I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.
June 28, 2005 – Madison Square Garden, New York City
Previous season:
The 2004-05 season was the worst of Jerry Sloan’s coaching career (and that includes his unremarkable stint in Chicago). Utah was rebuilding, and pieces were beginning to come into place. The Jazz brought in big men Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur to form the foundation of a decent frontcourt with Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring. But Boozer only played in 51 games and Kirilenko just 41. And as promising as Utah’s frontcourt was, their backcourt was horrendous — especially at point guard. Carlos Arroyo had shown promise in previous years, but by 2005, his relationship with Sloan had deteriorated to the point of being traded away for absolutely nothing. All this led to a 26-56 record for the Jazz, which was unfortunately not quite bad enough to land a coveted spot in the lottery.
The draft:
Owner Larry H. Miller wanted to end the rebuilding process as quickly as possible and ordered General Manager Kevin O’Connor to be as aggressive as possible. The Jazz tried to trade for the No. 1 pick, but Milwaukee wouldn’t budge. However, Portland was surprisingly willing to part with the No. 3 pick, which would guarantee Utah’s ability to grab one of the top two point guards in this draft and solve their roster’s biggest problem. Hours before the draft, the Jazz gave the Blazers their own No. 6 pick, the No. 27 pick (which they acquired from Dallas in 2004 for Pavel Podkolzin) and the 2006 first-round pick they got from Detroit in the Arroyo trade.
With the third pick, the Jazz selected Deron Williams from Illinois. Portland used Utah’s picks on Martell Webster (No. 6), Linas Kleiza (No. 27) and Joel Freeland (No. 30 in 2006).
Utah used their No. 34 on high school swing man C.J. Miles.
Thanks to a 2003 trade involving John Amaechi, the Jazz also owned the 51st pick, which they used on Walsh big man Robert Whaley.
Analysis:
Do I even need to say it? The Jazz should have drafted Chris Paul. Yes, I defended the Williams pick, and for the first few years, there was a legitimate argument to be had. But Paul quickly outpaced Williams in every way and is still playing at a high level today, while Williams is long since retired. I’m beginning to wonder if the Jazz never really considered taking Paul because they assumed (like everyone else) that Atlanta would draft him. But the Hawks shocked the world by picking Marvin Williams instead.
But even though the Jazz chose the wrong point guard, they still got the better end of that trade with Portland. None of those three players developed into half the player Deron Williams was. So I wouldn’t recommend canceling that trade, even if I could. I’ll just point out which point guard will have a far superior career. I can pretend that Paul would have gotten along better with Sloan and that his time in Utah wouldn’t have ended as abruptly as Williams’ did. But I don’t honestly know how that would have played out. I just know Paul is a better player, and I want the Jazz to draft him.
C.J. Miles was a rather frustrating player for me. The Jazz committed wholeheartedly to him right from the beginning by giving him a guaranteed contract that’s normally only for first-round picks. And a few years later, they matched a rather exorbitant deal offered by Oklahoma City. I just felt like the first four or five years of his seven-year Utah stint were filled with a lot of talk about how young he was and how everyone needed to be patient with him. Look, he wasn’t a bad player by any means (he lasted 15 years in the league), but he wasn’t particularly dynamic. So I’m going to save Jazz fans from seven years of meandering mediocrity and roll the dice on Monta Ellis. This undersized shooting straight out of high school eventually developed into one of the top scorers in the league. Yeah, personality issues might have hampered his time playing under Sloan, but I’m willing to risk a second-round pick on the slim chance of adding a dynamic player to Utah’s roster.
Robert Whaley only played 23 games his rookie season, earning more attention for what he did off the court. He and Deron Williams were involved in an altercation in Park City, where Whaley sustained a six-inch cut on his hand and he lied to the team about how he got the injury. Utah traded him to Toronto in the offseason, and the Raptors immediately waived him, ending his NBA career. But a few years later, Whaley chose to return to Utah, where he was arrested a few more times on various marijuana and burglary charges. Needless to say, the Jazz could have made a better pick here. Luckily, we have a half-decent center available: Marcin Gortat. This Polish big man enjoyed a 13-year NBA career, twice averaging a double-double during the season. And, as far as I know, he does not have an arrest record.
My advice:
1. Use the 3rd pick on Chris Paul.
2. Use the 34th pick on Monta Ellis.
3. Use the 51st pick on Marcin Gortat.
It’s kind of interesting how Deron Williams is still regarded as one of the best Jazz players in franchise history (his jersey was the only one I’ve ever owned), and yet he will go down as one of the biggest draft mistakes the Jazz ever made. Chris Paul was just that good. And plenty of people were saying it at the time, but the Jazz didn’t listen. Luckily, my witch’s curse compels Kevin O’Connor to heed my warnings. Unluckily, I never got to see that a Paul-Boozer duo in action.
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