Anyone remember who the first pick in the 1995 NBA draft was? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I miss trying to win his money...Well, if you were unaware it was the immaculate, dominant, unstoppable
Joseph Smith (the kid from Maryland not the founder of a religion that went on to form a school that gave us Steve Young).
Remember when KG had decent teammates?At this point in his amazing career (12.6pts/7.2rebounds per game) Joe is probably best known for being the player who along with
Kevin McHale cost the Timberwolves numerous first round draft picks by attempting to circumvent the collective bargaining agreement.
Bill Simmons has to change pants when he looks at this picture.Today, Joe Smith took a 2 year $10 Million contract to come play for the Chicago Bulls who continue to improve as much as they can despite the fact they wont be great until they get a true low post threat (
Eddy "Cheeseburger" Curry wouldn't even count b/c hes slow, cant pass, cant rebound, and could drop dead of heart failure any day now from his medical condition or too much grease).
Skiles told Curry that Dale Davis ate the entire post game spread.I really see no problem with the Bulls strategy right now because there is no cure to what ales them available for a price to them that would not create so many other problems that having the low post threat would even matter. AKA props to
Paxson for picking
Noah.
He really looks like a special ed kid here.But on the Joe Smith front we have to ask, is he the worst #1 overall pick in the last 20 years of the NBA draft? The only other contenders are
Danny Manning (1988),
Pervis Ellison (1989),
Derrick Coleman (1990),
Glenn Robinson (1994),
Michael Olowokandi (1998),
Kwame Brown (2001).
Note that he is not nervous.Clearly, Joe Smith is not a worse player than all of those players above, but what is more startling is how many "busts" there have been in terms of 1st overall players in the last 20 years. 7 of the last 20 could easily be considered disappoints (for various reasons) to the teams that drafted them which is very surprising considering the circumstances they were picked in. Just proves how much of a crap shoot every single pick in the draft is I guess.
