Draft Daze: A Review of the Nuggets NBA Draft History

There have been recent comments back and forth along with an excellent two-part retrospect by Nate Timmons. I took a shot at breaking down every Nuggets draft since the entered the NBA (ABA was a whole other set of rules & adventures... be sure to read the book Loose Balls to get an understanding).

For many reasons over the years, The Nuggets, overall have never been a NBA team with a dedication towards home grown talent, or for strong scouting. Reasons include no money, coaches who didn't have time for rookies, more days of no money, more coaches who didn't have time for rookies, overall inept front office management. Plus don’t forget days of having no money; and having a coach with little time for rookies.

I looked at each draft member and gave a grade (simple A, B, C, D & F). If the Nuggets traded away their 1st round pick I gave that pick a D because that's not player development. Most 2nd rounders or below I gave no score to unless it was again the Nuggets trading the pick simply to get rid of it (hello Leon Powe, DeJuan Blair & Vernon Maxwell).

I listed a, hopefully, objective breakdown of each draft. In NBA team building there are 3 parts: 1)The Draft, 2) Trades, 3)Free Agent signings. This is addressing just the draft.

Overall, the Nuggets graded out at a C- over their 33 year NBA history. (And for those interested they graded out a D from this year back to 2004).

So here ya go, enjoy and tell me what you think.

One thing, looking back, that history shows, is Allan Bristow was right and Dan Issell was wrong. The draft of 1997 delivered 3 good NBA players; sadly none were with the Nuggets past the first year.

Year	Rd	#	Player	School	Comment	Grade	Overall
Overall							C-
2009	Lawson's a keeper, but threw away two 2nd rounders including a high 2nd rounder and Blair						C
	1	18	Ty Lawson	NC	Looks like a keeper	B
	2	34	Sergio Llull	Spain	Draft night trade	C
	2	37	DeJuan Blair	Pitt	Draft night trade, helping Spurs	C
2008	Traded away 1st rd, had Weems for 1 year						D
	1	20	Alexis Ajinca	France	Draft night trade,	D
	2	39	Sonny Weems	Arkansas	Draft night deal, on team 1year	C
	2	50	DeVon Hardin	Cal	Draft trade	n/a
2007	No Picks						D
	1	21	Daequan Cook	Ohio State	Pick traded	D
	2	51	JamesOn Curry	OK State	Pick traded	n/a
2006	No 1st rd pick, drafted & traded Leon Powe						D
	1	20	Renaldo Balkman	South Caroling	Pick traded, ended up on roster	D
	2	49	Leon Powe	California	Draft night trade, good role player	D
2005	Two 1st rd picks, neither picks used for need. Drafted Juius Hodge, traded for Kleiza, the player they drafted & should've kept was Jarrett Jack						C
	1	20	Julius Hodge	North Carolina State	Bad pick,	C
	1	22	Jarrett Jack	Georgia Tech	Traded for Kleiza	C
	2	52	Axel Hervelle	Belgium	Never played for Nuggets	C
2004	Drafted & traded Jameer Nelson, no other picks						D
	1	20	Jameer Nelson	St. Joseph's	Draft night trade.	D
	2	49	Sergei Lishouk	Ukraine	Traded Pick	D
2003	Tough to give too much credit, Kiki would've drafted Darko						A
	1	3	Carmelo Anthony	Syracuse	‘Nuff said	A
	2	46	Sani Becirovic	Virtus Bologna (Italy)	Non-issue	n/a
2002	Drafted Nene & signed Birdman as a free agent. But this was also the year of Skita						C
	1	5	Nikoloz Tskitishvili	Republic of Georgia	Bad pick	D
	1	7	Nene	Brazil	Current player	B
	2	33	Vincent Yarbrough	Tennessee	Functional player for 1 year	C
	FA	FA	Chris Anderson	Tennessee	1st NBDL signing	B
2001	No picks						D
	1	11	Kedrick Brown	Okaloosa-Walton	Traded Pick	D
	2	47	Ousmane Cisse	St. Jude H.S. (AL)	Non-player	n/a
2000	Nobody blocks shots like your Mamadou… actually neither did he come to think of it						D
	1	26	Mamadou N'diaye	Auburn	Never played for the Nuggets	D
	2	53	Dan McClintock*	Northern Arizona	Bench player 1year	C
1999	Drafted Posey, Elson turned into a player						B
	1	18	James Posey	Xavier (OH)	Good player	B
	2	33	Chris Herren	Fresno State	Non-player	n/a
	2	41	Francisco Elson	California	Good player	B
1998	Drafted Raef… enough said						C
	1	3	Raef LaFrentz	Kansas	Bad pick	C
	1	23	Tyronn Lue	Nebraska	Draft night trade.	n/a
	2	54	Tremaine Fowlkes	Fresno State	Non-player	n/a
	2	55	Ryan Bowen	Iowa	Good player	B
1997	Allen Bristow actually selected 3 good players in his 1 year in charge						B
	1	5	Tony Battie	Texas Tech	"El Busto" had an OK career	B
	1	10	Danny Fortson	Cincinnati	Draft night acquisition, only on team 1 year, pretty good career	B
	1	23	Bobby Jackson	Minnesota	Traded after 1year, good pro	B
	2	42	Jason Lawson	Villanova	Used to acquire Eric Washington	B
1996	The only F in all the grades. Trading Jalen Rose & Reggie Williams						D
	1	23	Efthimios Rentzias	PAOK (Greece)	Mid '90s version of a salary dump, trade 2players, use draft pick for someone who will never play in the league	F
	2	37	Jeff McInnis	North Carolina	Good 2nd round pickup, didn’t stay on team long enough	B
1995	The draft they got McDyess						A
	1	2	Antonio McDyess	Alabama	Pick#15 (Br. Berry) part of deal	A
	2	44	Anthony Pelle	Fresno State	Non-player	n/a
1994	Jalen Rose… good player						B
	1	13	Jalen Rose	Michigan	Good player, misused on Nugs	B
1993	Rodney was a very good pick						B
	1	9	Rodney Rogers	Wake Forest	Good player	B
	2	43	Josh Grant	Utah	Draft night trade.	n/a
1992	Fonz was an obvious choice. Stith was pretty good pro. Sad irony was Big Shot Bob Horry was taken #12						B
	1	5	LaPhonso Ellis	Notre Dame	Good player	B
	1	13	Bryant Stith	Virginia	Good player	B
	2	46	Robert Werdann	St. John's	Played a couple years	C
1991	Mutombo was a home run; the other two major whiffs						B-
	1	4	Dikembe Mutumbo	Georgetown	Very good player	A
	1	8	Mark Macon	Temple	High 1st round bust	c
	1	18	Kevin Brooks	SWLouisiana	Shooter that couldn’t shoot	C
1990	Good picks, got rid of Mills too early						B-
	1	3	Chris Jackson	LSU	Pretty good career	B
	1	16	Terry Mills	Michigan	Only kept 1 year	C
	2	42	Marcus Liberty	Illinois	Good career for a 2nd rounder	B
1989	Lichti was a very good pick						B
	1	15	Todd Lichti	Stanford	Pretty good career	B
	2	42	Michael Cutright	McNeese State	Non-player	n/a
	2	47	Reginald Turner	Alabama-Birmingham	Non-player	n/a
1988	Jerome was a good pick, but Nuggets marked down for burning a pick (Maxwell) just so you can trade him to your buddy Larry Brown in San Antonio						C
	1	23	Jerome Lane	Pittsburgh	Good late 1st rd pick	B
	2	43	Todd Mitchell	Purdue	Non-player	n/a
	2	47	Vernon Maxwell	Florida	Draft night trade	C
	3	66	Dwight Boyd	Memphis State	Non-player	n/a
1987	Wasted draft						D
	1	NA	No First Rd Pick	No First Rd Pick	No Pick	D
	2	31	Andre Moore	Loyola (IL)	On the team less than 1 yr	C
	3	54	Tom Schafer	Iowa State	Non-player	n/a
	4	77	David Boone	Marquette	Non-player	n/a
	5	100	Ronnie Grandison	New Orleans	Played 4years, none with Denver	n/a
	6	123	Kelvin Scarborough	New Mexico	Non-player	n/a
	7	156	Curtis Hunter	North Carolina	Non-player	n/a
1986	Two first rounders, all gone quickly. The player they should've kept was Otis Smith (current Magic GM)						C
	1	16	Maurice Martin	St. Joseph's	Bad pick	C
	1	18	Mark Alarie	Duke	Only on Nugs 1year	C
	2	41	Otis Smith	Jacksonville	Only on Nugs 1year	C
	3	64	Don Redden	LSU	Non-player	n/a
	4	87	Anthony Watson	San Diego State	Non-player	n/a
	5	110	Jon Collins	Eastern Illinois	Non-player	n/a
	6	133	Anthony Frederick	Pepperdine	Non-player	n/a
	7	156	Mike Marshall	McNeese State	Non-player	n/a
1985	Blair was a very good pick for mid 1st round. Do you remember the "Get Pete off his seat" campaign?						B
	1	15	Blair Rasmussen	Oregon	Good Pick	B
	2	43	Barry Stevens	Iowa State	Non-player	n/a
	4	89	Pete Williams	Arizona	Nice 4th rd pick, played 1 year	B
	5	112	Kenny Brown	Texas A&M	Non-player	n/a
	6	135	Joe Carrobino	Harvard	Non-player	n/a
	7	158	Eddie Smith	Arizona	Non-player	n/a
1984	One role player for 1 year						D
	1	NA	no pick	no pick	No Pick	D
	2	42	Willie White	Tenn-Chat	Played 1 year	C
	4	79	Karl Tilleman	Calgary	Non-player	n/a
	5	103	Prince Bridges	Missouri	Non-player	n/a
	6	125	Willie Burton	Tennessee	Non-player	n/a
	7	149	Mark Simpson	Catawba College	Non-player	n/a
	8	171	Bill Wendlandt	Texas	Non-player	n/a
	9	194	Cecil Exum	North Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	10	215	Dexter Bailey	Xavier (OH)	Non-player	n/a
1983	Thankfully Fat Little Pig didn't turn into a trilogy						C
	1	15	Howard Carter	LSU	Fat Little Pig Pt 2	C
	2	37	David Russel	St. John's	Non-player	n/a
	3	61	David Little	Oklahoma	Non-player	n/a
	4	83	York Gross	UC-Santa Barbara	Non-player	n/a
	5	107	James Braddock	North Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	6	129	Glen Green	Murray State	Non-player	n/a
	7	153	Maurice McDaniel	Catawba College	Non-player	n/a
	8	175	Cliff Tribus	Davidson	Non-player	n/a
	9	198	Bobby Van Noy	Catawba College	Non-player	n/a
	10	218	Cleveland McCrae	Catawba College	Non-player	n/a
1982	Were the Nuggets even trying in those days?						C
	1	19	Rob Williams	Houston	Fat Little Pig	C
	3	62	Roylin Bond	Pepperdine	Non-player	n/a
	4	84	Alford Turner	SW Louisiana	Non-player	n/a
	5	109	Bill Duffy	Santa Clara	Non-player	n/a
	6	131	Chris Brust	North Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	7	153	Jeb Barlow	North Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	8	178	Donnie Speer	Alabama-Birmingham	Non-player	n/a
	9	200	Dean Sears	UCLA	Non-player	n/a
	10	220	Mike Phillips	Niagara	Non-player	n/a
1981	A draft of no relevance for the Nuggets						D
	1	NA	no pick	no pick	No Pick	D
	2	34	Kenneth Green	Texas-Pan American	Non-player	n/a
	5	101	Willie Sims	LSU	Non-player	n/a
	6	124	Alonzo Weatherly	U. of Denver	Non-player	n/a
	7	147	Greg Manning	Maryland	Non-player	n/a
	8	169	Curtis Redding	St. John's	Non-player	n/a
	9	191	Andrew Burton	Austin Peay	Non-player	n/a
	10	211	Derrick Rowland	Potsdam State	Non-player	n/a
1980	Tough to penalize a player suffering career ending injuries; but you can't reward it either. Irony is Oldham & Nimphius has serviceable careers, but not in Denver of course						D
	1	5	James Ray	Jacksonville	Injury ruined career	C
	1	23	Carl Nicks	Indiana State	Short career	C
	2	41	Jawaan Oldham	Seattle	Good career, not in denver	C
	3	47	Kurt Nimphius	Arizona State	Had a career, not in denver	C
	3	48	Eddie Lee	Cincinnati	Non-player	n/a
	3	51	Ron Valentine	Old Dominion	Non-player	n/a
	4	73	Sammie Ellis	Pittsburgh	Non-player	n/a
	5	97	James Patrick	SW Texas State	Non-player	n/a
	6	119	Ernie Hill	Oklahoma City	Non-player	n/a
	7	143	Tommy Springer	Vanderbilt	Non-player	n/a
	9	184	Jim Graziano	South Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	10	202	Earl Sango	Regis College (Denver)	Non-player	n/a
1979	A draft of no relevance						D
	1	NA	no pick	no pick	No Pick	D
	2	30	Gary Garland	DePaul	Non-player	n/a
	5	102	Larry Williams	Louisville	Non-player	n/a
	6	122	Odell Ball	Marquette	Non-player	n/a
	7	144	John Johnson	Creighton	Non-player	n/a
	8	162	Matt Teahan	U. of Denver	Non-player	n/a
	9	179	Emmet Lewis	Colorado	Non-player	n/a
1978	Scored on Mike Evans, great career Nugget						B
	1	17	Rod Griffin	Wake Forest	Not a very good pick	C
	1	21	Mike Evans	Kansas State	Very Good pick	A
	3	46	Hollis Copeland	Rutgers	Non-player	n/a
	5	106	Mike Edwards	Texas-Pan American	Non-player	n/a
	6	127	Robert Heard	Columbus (GA) Coll	Non-player	n/a
	7	148	Jack Gilloon	South Carolina	Non-player	n/a
	8	166	Larry Vaculik	Colorado	Non-player	n/a
	9	183	Tom Schneeberger	Air Force	Non-player	n/a
	10	198	Phil Taylor	Arizona	Non-player	n/a
1977	Roberts played some, again no real success from this group						C
	1	9	Tom LaGarde	North Carolina	Not a very good pick	C
	1	21	Anthony Roberts	Oral Roberts	Played a few years	B
	3	65	Robert Smith	UNLV	Non-player	n/a
	5	109	John Billups	Ole Miss	Non-player	n/a
	6	130	Jim Town	Massachusetts	Non-player	n/a
	7	148	Willie High	Alabama State	Non-player	n/a
	8	169	Len Saunders	Florida	Non-player	n/a
1976	Leagues merged
	n/a	NA	no picks	no picks

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