Redrafting the Jazz: 2000

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, 2000 – Target Center, Minneapolis

Previous season:

The 1999-2000 season was Jeff Hornacek's last year. It was also the last year in Utah for Howard Eisley and Adam Keefe — two key role players during the Finals run years. John Stockton and Karl Malone were both on the All-Star team for the last time (Malone was named an All-Star two more times after this). And it was the last time they reached the second round of the playoffs, falling to Portland in five games. The Jazz had a rapidly aging roster, and a brand new general manager, Kevin O'Connor, who would primarily seek to bolster the team through complex trades involving three, four and even five teams.

The draft:

The 2000 NBA Draft is notoriously one of the weakest drafts in the modern day, mostly due to the lockout of 1999, which prompted many top recruits to either enter early or wait an extra year. Thanks to a 1996 trade sending Martin Muursepp to Miami, the Jazz controlled the 23rd pick. Not really liking anybody amongst the slim pickings, O'Connor decided to gamble on high schooler DeShawn Stevenson, one of many shooting guards at the time who was unfortunately dubbed as "the next Michael Jordan."

Utah's own first-round pick wound up being No. 26, but O'Connor saw no need in keeping two first-rounders in a historically bad draft. So five days before draft night, he sent this pick to Denver for a 2001 first-round pick. Two months later, O'Connor packaged that pick in the four-team trade that sent away Eisley and Keefe for Donyell Marshall. Anyway, the Nuggets used the 26th pick on Mamadou N'Diaye, but since this trade happened before draft night, I'm unable to warn against it or bless it.

The Jazz didn't have their own second-round pick, either, having sent it to Golden State in 1999 for Todd Fuller. The Warriors used the 55th pick on Chris Porter. But before they made that selection, the Jazz drafted Kaniel Dickens with the 50th pick. This pick originally belonged to New York, and I almost went mad trying to discover how and why Utah came in possession of it. The truth seems to be lost in the fuzzy waters of the early internet. I do have an educated guess, though. In 1999, Utah's general manager, Scott Layden, abruptly left the Jazz to work for the Knicks. Perhaps the NBA required New York surrender a second-round pick to Utah as compensation — there is precedence for this. But I have been unable to find any confirmation of my theory.

Analysis:

The Jazz readily admitted that Stevenson was a huge gamble. True, he was athletic enough to participate in the dunk contest, but he never was particularly productive in Utah. Oh, and in 2001 he gave alcohol to a 14-year-old girl and had sex with her. But ... no one cared. The NBA suspended him three games and no one ever talked about it ever again. He ended up playing three more years in Utah after that heinous act. He was traded for Gordan Giricek in 2004 and eventually transformed his game, becoming a lockdown defender that started on the 2011 Dallas championship team.

Anyway, Utah deserves a better draft pick here. And there's only one choice: Michael Redd. To show you just how weak this draft was, Redd was the only player taken in 2000 to earn All-NBA honors. His career was cut short by knee injuries, but at his prime, he was a great shooter that would have been a wonderful replacement for Hornacek.

Kaniel Dickens, a forward from Idaho, never played a game for the Jazz. He bounced around endlessly between minor leagues and overseas, ultimately appearing in 19 games for three different teams. A better pick would be Villanova forward Malik Allen, who spent a solid decade in the league. A quiet, but productive decade.

My advice:

1. Use the 23rd pick on Michael Redd.

2. Use the 50th pick on Malik Allen.

Well, I just spared the Jazz from all the drama and headache of Stevenson, replacing him with a very solid, high-scoring shooting guard. Oh, and did I mention that Redd was a devout Christian, who used his first big contract extension to build a church? That's the type of player Utah needed.