# "What if?" Kings draft history



## Wiggum (Jul 29, 2002)

OK, the Kings board has been a little dry lately and there's an interesting thread similar to this on the Celtics board so I thought I'd bring it here.

Basically, I was looking at some of the Kings draft picks in recent years and I started to wonder how the Kings might be different had they drafted different players. For example...

1985:

6th Pick (SAC) - Joe Kleine
13th Pick (UTA) - Karl Malone

Joe Kleine went on to average 4.8 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 0.6 APG over his career. D'OH!!!

1987:

6th Pick (SAC) - Kenny Smith
11th Pick (IND) - Reggie Miller

Kenny Smith went on to average 12.8 PPG and 5.5 APG over his career. D'OH!!!

1991:

3rd Pick (SAC) - Billy Owens
4th Pick (DEN) - Dikembe Mutombo

Billy Owens went on to average 11.7 PPG and 6.7 RPG over his career. I thought "D'OH!" until I read that SAC used Billy Owens to get Mitch Richmond, and then we used Mitch Richmond to get Chris Webber. So, while at first, you say "D'OH!" picking Billy Owens might have actually been good because it ended up getting us the #1 overall pick in the 1993 draft...

1995:

13th Pick (SAC) - Corliss Williamson
21st Pick (PHO) - Michael Finley

Again, at first, you say "D'OH!" but remember that we used Corliss Williamson to get Doug Christie. Still, most people would say that Christie is worse than Finley but for the Kings I would keep Christie because he is our best defender. But, it would still be interesting to think how much offensive punch we would have if we had Finley.

1996: 

13th Pick (CHA) - Kobe Bryant
14th Pick (SAC) - Peja Stojakovic
15th Pick (PHO) - Steve Nash

It sucks that we got screwed out of Kobe Bryant by one pick, but it would be pretty cool to have Steve Nash, although I don't know if I would give up Peja for him...

1998:

2nd Pick (VAN) - Mike Bibby
7th Pick (SAC) - Jason Williams
9th Pick (MIL) - Dirk Nowitzki
10th Pick (BOS) - Paul Pierce

Jason Williams, although incredibly frustrating, basically was how we got Mike Bibby, who was 5 picks higher than him in the same draft. But, would Mike Bibby be worth more than, say Dirk or Pierce? (which we coulda had) Let's take Dirk out of the picture, because we have Webber for PF and Peja for SF. What if in 1996 we had picked Steve Nash, and then in 1998 we had picked Paul Pierce? But then we wouldn't have our beloved Bibby... Also, had we picked Nash, we wouldn't have had our All-Star SF and therefore Dirk might have been the better pick (you know how well the Dirk/Nash combo works...) But, to even further complicate it, if Nash had gone to SAC, he could have contributed right away and we may have been out of the lottery and not had a shot at either one...

Has anyone else ever taken a look at past drafts and wondered how the Kings might be different now???


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## Louie (Jun 13, 2002)

Ooh.....I had never seen anyone show all the missed oppurtunities at once...ouch. But still, we're one step away from a title as it is, so alls well if it ends well i guess.


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## BizzyRipsta (May 25, 2002)

i say, look at it from an optimistic point of view. the kings are a successful team now. if they had picked players like karl malone, kobe bryant, etc., would they have been guaranteed to be successful? 

and anyway, if you alter one tiny thing of the past, it completely changes the future. therefore, the kings might not have gotten to see the talents of mike bibby or chris webber or anyone else who's currently on the team.

imagine this - switch kobe and webber around. kobe's playing for the kings, coming oh-so-close to the nba finals while webber's winning championships with shaq. in that situation, you might think "the kings had the opportunity to have webber on the team." so, basically, whatever happens, happens for a reason.


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## Wiggum (Jul 29, 2002)

> Originally posted by *BizzyRipsta *
> i say, look at it from an optimistic point of view. the kings are a successful team now. if they had picked players like karl malone, kobe bryant, etc., would they have been guaranteed to be successful?
> 
> and anyway, if you alter one tiny thing of the past, it completely changes the future. therefore, the kings might not have gotten to see the talents of mike bibby or chris webber or anyone else who's currently on the team.
> ...


Yeah I get all that...I was just mainly trying to look at it like "What could our team have been like?" than "Look at our stupid management!" And it's not like I'm saying that we could have had all of these players at once, because if we had taken Karl Malone, we probably would have had no shot at Reggie Miller...etc.. etc.. etc..


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## BizzyRipsta (May 25, 2002)

> Originally posted by *Wiggum *
> 
> 
> Yeah I get all that...I was just mainly trying to look at it like "What could our team have been like?" than "Look at our stupid management!" And it's not like I'm saying that we could have had all of these players at once, because if we had taken Karl Malone, we probably would have had no shot at Reggie Miller...etc.. etc.. etc..




i know what you mean. i was just trying to look at things on the bright side. but seriously, you brought up a lot of interesting points, and it is cool to think about these "what if" situations.


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## cmd34 (Jul 17, 2002)

You have to take into consideration that if the Kings(or any other NBA team) had made better picks then they might have had better records and not been in position the following years to pick up the other players.

For example:

1985:

6th Pick (SAC) - Joe Kleine
13th Pick (UTA) - Karl Malone

1987:

6th Pick (SAC) - Kenny Smith
11th Pick (IND) - Reggie Miller

Had the Kings picked Karl Malone over Joe Kleine then my guess is that 2 years later in 1987 they would have had a much better record and wouldn't have had a shot at Kenny Smith or Reggie Miller. But this stuff is always cool, keep it up.


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