A Breakdown of the 29th Pick in the NBA Draft
I don’t think anyone is expecting the Bulls to make a splash in the draft this year (although rumors of trading Deng for the No. 7 pick are ratcheting up as evidenced by the team’s denials). Logically you would think that the 29th pick has not been a bastion of superstar NBA players, although it may be even worse than you think. Over at Hardwood Paroxysm (an unbelievable read by the way, any true NBA fan has it in the regular rotation), they did a study of all draft picks in the last 20 years. Here is their roundup of the 29th pick:
Superstar: None
All-Star: None
Solid Starter: Josh Howard (2003)
Role Player: P.J. Brown (1992), Cory Alexander (1995), Nazr Mohammed (1998), Leon Smith (1999), Alando Tucker (2007), D.J. White (2008), Toney Douglas (2009), Daniel Orton (2010)
Bench: Travis Knight (1996), David Harrison (2004), Wayne Simien (2005)
Bust: Antonio Lang (1994), Mark Madsen (2000), Trenton Hassell (2001), Mardy Collins (2006), Cory Joseph (2011)
DNP: Sherron Mills (1993), Serge Zwikker (1997), Steve Logan (2002)If a team is looking for flashy players that are going to put points on the board and dish out assists, the 29th spot is not the place to be. Ranking 30th in points per 36 minutes, 28th in assists and AST%, and 27th in TS%, offense is not the strong suit of 29th overall picks. However, a number of defensive contributors have been found here with the 29th pick producing top 10 averages in both STL% and BLK%. If the Bulls could get a P.J. Brown type player to come off the bench in spot roles, they should consider this draft a win.
Sweet. PJ Brown. I guess this makes sense and could be valuable if we end up missing out on Asik though.
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