Marvin Williams is a really weird case study. I believe he was one of the first real “development” draft picks, where they saw a dude that was still somewhat raw, but had a “REALLY HIGH CEILING”, so they took a chance. He actually stayed in the league for a really long time, but was average.
Michael Redd! That dude could bomb 3’s. But he was really fragile if I remember correctly.
FYI, Isaiah Thomas is the former Celtic and Isiah Thomas is the former Piston.
Fun list!
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I never realized they were spelled differently! (I corrected the comment)
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Michael Redd was a certified bucket
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A few others to include (not all 40+ but 2nd rounders) Gilbert Arenas, Draymond Green, Trevor ariza, khris Middleton , Mo cheeks, Deondre Jordan, Danny green, etc.
Comparing draft orders to results over time can be so interesting and fun. There’s got to be a little bit of luck involved in any situation, a la Draymond landing with Steph and klay. If he goes to a, say, Detroit or something, he’s nowhere remotely close to as popular as he is now.
That bucks team was so much fun to use on the early 2000’s nba games.
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Yes, landing spot and quality of team can have such an impact. It truly is incredible when someone can land in a bad spot and become transcendent! (First example that comes to mind is Barry Sanders. Who has a good NBA example that comes to mind? Maybe Pete Maravich?)
He had one of the best three-point strokes in NBA history. I’m strictly talking form. It was beautiful.
Here are some special post-2nd rounders (or undrafted) . The list is incomplete as Wikipedia stopped listing “notable” players from 3rd round and later in the mid-90’s and focused instead on undrafted players.
1977 3 49 Eddie Johnson+ (All Star)
1979 3 65 Bill Laimbeer+ (All Star)
1979 4 73 James Donaldson+ (All Star)
1979 5 107 Mark Eaton+ (All Star)
1982 4 72 Mark Eaton+ (All Star) (Redrafted as he did not enter NBA in 1979)
1985 3 66 Michael Adams+ (All Star)
1985 4 77 Arvydas Sabonis^ (Hall of Fame)
1986 3 60 Dražen Petrović^ (Hall of Fame)
1987 6 127 Šarūnas Marčiulionis (Hall of Fame) [One of my personal favorites]
1988 3 53 Anthony Mason* (All NBA)
1996 Undrafted Ben Wallace^ (Hall of Fame)
1998 Undrafted Brad Miller+ (All Star)
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That’s tough in basketball. Maybe dirk? I’m trying to think of guys that got placed somewhere alone, and lifted them up to title contenders by themselves. And dirk even had Nash when he was coming up, he’s the only guy I can think of that’s won rings without other superstars around him in the past 15 or 20 years, but that was well after he was drafted. Guys like Steph bringing GS to prominence is awesome, but he had a ton of help with other stud picks.
That brings up yet another conversation, who’s the last team to win a title with less than 2 all stars? Was dirk the only all star when he won his? I can’t remember.
That year yes. But he had Jason Kidd who was an all star the year before.
How bad historically have the Trailblazers been with drafting busts? My goodness 3 of the top 6.
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So my mind has been blown. Amazing how 10 years flies (and the state of the NBA).
I thought Josh Howard and Michael Finley were on the Mavs championship team. 
Still, can’t think of a more impressive run with less talent. Not to say they didn’t have talent, but it wasn’t a super team like Steph and Lebron have had in the years since.
They did pull the trigger on two small school guys that seemed to work out though. I’ll never be able to thank them enough for thinking Oden was better than KD.