Whats our best draft year Re-dux

by blazerbeliever97504 on May 24, 2009 11:35 PM PDT

I posted this over 6 months ago, but since the draft is just around the corner i wanted to re-post it and ask the question again. SINCE 1977 what has been our best draft? Prior to '77 we had some stellar Draft classes but i want to focus on 1977 and after. . . . .

So ill start at 1977 our only glory year. We have had a terrible track record for draft picks through out our history, others are probly worse than us but i dont care nor pay attention to them. I got on a few websites and started looking through our draft history sonce 1977 and it isnt pretty. Please bare in mind i am omitting any trades up till recent times. (I.E. K.P.'s riegn)

1977: Rich Laurel #19, who is he again?

1978: Mychael Thompson #1, Stud, maybe our best overall #1 from '77 till now. G.O. may have something to say about that but thats yet to be seen.

1979: Jim Paxson #12, gotta love the Pax. Solid player his whole career.

1980: No draft picks that year.

1981: Jeff Lamp #15 Darnell Valentine #16, both very solid players but far from stars.

1982: Fat Lever #11, Outstanding scorer but played very little for us over his carrer(2-3 year from my memory)

1983: Clyde Drexler #14, Clyde the Glyde baby!!! woot!!! Nuf' said.

1984: The year that shall not be mentioned (Jerome Kersey was drafted Rd.2 pick.22, thats all that shall be said)

1985: Terry Porter #24, "T.P. for three!!!" Remeber the schonze saying that? Best PG we have ever had, period.

1986: Walter Berry #14, Arvydas Sabonis #24, Drazen Petrovic Rd.3 # 13, All three GREAT players but none of them played long for us. Sabas was awsome still at 34+ and two blown knees, loved his passing and three pointers. Petro rest in peice.

1987:Ronnie Murphy #17, Ronnie who?

1988: Mark Bryant #21, Great role player on those early 90's Drexler teams.

1989: Byron Irvin #22, Cliff Robinson Rd2 #9, Irvin never went anywhere, Uncle Cliffy was a stellar 6th man for us for quite a long time.

1990: Alaa Abdelnaby #25, (special note here) Kevin Pritchard Rd.2 #9 by GSW, Alaa has the best name of any draft pick ever in my humble opinion, and yes thats OUR K.P.

1991: No 1st rounder, we did draft the last spot of the whole draft.

1992: Dave Johnson #26 Reggie Smith Rd 2 #4, Both never got anywhere in the league.

1993: James Robinson# 21, had a good year or two for us but never anything to write home about. I personally liked him alot as a player for us.

1994: Aaron McKie #17, Very solid player his whole career be it with us, philly, who ever. Good player.

1995: Shawn Respert #8, this one hurt personally, i thought Respert would be a star. Wow was i wrong.

1996: Jermaine O'neal #17, Allstar player that we traded just as he came of age. Awsome job trader Bob. Jerk!

1997: Chris Antsey #18, Alvin Wlliams Rd2 #47, Antsey never panned out the way we hoped, Alvin Williams was a very good PG for a few years though. Too bad it wasnt for us.

1998: No Picks that year.

1999:No 1st rounder. Nothing to mention in the second round.

2000:Erik Barkley #28, like Respert i thought Barkley would end up a solid PG nothing great but solid for us. Again, wrong!

2001: Zach Randolph #19, Great player, bad person. Period.

2002: Quintell Woods #21, this would be in the midst of our "high school players are awsome!" Phase. Ugh

2003: Travis Outlaw #23, The jury is still out but so far he has tons of talent but a low BBIQ. (nutshelled) I like Trout personally, alot.

2004: Sebastian Telfair #13, Barkley, Respert, and now Telfair. Ugh. Ohh well he gave us B-roy. Thank you Telfair!

2005: Martell webster #6, Linas Klieza#27, Web is a very good, improving player. I forsee him being a very solid player in the league. Klieza may prove to be better from what i have seen. The only problem? Klieza is a Nugget. :(

2006: Tyrus Thomas #4, Best trade since the Buck Wliiams trade. This draft year saw the arrival of Roy, LMA, and Sergio all via trades.

2007: Greg Oden #1, G.O. is going to be a beast, it WILL happen! This year saw a few trades also which brought us Rudymania. Rudy!

2008: Brandon Rush #11, More trades, i remember Bob Witsitt also known as "trader bob" and he and K.P. both love to make a splash via trades. The difference? K.P. makes good trades,not trades for over the hill 280lb former supersonics. '08 gave us Bayless, and Batum.

I personally see a patern, our GMs of the past are no where near as skilled as K.P. Our quality picks since he has taken over clearly illestrate that. I also see a pattern of bad luck, Sabas, Petrovic, that one guy who was drafted before that other guy. That sort of stuff. I notice our luck improving the last few years, be it our GM or just luck itself im thankfull. What do you guys think is the best draft year we ever had? My vote is '06 with Roy, LMA, and Sergio coming in.The 1986 draft was sick also, Sabas, Petro, and Walter Berry. They didnt play for us much but were all three great players and there is something to be said for that. What do you think is our best draft year Blazer nation?

Again this was posted sometime ago but i wanted to re-visit the topic. Let the nation know your take on this. I would post a poll but there are too many draft classes to put into a poll.

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I am liking 83, 86 and 06.

Hopefully 07 will turn out to be good for us

I like the whole team.

by RenoBlazerFan on May 24, 2009 11:50 PM PDT reply actions

2006

How many times has a team ended up with the two best players in a single draft?

Roy is the best player in the world with the exception of Incarcerated Mike from Queensbridge .

by Nick Van Excellent on May 24, 2009 11:59 PM PDT reply actions

gotta be 06

got the guy who will probably end up as the “best” Blazer of all time, plus a budding star in LMA

Best of Senator Clay Davis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4-QyAzY64&feature=related

by cloudydays on May 25, 2009 12:23 AM PDT reply actions

Who is the only player

in Blazers history to be ROY, 2nd year AS, 3rd year AS, 2nd team All-NBA, Magic Johnson Award winner? Not to mention he is home grown NW?

Not to mention LMA, who should explode next season, and the promise that was Sergio.

All of this from getting screwed in the lottery, sliding from the 1st to the worst @ 4th, getting something for Telfaire and fooling McFail into giving us Roy.

Not only did we get the top 2 players, the rest of the daft is pretty much considered a bust. Gay seems to be a slightly smaller better Travis, Bargnani started to come though at the end of last season, AFTER he has been written off, Tyrus who is on the trade block, and I am not going to touch those who wanted to “Draft the ’Stache”

I think the best thing is that not only did it net us possibly the greatest Blazer, it was the beginning of the rebirth of the franchise, and that allows it more weight IMO.

"Damn the Blazers. Damn them to hell. They are working the rest of the league like a speed bag." - Bill Simmons 6/26/08

by SpyderRyder on May 25, 2009 12:36 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Well said.

Roy is the best player in the world with the exception of Incarcerated Mike from Queensbridge .

by Nick Van Excellent on May 25, 2009 2:52 AM PDT up reply actions

well

Rondo and Millsap were also in that draft FWIW

Best of Senator Clay Davis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4-QyAzY64&feature=related

by cloudydays on May 25, 2009 3:12 PM PDT up reply actions

I disagree

that we have a “terrible track record” with draft picks. Of course we whiffed with the big one in 1984, but overall, not counting years in which we did not have a 1st round pick, we are about 50% in drafting at least one player who became a very solid player in the league. This includes some great 2nd round picks like Kersey and Cliff Robinson. Just because a player had his best years with another team (e.g. Lever, Jermaine O’Neal) doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good pick. I doubt too many other teams are over 50% since 1977.

by socalblazer on May 25, 2009 1:58 AM PDT reply actions

Why only since 1977 ????

We drafted the best player in our history in 1974. The ABA draft was also very good to us. Your rule seems kind of arbitrary.

Sticking up for Travis Outlaw since 2008 and Steve Blake since last week..

by Kaboomm on May 25, 2009 6:29 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

this whole topic makes me feel young

I got into the Blazers in 1999 or 2000 (what year did we have Jim Jackson?). Most of the older guys i’ve only heard of and never seen play. And for that reason I pretty much have to go with 06.

by One Team to Rule Them All on May 25, 2009 8:42 AM PDT reply actions

2006

ABA draft got us a title but with your rules definitely 2006

by We-B-Dunkin on May 25, 2009 8:46 AM PDT reply actions

2006 was the year of the draft day trades

In terms of “what could have been” 1986 looked awesome. A full prime career of Arvydas and Drazen in Portland on a team that already had Drexler and Porter? Give up one or two of your titles Bulls/Lakers/Rockets/Pistons! Bowie over MJ wouldn’t have mattered much.

by Norsktroll on May 25, 2009 3:03 PM PDT reply actions