Who the New Orleans Pelicans Should Have Drafted Every Year Since 2003
2006-2008: A Whole Lot of Misses
After starting with three strong drafts, the New Orleans Pelicans came back to Earth and missed on all of their picks in this era.
This was a tough three years, as many of the best players were international and the bulk of the talent went late in the draft.
2006
Who they drafted: Hilton Armstrong (12), Cedric Simmons (15), Marcus Vinicius (43)
Who they should have drafted: Kyle Lowry, Rajon Rondo, Paul Millsap
Notable Misses: Thabo Sefolosha
The gift of hindsight is powerful and this is one the New Orleans Pelicans would like to have back.
Not only did they take three guys who had very limited careers in the NBA, but they passed on three that could have made them a contender with Paul.
Lowry could have been great off-the-ball with Paul and Rondo could have run the second unit, giving them three solid playmakers and defenders at guard.
Millsap has rounded into one of the best role players in the NBA and is the exact type of “glue guy” that every successful team needs.
As good as the Pelicans were in the first three drafts, they blew this one big time.
2007
Who they drafted: Julian Wright (13), Adam Haluska (43)
Who they should have drafted: Marc Gasol, Anthony Tolliver
Notable Misses: Marco Belinelli, Jared Dudley, Arron Afflalo, Tiago Splitter
This is one of those drafts that seems painfully obvious in hindsight. How did so many teams miss on Gasol?
He went 48th in what was a weak draft overall, which makes no sense now that we know his combination of passing, shooting and defense is the model for the modern center.
Teams were still leery of international players back then, which is why you saw guys like Gasol, Belinelli and Splitter dropping further than they should have.
Tolliver is not spectacular, but is a solid stretch-four and defender off the bench who is still in the league. This is another one the New Orleans Pelicans would like to do again.
2008
Who they drafted: Darrell Arthur (27)
Who they should have drafted: DeAndre Jordan
Notable misses: Goran Dragic, Omer Asik, Luc Mbah a Moute, Timofey Mozgov
A lot of teams, including the New Orleans Pelicans, have to wonder what might have been had they chosen Gasol and Jordan in back-to-back drafts.
With Gasol’s ability to step away from the hoop, and Jordan’s ability to defend it, they would have been an ideal big-man pairing for the modern league.
There were a lot of late misses in this draft, as almost every team missed out on Jordan and Dragic, as well as a couple of very serviceable big men in Asik and Mozgov.
Any of them would have been better than Arthur, whose career never justified him as a first-round pick.