Ground Zero For The Los Angeles Clippers' Failure: Awful Drafting

Among the many reasons why the Clippers have largely failed as a competitive basketball organization over their existence in LA is poor drafting. Looking back over the past 10 years, the Clippers have drafted the following players in the first round (overall pick in parentheses):

2000 – Darius Miles (3)

2001 – Tyson Chandler (2)

2002 – Chris Wilcox (8), Melvin Ely (12)

2003 – Chris Kaman (6)

2004 – Shaun Livingston (4)

2005 – Yaroslav Korolev (12)

2006 – 1st Round Pick traded 2007 – Al Thornton (14)

2008 – Eric Gordon (7; probably their best pick of the decade)

2009 – Blake Griffin (1)

For those of you playing at home, this means the Clippers' average position in the first round over the last decade has been about sixth.

SIXTH!

They have had, on average, a chance at one of the six best players coming out of the draft—every year. That should amount, assuming a competently run basketball franchise, to a team made of no less than 10 players with top-six talent.

Even assuming a team does nothing to improve itself via trades or free agency, one could easily imagine a perennial powerhouse being built with this kind of annual draft position, or at least a perennial contender.

So how do the Clippers perform against those expectations?

Since 2000 when they drafted Darius Miles as the third overall pick, the Clippers made the playoffs only once, in 2006 (sixth in the Western Conference), which was also the first time since 1992 (!) that the Clippers finished the season with a winning record. Call me crazy, but that's just not the type of results I'd expect from a team loaded with lottery talent.

To help put things in perspective, and just because I think it's fun, here is a list of players the Clippers could have drafted since 2000, but passed on: Mike Miller, Jamal Crawford, Hedo Turkoglu, Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace, Troy Murphy, Amare Stoudemire, Caron Butler, Carlos Boozer, Kirk Hinrich, David West, Mo Williams, Devin Harris, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala, Al Jefferson, Jameer Nelson, Danny Granger, David Lee, Jarret Jack, Rudy Fernandez, Wilson Chandler, and Marc Gasol.

Now, to really drive home the point, here is what the Clippers starting five could look like, with nothing but competent drafting over the last 10 seasons: PG—Mo Williams; SG—Joe Johnson; SF—Danny Granger; PF—Amare Stoudemire; C—Al Jefferson.

Or, how about: PG—Kirk Hinrich; SG—Andre Iguodala; SF—Caron Butler; PF—Pau Gasol; C—Marc Gasol.

Or maybe you'd prefer: PG—Devin Harris; SG—Jason Richardson; SF—Hedo Turkoglu; PF—Carlos Boozer; C—David Lee.

Where would any of these three rosters finish in the Western Conference this season?

Second place in the West?

Maybe challenge the Lakers for best record in the West, or for best overall record?

Those first two lineups are particularly frightening.

But, instead, this is the current starting five: PG—Baron Davis; SG—Eric Gordon; SF—Rasul Butler; PF—Drew Gooden; C—Chris Kaman.

Nothing to write home about. In fact, their current record stands at 25-40, or fourth from the bottom in the Western Conference. Ouch!

What's worse, of the 10 players the Clippers drafted in that 10-year span, four of them aren't even in the league anymore! I challenge anyone to point to a worse 10-year drafting record in any franchise, ever!

Now, obviously, I'm aware that Blake Griffin, the stud power forward and first overall draft pick from last year's draft, has been hurt the entire season. But let's be honest here. As good as Blake is and will eventually be, how many wins can a rookie really account for on a team such as this?

Three? Five?

Call me a pessimist, but I don't see Griffin single-handedly swinging five games in LA's favor this season, not when their current average margin of losing is third worse in the entire NBA.

For a historical reference to help gage what Blake's impact might have been, take a look at the Chicago Bulls, pre and post Elton Brand as a rookie:

1998-99 (pre-Brand): 13-37 (strike shortened season), for a winning percentage of .260.

1999-2000 (with rookie Brand): 17-65, for a winning percentage of .207. Yes, you read that correctly, the Bulls did even worse with Brand, their new stud rookie, than without him.

And by the way, the team did even worse the next year (15-67) with a more mature Elton Brand. So no, I don't think Blake Griffin would have had the type of impact this season that would have transformed the Clippers into a playoff team.

I'll be spending a lot of time over the next few months analyzing and diagnosing exactly what ailes the Clippers. This organization has many problems as we, its fans, are painfully aware. But it's been the positively horrific drafting that screams the critical need for a change in management.

For more, go to www.buytheclippers.com.