We now come to the notoriously bad 2000 Draft. On closer inspection it does not look much better.
There were three All-Stars from this draft: Kenyon Martin (picked #1), Jamaal Magloire (#19) and Michael Redd (#43.) One reason this draft appears so weak is the complete absence of real stars - the three aforementioned players only played in one All-Star game each.
Martin was somewhat of a disappointment, even though we can't fault the Nets for picking him first. Stromile Swift, Darius Miles, Marcus Fizer and Mike Miller were the other top 5 picks - only Miller has even mildly lived up to expectations.
As opposed to 1999, when so many first rounders became truly excellent pros, almost nothing phenomenal came out of the 2000 first round. There were, however, some players we have not yet mentioned who were good picks: Jamal Crawford (#8), Hedo Turkoglu (#16), Quentin Richardson (#18) and Morris Peterson (#21) are all worth pointing out.
Redd was obviously a steal in round two. Again it is telling that the best player in the draft dropped down this far, further proving that excellent players are almost always available late in round one or in round two.
But in general, besides Redd, the second round of 2000 was not that fruitful. Marco Jaric, Eddie House, Eduardo Najera and Brian Cardinal all had decent careers, but not much more than that. Likewise I can mention Malik Allen and Ime Udoka as undrafted players from this class, but their pro careers are nothing compared to the undrafted free agents from the few previous few years.
We can take away a lot from 2000. We see that as "bad" a draft as it was, there still were many players picked in it that made lasting and sustainable impressions in the NBA. When doing these reviews I usually try to only mention first rounders who became very good pros, but if I am more lenient I can mention plenty of other first rounders in this draft that were at least decent: Joel Przybilla, Keyon Dooling, Etan Thomas, Desmond Mason, Speedy Claxon and DeShawn Stevenson were all taken in the first round. So I think it is foolish to say this draft was bereft of any value, because there definitely were some worthwhile players picked.
Overall 2000 teaches us the lesson that even in the worst of drafts we can find players who can strongly fill voids in a roster effectively. And at this point it should be clear that stopgap solutions are readily available in every part of the draft. You are not always guaranteed to find superstars in a draft, but in the very least you can always find good players that can help your team. The 200o draft, one of the weakest in history, should make that clear.
Here is the approximate order of the top ten players from the 2000 draft, with their actual selection number in parenthesis:
1. Michael Redd (43)
2. Hedo Turkoglu (16)
3. Kenyon Martin (1)
4. Mike Miller (5)
5. Jamal Crawford (8)
6. Morris Peterson (21)
7. Quentin Richardson (18)
8. Jamaal Magloire (19)
9. Joel Przybilla (9)
10. Eduardo Najera (38)
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