Among the many reasons why the Clippers have largely failed as a competitive basketball organization over their existence in LA is poor drafting. Looking back over the past 10 years, the Clippers have drafted the following players in the first round (overall pick in parentheses):
2000 – Darius Miles (3)
2001 – Tyson Chandler (2)
2002 – Chris Wilcox (8), Melvin Ely (12)
2003 – Chris Kaman (6)
2004 – Shaun Livingston (4)
2005 – Yaroslav Korolev (12)
2006 – 1st Round Pick traded 2007 – Al Thornton (14)
2008 – Eric Gordon (7; probably their best pick of the decade)
2009 – Blake Griffin (1)
For those of you playing at home, this means the Clippers' average position in the first round over the last decade has been about sixth.
SIXTH!
They have had, on average, a chance at one of the six best players coming out of the draft—every year. That should amount, assuming a competently run basketball franchise, to a team made of no less than 10 players with top-six talent.
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Blake Wettengel
Ground Zero For The Los Angeles Clippers’ Failure: Awful Drafting
March 11th, 2010 by Blake Wettengel Leave a reply »
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