From: terry@leland.Stanford.EDU (Terry Wong)
Subject: Warriors drafting
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 07:44:34 GMT

In article <BxzC51.n1z@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, jdt29225@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jazzy J ) writes:
|> bonvicin@vxcrna.cern.ch writes:
|> 
|> >Why, if GS had Mutombo and Kemp instead of Owens and Lister, GS would
|> >win 5 years running. A team with these people, plus Elie, minus one of
|> >the three big people, would have the best starting five and the best
|> >bench.
|> 	
|> 	Well, I could see where GS could have had Mutombo instead of
|> 	Owens (drafting him over Billy), but how do U figure Kemp instead
|> 	of Lister?  Kemp was a BIG gamble in the draft, and obviously, it
|> 	has payed off for Seattle.  But it wasn't all that clear cut at
|> 	the time.  
|> 	
|> 	Jazzy J

That's right.  Hindsight is 20-20 (or as Bush said in the 2nd debate, 90-90).

According to Nelson, the Warriors never had a chance to get Mutombo.
They were considering trading Richmond and either two draft picks (according
to Nelson) or one draft pick (according to the Kings) to Sacramento for
their No. 3 pick. (These picks became Chris Gatling and Victor Alexander).
New Jersey had the No. 2 pick and Denver the No. 4 pick.
New Jersey ended up picking Kenny Anderson and Denver picked Mutombo.
However, if the Warriors had made the trade, New Jersey and Denver had an
agreement that New Jersey would then pick Mutombo and Denver would pick
Anderson.  Later, Denver would swap picks and throw in something extra
for New Jersey's trouble.  Because the fix was in the works, Nelson 
decided against the trade at the time.  

As for Kemp, in 1989, the Warriors had two No. 1's -- No. 14 and No. 17.
With the No. 14, they selected Hardaway.  They also signed Marciulionis
just before the draft.  At the time, they had a very young team with Ralph
Sampson at center.  Manute Bol was also on the team.
Nelson was convinced that Sampson did not have anything
left in his knees and was looking to move him.   (Sampson was traded for
Jim Petersen of the Kings a couple of months later.)  Thus, Nelson
desperately wanted to acquire a center.  The best prospects in the draft
were Pervis Ellison, J. R. Reid, and Stacy King.  Of course, these guys
were out of reach.  Nelson seriously considered using the No. 17 pick
on Vlade Divac.  Eventually, he decided against this for two major reasons.
One, Divac was under a 4 year military commitment at the time, and the
Warriors were uncertain Divac could escape this commitment.  Two, they
had just acquired Marciulionis and Nelson was already concerned about the
language problems this would create.  He didn't want to acquire two
non-English speakers at the same time.  So, Nelson decided to trade away
his pick to Seattle for the veteran Alton Lister.  

At the time, Lister was an 8 year veteran.  He had played for Nelson in
Milwaukee the first 5 years of his career. In his 8 years, he had missed
a total of about 10 games with injury.  He was averaging about 8 points
and 8 boards a game for his career.  He had also blocked more than 100 shots
every year of his career.  In 89, he blocked 180 shots.  Given those
factors, Lister seemed like a safe move.  Unfortunately, at the start
of the season, he tore an achilles tendon that put him out for the year.
He has never been the same player since.  

On the other hand, nobody knew how good Kemp was going to be.  He never played
a minute of college ball.   Almost all the experts said Seattle wasted
their pick.  Again, hindsight is 20-20.

				terry@garfield.Stanford.EDU 
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro