WHAT’S IN A NUMBER?

As we all know, the 76ers hold the 17thpick in the 2009 NBA Draft and even though we’re sitting outside the Lottery, history has shown that some very solid to great NBA prospects can be had with the 17th selection in the NBA Draft.

Did you know that since 1996 Draft, only four players chsoen in the 17th spot are no longer in the League? That means 9 out of the 13 picks or 69.2 % of the players drafted with the 17th pick in the NBA Draft since 1996 are still contributing in the NBA today. That’s good news for the Sixers and all of us here in Philadunkia nation.

Now to what extent the players chosen at 17 between 1996 and 2008 are still contributing is up for debate. Two current NBA stars  (Danny Granger and Josh Smith) were chosen with the 17th pick. One former All-Star who is now a role player is also in the 17th pick alumni group (Jermaine O’Neil) as well as three players who have had solid careers as role players (Desmond Mason, Rasho Nesterovic and Juan Dixon).

Finally, two NBA young cats who have shown a lot of promise were previously selected at #17 in recent years (Roy Hibbert and Shawne Williams of Dallas).

Below is a breakdown of what has happened at the 17th pick in the NBA Draft between 1996 and 2008

 

 

 

DRAFT	PLAYER	SCHOOL	DRAFTED BY	CURRENT
1996	Jermaine O’Neal	Eau Claire HS	Portland	Miami
1997	Johnny Taylor	Tenn.-Chattanooga	Orlando	OUT
1998	Radoslav Nesterovic	Kinder Bologna (Italy)	Minnesota	Toronto
1999	Cal Bowdler	Old Dominion	Atlanta (from SAC)	OUT
2000	Desmond Mason	Oklahoma State	Seattle	Oklahoma
2001	Michael Bradley	Villanova	Toronto	OUT
2002	Juan Dixon	Maryland	Washington	Washington
2003	Zarko Cabarkapa,	Serbia	Phoenix	OUT
2004	Josh Smith	Oak Hill Academy	Atlanta	Atlanta
2005	Danny Granger	New Mexico	Indiana	Indiana
2006	Shawne Williams	Memphis	Indiana	Dallas
2007	Sean Williams	Boston College	New Jersey	New Jersey
2008	Roy Hibbert	Georgetown	Indiana (from TOR)	Indiana

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.