Philadelphia 76ers passed on Paul Pierce for Larry Hughes in the 1998 draft

I remember begging for him to drop to our 14 pick or trading up to get him. We had three mid first-rounders that year.

EDIT:
Man, we got Dickerson, Bryce Drew and Mirsad Turkcan with 14, 16, and 18. Terrible.

Remember this when you think about what you hate about "Morey Ball."

 

Bryce Drew tho...

 

To be fair, Morey did something pretty similar in picking Marcus Morris over Kawhi.

 

Though he did only pass on him once

 

Larry Brown probably would get bored of Paul Pierce anyway and trade him in a couple years, like he got bored of almost everyone. I don't know if he would even give young Paul Pierce minutes, I suspect he'd be a bench player for Brown. Too finesse, not good enough defense at that point.

He'd be a great fit next to AI though, under the right coach.

 

Lol that's hilarious if true. But the thing about Rockets/any team drafting, scouting is important but also luck. I really hate the phrase "picked x player over superstar/above average player" when I highly doubt that they would have picked that player again if the draft was done over. No one in their right mind would have picked Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan if they knew then what they know now or Amobi Okoye over Patrick Willis.

 

Passed on Dirk, too

 

Hughes was extremely talented though, it's hard to predict how a player will adjust to the NBA and if he has the right mentality long-term.

 

Yep, Hughes was more of a Larry Brown type player. He probably had a better chance to succeed under Brown than Paul Pierce did.

 

This is random. They also passed on Nowitzki.

The Clippers passed on Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki for Olowokandi.

There were 9 teams that passed on Pierce, and 8 teams that passed on Nowitzki (altough Dallas traded for him).

 

I thought PP was supposed to a high draft pick and he just started slipping. I guess all those GMs screwed up.

 

Even Dallas passed on Dirk.

 

I don't know if yall know this or not, but Tom Brady was a 6th round draft pick.

 

The one and only Larry Hughes

 

Actually, Dirk was Dallas' focus. I can't remember the details but the Tractor Traylor/Dirk trade was prearranged.

 

I never understood why teams make promises to draft picks. Sometimes guys will agree not to work out with other teams, but I don't judge that to be much of a benefit since those other teams already have tons of tape on everyone anyway. I also don't get why players would agree not to work out for other teams. If a team wants to make you a promise, they probably like you enough to pick you anyway even if you work out for other teams.

That was a top-heavy draft. In the top 10, they had Bibby, Jamison, Carter, Nowitzki, and Pierce (along with busts Kandi-Man and Tractor Trayler).

 

To be fair Larry Hughes ended up leading the league in steals and NBA All Defense 1st Team averaging 23ppg in 2000 so he wasn't some scrubs either.

 

Noteable players we missed on the 98 draft, Rashard Lewis (COME ON MAN!), Brad Miller, Ricky Davis, Al Harrington, Kobe stopper, and Skip 2 my Lou

 

I don't even know who Tom Brady is. Neither did I know there were 6 rounds in the NBA back then.