New Orleans Pelicans: Ranking the Last Ten 1st Round Draft Picks

The New Orleans Pelicans’ recent draft history has had some high profile picks, but plenty of duds. We ranked the last ten first-round choices to see who comes out on top.

Most teams get it wrong in the draft and the New Orleans Pelicans are no exception. A quick look back at the last ten years reveals some head-scratching picks, especially with the benefit of hindsight.

The Pelicans have obviously hit home runs with some high-profile picks, like when they took future Hall of Famer Chris Paul at number four. Considering Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams went one and two, the New Orleans Pelicans look like geniuses by comparison.

Paul was the best player in the draft by far, which shows that you never know how things are going to turn out.

The Pelicans/Hornets early draft history was mostly good. They grabbed Paul in 2005 after picking J.R. Smith the year before and franchise leader David West the year before that.

Getting a Hall of Famer and two very good role players with your first three picks is not a bad start, but it went way downhill from there.

The New Orleans Pelicans had a very long stretch of getting it wrong, something a lot of people have forgotten, given their recent run of good luck with the Lottery Gods.

The last decade has been all over the place, with the New Orleans Pelicans choosing a couple of franchise greats, but also a string of players that barely cracked the rotation.

All NBA teams strike out in the draft, it’s just the nature of giving high-profile jobs to teenagers, but few teams have run the extremes as much as the New Orleans Pelicans.

We took a look at the last ten years of Pelicans’ first-round draft picks and ranked their careers.

Who was the best guy the New Orleans Pelicans picked this decade? Who was the worst? Let’s take a look.