Luther Head was actually a decent player in the regular season. It's the disappearing act in the playoffs that left a sour image in our minds. Allen Leavell and Robert Reid were my favorites and I am not at all surprised that they would be near the top of the WS list. Back to the OP's question. I think Calvin and Mobley should be among the best picks considering draft positions.
fwiw: Calvin was an 18th pick in the draft. I like to keep repeating that, because "2nd Rounder" makes people think he was like a 35th pick or something.
Give me one of your crayons and I'll help you. Together, I'm sure we can draw a bold, solid line from our brightest '99 rookie to Francis. I mean, after all, that is what happened, so we only need tracing paper to help you stay within the line of history, which you like to steer off of. You can't have Francis and Lewis on the same team. Sorry to break it to you like that. next
I think relatively speaking, an 18th pick is close to a late first rounder to early second rounder in the "modern" era where there are more sources of talent than back in Calvin's days. He was the first player selected in the second round. IMO, as a player Calvin accomplished more than Rudy T who was picked #2 in the same draft.
Injuries suck... Ralph Sampson is the only guy on that list that could compete with Dream on a talent level IMO. then there is Yao... oh what could have been.
1) Cassell 2) Horry For overachievement, nothing on the list tops picking two guys at #11 and #24 without whom we would not have won either of our championships the next two years. That's outstanding (and extremely unusual, given how quickly they delivered) use of the draft. For long-shot dice rolling, I'll take Mobley.
You can have purple. I don't think it's a clear slam dunk that Lewis would have been snatched instead of Dickerson. You're saying Vancouver would have passed on the 14th pick guy, "our brightest '99 rookie" as you put it, and taken the unproven 18th pick guy (assuming we picked up Rashard at 18 instead of whoever that other slapdick was). We also could have traded down or made other trades to get the hometown kid. Look I'm not going to lie, I steer off all over the place because I am indeed bias coming from Alief & Elsik...so.