Continuing our draft reviews, we come to the 1999 Draft. There were nine All-Stars from this draft: Elton Brand (pick #1), Steve Francis (#2), Baron Davis (#3), Wally Szczerbiak (#6), Richard Hamilton (#7), Shawn Marion (#9), Ron Artest (#16), Andrei Kirilenko (#24), and Manu Ginobili (#57.)
What strikes me with the 1999 draft is the plethora of excellent players selected, and yet the absence of any certain Hall of Famers. There are, in short, a ton of stars in this draft, but no iconic superstars. On top of the players already mentioned we also have Lamar Odom (picked #4), Andre Miller (#8), Jason Terry (#10) and Corey Maggette (#13.) So this first round was loaded with very productive NBA talent. Jonathan Bender was the only top ten pick not to have an excellent career.
Other first rounders worth mentioning are James Posey (#18), Jeff Foster (#21) and Kenny Thomas (#22.) Basically half the players selected in the first round of 1999 turned into very good NBA players, which is impressive.
As strong as the first round of 1999 was, the second round was equally as weak. This is one of the few years where the consensus best players really all did get taken in the first round. The one glaring exception obviously is Ginobili, probably the best player in this entire draft. It's safe to say that Ginobili being selected so late is a completely freak thing - if pro scouts took international guards half as seriously as they do now there is no way Ginobili would have fallen out of the lottery. It is also worth mentioning that Ginobili did not play his first NBA game until 2002, and there was no guarantee when he was drafted that he would ever even make it over here.
There are two undrafted players from 1999 who stand out: Raja Bell and Chris Anderson. Both have carved out long and useful careers in the NBA.
Here is the approximate order of the top ten players from the 1999 draft, with their actual selection number in parenthesis:
1. Manu Ginobili (57)
2. Elton Brand (1)
3. Shawn Marion (9)
4. Andre Miller (8)
5. Jason Terry (10)
6. Richard Hamilton (7)
7. Baron Davis (3)
8. Andrei Kirilenko (24)
9. Lamar Odom (4)
10. Steve Francis (2)
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