Guys, I don't know if many of you realize how close we were to getting both Yao Ming AND Amare Stoudamire this draft. I think the only thing that prevented it was the complete moron-ness of the Cavs and the Clips front offices. I was following all the rumors and developments around the draft and here's what happened. Amare worked out for the Rocks on the same day as Drew Gooden. They went against each other, (which is rare for a higher projected pick to agree on) and Amare totally destroyed him. The Rockets were sold. In the workout, Amare hurt his back and didn't work out for any other teams afterwards, which hurt his stock a lot. The Suns, meanwhile, may be saying now that were high on Amare, but the reality was that their first choice was Chris Wilcox. The other nugget of importance is that Pat Riley was looking to trade his pick (#10), because he is not good with projects and didn't think a player ready to contribute could fall to #10. Now, go to draft day, pick number 8, Clippers on the clock. They are on the phone with the Cavs talking the Andre Miller trade. The Cavs see Caron Butler available and decide to jump on the trade if Clips take him and send him with another payer (Odom or Maggete, it's still not clear) for A. Miller. What exactly happened is not clear, but somehow they were able to FUMBLE it, so the Clips, the morons they are, decide to take Wilcox, which led to Suns picking Amare and Riley unexpectedly finding a "ready to contribute" Caron Butler at 10 and jumping all over him. If Cavs and Clips were not such idiots (the front offices), and were able to pull this thing off on draft night, Phoenix would have taken Wilcox, and Riley would NEVER have taken a high-schooler. At this point, the Rox may have been able to pull out a trade (say, future #1, #15, + Jason Collier for #10), or alternatively, Amare could have fallen straight to #15, since the teams before that (Washington, Clippers, Milwakee, Indiana) had not worked him out and were not rumored to be high on him.
Hmm...that would be nice if we had Amare and Yao. So Amare assaulted Gooden, but Gooden was the #4 pick? The Suns are so lucky. Look at Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy. How did the Cavs get Dajuan Wagner?
You want to talk ifs. The year we picked Ralph Sampson, we also had the #3 pick - Rodney McCray. If we had the #3 pick a year later instead, Michael Jordan wouldve been ours. That's the ultimate If.
1983 1. Ralph Sampson 2. Steve Stipanovich 3. Rodney McCray 1984 1. Hakeem Houston 2. Sam Bowie 3. Michael Jordan
SLA...Hakeem was #1, Bowie #2, MJ #3. And REIT, that's a "if the moons had aligned" IF How about this one: in the same draft, Clyde Drexler was chosen #14!! If we had traded down...
Though Eddy Griffin is struggling (and still growing) I haven't given up hope in him. He is a better shot blocker than Amare, long range shooter and longer. Only time will tell. A year from now we might be sing a different tune about Nene or Boki or even Haslip. You just never know. Just like Chance stated earlier "IFs" suck. What if we never landed the #1 pick? No matter how impressive Amare was in the workouts Rudy would not have drafted a PF high schooler (Remember Rasheed Lewis a few years ago) with a top 5 pick because of the pressure and our need at the 3. He would have drafted Caron (not bad) or Dunleavy (hmmmmm). Just count your blessings people; that is the only way to get more.
So Hakeem was the #1 pick overall!! We had two #1 picks in three years?!?!? Michael was only #3? Hmm...I would have gotten both instead of that no-namer the year before.
Well, here's an even better IF, described in Hakeem's book. In 1984, the Blazers were in a dire need of a Center, so they offered the Rockets Clyde Drexler AND their #2 pick for either Ralph or their #1 pick (Hakeem). Imagine if the Rockets dealt Ralph and used the #2 pick to draft Micheal... Dream, Clyde, Micheal on the Rockets... that would've been something
