Wednesday, May 04, 2005

HOW GOOD WERE THE SONICS PICKS IN 2003

REVIEW OF THE 2003 NBA DRAFT
This will go down as one of the best drafts of all time. However, no team was able to do more with less then Seattle. Seattle chooses Nick Collison at 12 and Luke Ridnour at 14.
Check out what happened after the 14th pick of the draft. Only Josh Howard has been an NBA starter. Limited other players have made any impact at all.
Looking back at the draft before the #12 and #14 pick the Sonics need to send thank you notes to New York for taking Michael Sweetney at #9 and to Memphis (for Boston) for taking Marcus Banks.
Can you imagine if the Sonics had taken Reece Gaines and David West or a Marcus Banks and Brian Cook. It wouldn’t have been outlandish or criticized. Instead, the Sonics made the perfect picks. The Sonics deserve huge kudos for getting the last players to make an impact.

Retrospective – This is from my weekly column for Seattle –PI --
In the Sonics’ draft range, Luke Ridnour’s ability to run the floor, pass and run a fast break registers on the “oh bleep” scale. Nick Collison’s knack for stretching the floor with his jumper and rebounding may do the same. However, will you ever fear Chris Kaman, Mike Sweetney or Reece Gaines?

HERE IS THE DRAFT ORDER !!!

2003 NBA DRAFT
1. Cleveland LeBron James
2. Detroit Darko Milicic
3. Denver Carmelo Anthony
4. Toronto Chris Bosh
5. Miami Dwyane Wade
6. LA Clippers Chris Kaman
7. Chicago Kirk Hinrich
8. Milwaukee T.J. Ford
9. New York Michael Sweetney
10. Washington Jarvis Hayes
11. Golden State Mickael Pietrus
12. Seattle Nick Collison
13. Memphis Marcus Banks (Traded to Boston)
14. Seattle (from Milwaukee) Luke Ridnour

POST-SONICS PICKS
15. OrlandoReece Gaines
16. Boston Troy Bell (Traded to Memphis)
17. Phoenix Zarko Cabarkapa
18. New Orleans David West
19. Utah Aleksandar Pavlovic
20. Boston Dahntay Jones (Traded to Memphis)
21. Atlanta Boris Diaw
22. New Jersey Zoran Planinic
23. Portland Travis Outlaw
24. LA Lakers Brian Cook
25. Detroit Carlos Delfino
26. Minnesota Ndudi Ebi
27. Memphis Kendrick Perkins (Traded to Boston)
28. San Antonio Leandrinho Barbosa (Traded to Phoenix)
29. Dallas Josh Howard

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

David,

The Sonics really did have an excellent draft in 2003 with Collison and Ridnour. I think we can do the same thing by drafting Nate (Tazmanian Devil) Robinson. He won't be there on our second pick unless we trade up, so why not take a chance picking him with our first. There are no quality big men at this pick, and I would really like to see Nate back up Luke and energize the floor when he comes in. He has great court awareness and a fearless mentality which would go great with the physical style of play that the Sonics have been using this year. Also, could it be possible that we draft his teammate, Tre Simmons to fill it up from the outside in case Ray can't be signed? I like his gym rat work ethic and having Nate alongside would help in their journey to the NBA. Both are good lockerroom guys and quality players who will do what coach asks of them. What do you think?