Pretty sure the Grizz also gave up the 2nd overall pick in 2003 to the Pistons (who picked Milicic
).
yeah, like 5 years ahead of that draft. In exchange for Grant Long. And that's nothing really against Grant Long who was a fine depth PF. But they gambled big that they wouldn't still suck 5 years down the road when that trade was made and they gambled wrong.
Funny thing is that the pick had protection clauses on it for all the years after the deal was made. The reason it took so long for hte pick to be exchanged was the each year it was protected for high pick #s that the Grizzlies ended up having their selection fall into. Then in 2003 it was protected just for the 1st overall slot and they actually finished with a not-entirely-crappy record (like 7th or 8th worst), so by all rights they should've just given up like a 8th-10th pick. But then they had to go and have the godawful luck to get shifted up the lottery board all the way from their starting point to the highest possible pick they could get without retaining the selection for themselves.
The only saving grace was that Detroit ****ed up and picked Darko over Carmelo, Bosh. Wade, and pretty much every other useful player in that 1st round. It was a fair choice at the time because Darko had lots of hype as a fluid, mobile big-man. But in retrospect it was uber-dumb.
As for the Grizzlies, they basically alternated good picks and awful picks their entire Vancouver tenure.
95: Reeves - Awful. Saved only by the fact that the only significant lottery player they missed on was Stoudamire. But Reeves was awful. He played well enough to cash in on the franchise's first big, fat contract extension. Then he showed up to the next training camp as a fat tub of goo and played his way out of the league and back home to farmboy country where he would collect a few more years of fat Vancouver paycheques while huntin' and fishin'
96: Shareef Abdur-Rahim - Awesome. You could argue that they blew it by not picking Ray Allen, Kobe, or Steve Nash out of the lottery-selected guys, but Allen apparently didn't want to go to Vancouver, Kobe was allegedly angling for a big market team all along down in his spot (rumor has it that he only "OKed" being picked by the Hornets because his camp knew he would be traded to LA) and Nash wasn't projected to be more than a pretty-good starter at the time. Still, Shareef was one of the underrated offensive players of the mid/late 90s. He was sliky smooth and had a good all-around game, and basically could play either forward position. He was also my first favorite player for any long stretch of itme.
97: Antonio Daniels - Awful. This was kind of a crappy draft overall, but they would've been better off with just about anyone else after Daniels. T-Mac, Mercer, and Tim Thomas particularly were good-to-great players for some period of time.
98: Mike Bibby - Awesome. Jamison, Carter, Dirk, Pierce, might've ended up better, but Bibby was a good building block as a PG.
99: Steve Francis -
yep.
00: Stromile Swift - Awful. yep. They chose the last Vancouver draft of franchise history to break the streak by picking the crappy Swift in an overall entirely terrible draft. And then they moved to Memphis.
They were also kind of hamstrung by ridiculous expansion rules that limited them to not picking in the top 4 in their first draft and then not getting to win the 1st pick in the next like 5 years, but still.