decent NBA careers Ervin Johnson, Corie Blount, Chris Mills, and Lucious Harris. I don’t think it was a bad pick, sometimes you need to swing for the fences, and sometimes you get lucky. This time all the luck was bad.
2004 Kris Humphries and Kirk Snyder. The first season without the Legends Karl and John was a surprising success. Sloan led a rag-tag bunch to the 7th seed in the west which netted the jazz the 16th pick. The Jazz also had the 14th pick from a previous trade with Phx. The 14th pick was the highest jazz pick in 19 seasons. The 16 was the highest since 1988. With two picks close together it seemed like a surety that the Jazz would work their magic and get a player to make a difference. The Jazz selected Humphries 14 and Snyder 16. Humphries is best known for briefly marrying a Kardashian, Snyder is in prison. Humphries tenor with the Jazz was tainted with stories of glamour boy wanting to look good but not wanting to do things the Jazz valued…like work hard. Snyder was an idiot from the first. Ironically future Jazzman and current All NBA 3rd team player Al Jefferson was selected 15th. Players drafted after 16: Josh Smith, Dorell Wright, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin, Beno Udrih, Anderson Varejo, Trevor Ariza and Chris Duhon. Neither of the Jazz picks were on the team by the time Deron entered his 2nd season and the Jazz were starting to look good again. If one of the two picks had resulted in a real player who knows where the Deron/Okur Jazz could have gone.
2007 Morris Almond. The Jazz had just made an unlikely run to the Western Conference Finals. The talk in the NBA was that Deron was greater than Chrissy Paul, Jerry Sloan was a genius and KOC was lauded for assembling a contending team so soon after the Legends. The one glaring weakness on the Jazz team was shooting and spacing. Everyone knew Ronnie Brewer was not a threat from outside, CJ was young, and Gordan was always in Jerry’s doghouse. The jazz thought they had the answer with scoring machine Morris Almond. Unfortunately the Jazz didn’t know that Almond was, what Dennis Lindsey would later characterize as a “Pig Scorer”, and couldn’t be taught to do little things like pass, rebound, or play defense. The next three picks after Almond? Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo and Tiago Splitter also after Almond were Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Marc Gasol and Ramon Sessions. Focusing on finding a shooter, the Jazz were unlucky and shot themselves in the foot.
Speaking of feet…. 2002 Ryan Humphrey. In the waning years of Karl and John the Jazz found themselves routinely winning enough regular season games to get swept out of the playoffs and earn late draft picks. In 2002 the Jazz roster of the legends, Tag, Russell, Padgett, Collins, Starks, Stevenson and a rookie AK won 44 games. With the 19th pick in the draft they selected Ryan Humphey and then for some inexplicable reason the Jazz traded with the Orlando Magic for the 18th pick Curtis Borchardt. Borchardt was a skilled big from Stanford, who had problems with his feet. He fell on draft day and it has been rumored the Jazz were caught off guard by the fall, and had not done their homework on his condition. Borchardt did not play a game for the Jazz until the 2003-4 season, he got injured again after only 16 games. In the 04-05 season he only played 67 games. It was clear he could have been a decent player, he was smart, tall, and I thought he could pass it and shoot fairly well, but who could have known that his bones were made of glass (besides the other 18 teams that passed on him). Selected after Humphrey…Carlos Boozer, Tayshan Prince, John Salmons, Dan Gadzuric, Matt Barnes, Rasual Butler and Luis Scola. Perhaps the most unlucky part of this was the Jazz had worked out Boozer (was it twice?) and liked him but jumped at a chance to get a taller prospect. Jumping at chances is often unlucky. Had the Jazz drafted Boozer in 2002 he would have still been on a rookie contract in 2004 when the Jazz had all that FA money to spend. Perhaps they could have landed another player in free agency along with Okur to push the Jazz through the Deron/Okur years? Would AK have gotten the big raise if Boozer was on the Jazz before AK signed his extension? Boozer himself might have got a big extension with the Jazz or signed with another team --either way he was getting a raise. But we will never know how that might have played out because the Jazz jumped at a chance and chance showed them just how fragile she is.
1986, After having drafted Thurl Bailey (#7, 1983) John Stockton (#16, 1984) and Karl Malone (#13, 1985) it seemed the Jazz could draft no wrong. And then followed three terrible drafting years. It seemed like the good luck was all used up. The most tragic part of these three successive unlucky drafts was that the jazz failed to put players around John and Karl. Had any one of these three picks panned out the Jazz could have been “championship caliber” many years sooner. In 1986 the Jazz drafted sg Dell Curry, father of current NBA players Steph and Seth. Dell was a terrifc sg who had a very good career and was noted for his three point shooting. But the Jazz traded him to the Cavilers for Mel Turpin and the corpse of Daryl Dawkins. There may have been some pressure from Dell to force the trade or other issues at work. But the end result was the Jazz gave up one of the NBAs greatest three point shooters for back-ups. Curry would’ve been hitting his prime just as Karl and John hit theirs. What might have been we will never know. Selecting Curry the Jazz passed on Scott Skiles, Arvidas Sobonis, Mark Price, Dennis Rodman, Larry Kryskowiak, Nate McMillian, Kevin Duckworth (a Jazz killer) and another Jazz killer from Iowa State…Jeff Hornecek.
1987 was a bad draft. There just are not a lot of players who were selected after the Jazz Gambled on Jose Ortiz at #15. But Ortiz was done in two seasons while other draftees were still playing. Drafted after Ortiz…Mark Jackson, Greg Anderson, Reggie Lewis, Vincent Askew and Brad Lohas.
1988. Once again the Jazz tried to repeat their luck by going back to a player from a small school who was under-noticed. Leckner was supposed to be the mobile scorer that Mark Eaton wasn’t. He wasn’t. Drafted after Leckner….Rod Strickland, Mark Bryant, Kevin Edwards, Brian Shaw, Vernon Maxwell, and Anthony Mason. Jazz president Dave Checketts wanted Dan Majerle…how lucky would that have been?...but Majerle was picked 14th. Checketts was quoted in the DesNews, “This is not saying much, but we got one of the best big men in this draft.” Yes Dave, it was not saying much. Unlucky jazz.
2003 Sasha Pavlovich.#19. Stockton retires, Malone Leaves for LA. Jazz draft a guy named Sasha. It seemed troubled from the start. The 2003 Draft class was loaded (why did Stock and Malone hang on one more year?) but the Jazz won enough to get swept out in the first round again. Selected #18 was David West. Then 20 Dhanty Jones, 21 Boris Diaw, Travis Outlaw, Carlos Delfino, Leonardo Barbosa, Josh Howard, Willie Green, Steve Blake, Matt Bonner, Kyle Korver, Mo Willams were all drafter after Sasha who had a decent career but only lasted one season with the Jazz because the Jazz left him unprotected in the expansion draft thinking they would get lucky and Charlotte wouldn’t notice. But they did.
1999:19 and 28 If this draft were baseball the Jazz would be considered lucky, after all 1-3 with a homerun isn’t bad. But it isn’t baseball and when a small market team like the Jazz has multiple picks they need to find players with each pick. As new GM Dennis Lindsey said yesterday on 700 AM, “Every decision is critical, and the Jazz need to get everyone right.” At least it was close to that listen here https://espn.kall700sports.com/dennis-lindsey-jazz-gm-6-12-14/
The jazz had 3 first round picks #19, #24, and #28 they selected Quicny Lewis, AK-47 and Scott Padgett. Despite AK being a very very good draft pick it can be argued that the Jazz were unlucky with the other two and overall they missed on the best player in the draft with all three. 1999 was 3 seasons before the legends retired, and once again the jazz were looking to fill that ever elusive sg position. They drafted Quincy Lewis who only lasted two seasons with the team. James Posey was drafted 18th. Between Quincy and AK-47 were Kenny Thomas, Devan George, and Jeff Foster. Between AK and Padgett Jumaine Jones. After Padgett Gordan Giricek, Francisco Elson, and some guy named Manu Ginobili with the 57th pick. The jazz had the 58th. There is no way to know if Manu would have come to play for the Jazz, but as luck would have it he did come to play for the Spurs.
2011 #3 and #12 The jazz had just gone through the loss of Jerry and the expulsion of DWill. Owning two lottery picks was a great way to rebuild. The Jazz even beat the odds and moved up from the 5th position to the third with the New Jersey pick. Unluckily for the Jazz the draft class was a weak one with only two Tier 2 players. The Jazz picking third had their choice of a bunch of players with unknown potential and obvious deficiencies. They selected the mysterious Enes Kanter who maybe just as much of an enigma today as he was in June of 2011. Unluckily for the Jazz other players picked well after Kanter have thus far demonstrated much more ability. Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, Nikola Vucevic, Kenneth Farried, Kawhi Leonard (more on him to come) Chandler Parsons Reggie Jackson, Jimmy Butler, and arguably others.
Alec Burks is included here too because of the number of players selected after him that have demonstrated more promise, but more so because of a little unlucky situation for Jeff Hornacek. Shortly after selecting Burks a Utah reporter asked coach Hornacek about selecting Burks ahead of Leonard. Hornacek responded frankly that he was shocked Leonard was on the board and was arguing for the Jazz to take him. Later the same reporter was questioning KOC and the reporter retold what Hornacek had said. KOC became instantly irate. He blasted coach Hornacek for speaking out of place and not keeping private discussions private. KOC was probably right about telling reporters your business, but Hornacek was probably right on the player evaluation, but he was not given enough consideration within the organization and now he is gone. He won 48 games last year, has a bunch of young players, draft picks, and cap room. He likes Gordon Hayward and Hayward likes him. Unlucky for Jazz fans.
There you have it, 13 unlucky draft picks. Enjoy this year’s draft.
Last edited:
