Greatest "What if..." Line-ups

[venom_7]

I think this could be fun. If you look at teams draft picks over the last 15 years, it is fun to see where there roster would've ended up had they made no trades and their picks remained the same regardless of record. Like I said, "What If..."

One of my favorites is the Celtics, and what they could have been if Chris Wallace never touched them.

Key names:
Chauncey Billups
Joe Johnson
Paul Pierce
Ryan Gomes
Al Jefferson

Delonte West
Tony Allen
Jeff Green
Antoine Walker
Darius Songaila
Gerald Green
Ryan Gomes


wow.

 

[Jespher]

Ladies and gentelman, you're LA Clippers!

Shawn Livingston
Eric Gordon
Al Thornton
Antonio McDyess
Tyson Chandler

Keyon Dooling
Quentin Richardson
Darius Miles
Lamar Odom
Chris Kaman

Marco Jaric
Chris Wilcox

 

[Jespher]

Now presenting your Memphis Grizzlies!

Mike Bibby
Shane Battier
Hakim Warrick
Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Kendrick Perkins

Mike Conley
Antonio Daniels
Matt Barnes
Kevin Love
Drew Gooden

Kyle Lowry
Dante Greene
Jamal Tinsley

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

No trades? Well, hell...


Presenting the "What If?" edition of the New Orleans Hornets, starring:

PG - Chris Paul
SG - Kobe Bryant
SF - Lee Nailon
PF - David West
C - Jamaal Magliore

With a supporting cast of:

Baron Davis
J.R. Smith
Tony F. Delk
Ricky Davis
Brandon Bass
Hilton Armstrong
Brad Miller*




What do I win?





* - I know, he was undrafted. But, the Hornets were his first team, so it should count.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

One of my favorites is the Celtics, and what they could have been if Chris Wallace never touched them.

Chauncey was all Pitino. I remember when he was drafted he immediately got a Celtics tattoo, it may have even been his first or second tat, and the first thing I thought when he got traded was that tat didn't work out too well

One player you left off that actually was a rare gem for CW was Bruce Bowen. Pitino brought him in at CW's insistence as he had initially discovered him in Miami before joining the Celts. I know, not popular, dirty player, but he's better than quite a few on your list.

While the roster is impressive, some of those players never had the same prime, some are still projects and the only real mistakes they made were Billups and Joe Johnson.

 

[venom_7]

Presenting Your CHICAGO BULLS!

Derrick Rose
Jamaal Crawford
Ron Artest
Elton Brand
Joakim Noah

LaMarcus Aldridge
Ben Gordon
Kirk Hinrich
Chris Duhon
Trenton Hassell

Eddy Curry
Matt Bonner
Roger Mason

 

[steelevt]

looks fun...ok ill try with our friends from the bay.

Golden State Warriors

pg gilbert arenas
sg anfernee hardaway
sf vince carter
pf joe smith
c andris biedrens

pg monta ellis
sg jason richardson
sf mike dunleavy
pf troy murphy
c jeff foster

mickael pietrus
anthony randolph
ike diogu

 

[venom_7]

Chauncey was all Pitino. I remember when he was drafted he immediately got a Celtics tattoo, it may have even been his first or second tat, and the first thing I thought when he got traded was that tat didn't work out too well

One player you left off that actually was a rare gem for CW was Bruce Bowen. Pitino brought him in at CW's insistence as he had initially discovered him in Miami before joining the Celts. I know, not popular, dirty player, but he's better than quite a few on your list.

While the roster is impressive, some of those players never had the same prime, some are still projects and the only real mistakes they made were Billups and Joe Johnson.

Yeah I wasn't really thinking undrafted. It is interesting to look at how well some teams draft picks developed, regardless of the situation.

 

[venom_7]

LOL
I was just about to do the Bucks until I realized that it is pretty much their current roster minus Dirk and Stephon.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Wait, back up: I thought there was an unspoken gentleman's agreement to keep this reasonably recent. If we're going back as far as Penny Hardaway, you need to let me add Zo and Gramama to that Hornets team.

 

[venom_7]

yeah. ima say 95 or 96 is the cutoff date. in other news, the indiana pacers do not draft well at all. AT ALL.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Aye; they struck gold with Granger but, aside from him...

 

[GeraldWallace#3]

San Antonio Spurs

PG:Tony Parker
SG:Manu Ginobili
SF:John Salmons
PF:Tim Duncan
C:Tiago Splitter


Bench
____________

6:Beno Udrih
7:Leandro Barbosa
8:Luis Scola
9:Marcus Williams
10:George Hill
11:Goran Dragic
12:Ian Mihinmi

 

[SacKings7]

Milwaukee Bucks:

PG: Stephon Marbury
SG: Michael Redd
SF: Pat Garrity
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Andrew Bogut

Bench:

Rafer Alston
TJ Ford
Dan Gadzuric
Joel Pryzbilla
Flip Murray
Keith Bogans
Ramon Sessions
Yi Jianlian
Ersan Ilyasova

 

[steelevt]

Wait, back up: I thought there was an unspoken gentleman's agreement to keep this reasonably recent. If we're going back as far as Penny Hardaway, you need to let me add Zo and Gramama to that Hornets team.

my bad. i saw the OP write 15 years and thought 2008 (since 2009 draft hasn't occured yet) - 15 years was 1993.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Wow, surprised no one has mentioned the Suns yet. Bill Simmons covered it pretty well in a column last May.

You don't even need to go back that far. Starting in 2004, for example, you could end up with a team like this:

PG: Steve Nash
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Luol Deng
PF: Shawn Marion
C: Amare Staudemire

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG/SF: Rudy Fernandez
SG: Raja Bell
PF/C Kurt Thomas
SF/PF: Tim Thomas
PF/C: Robin Lopez

 

[steelevt]

yeah i was gonna do the suns, cuz even at a glance i saw potential...but i got lazy. correct me if im wrong, but werent amare, marion and nash drafted before 2004? and if u go a year before nash, u could put in finley

 

[SacKings7]

Wow, surprised no one has mentioned the Suns yet. Bill Simmons covered it pretty well in a column last May.

You don't even need to go back that far. Starting in 2004, for example, you could end up with a team like this:

PG: Steve Nash
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Luol Deng
PF: Shawn Marion
C: Amare Staudemire

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG/SF: Rudy Fernandez
SG: Raja Bell
PF/C Kurt Thomas
SF/PF: Tim Thomas
PF/C: Robin Lopez

Nash was drafted in like 1996...

 

[Jespher]

Wow, surprised no one has mentioned the Suns yet. Bill Simmons covered it pretty well in a column last May.

You don't even need to go back that far. Starting in 2004, for example, you could end up with a team like this:

PG: Steve Nash
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Luol Deng
PF: Shawn Marion
C: Amare Staudemire

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG/SF: Rudy Fernandez
SG: Raja Bell
PF/C Kurt Thomas
SF/PF: Tim Thomas
PF/C: Robin Lopez

Joe Johnson was drafted by the Celtics and traded to the Suns partially through his rookie season. Raja Bell was undrafted, and signed with the spurs, then the 76ers well before becoming a sun. Tim Thomas was drafted by the Nets, and Kurt Thomas was drafted by the Heat...

Don't forget Nate Robinson, Stephen Jackson, and Marcin Gortat too .

 

[LPKingsFan]

Joe Johnson was drafted by the Celtics and traded to the Suns partially through his rookie season. Raja Bell was undrafted, and signed with the spurs, then the 76ers well before becoming a sun. Tim Thomas was drafted by the Nets, and Kurt Thomas was drafted by the Heat...

Don't forget Nate Robinson, Stephen Jackson, and Marcin Gortat too .

Yeah, I wasn't playing the straight draft game. My scenario was just going back to the assets they had in 2004. Not what the OP had in mind in creating this thread mind you, but an interesting "what if" nonetheless.

 

[fxhsurjono]

your orlando magic

C: Shaquille O'Neal - Zaza Pachulia - Steven Hunter
PF: Dwight Howard - Michael Doleac - Anderson Varejão
SF: Chris Webber - Courtney Alexander - Fran Vázquez
SG: Courtney Lee
PG: Redick, J. J.


they drafted ALOT of big men, no quality pg's or sg's.

 

[PT Cruiser 9ROC]

Well, by trading for Jameer Nelson on draft day, they essentially drafted him. JJ Redick has no business being anywhere in this topic, to be honest.

 

[Bricklayer]

your orlando magic

C: Shaquille O'Neal - Zaza Pachulia - Steven Hunter
PF: Dwight Howard - Michael Doleac - Anderson Varejão
SF: Chris Webber - Courtney Alexander - Fran Vázquez
SG: Courtney Lee
PG: Redick, J. J.


they drafted ALOT of big men, no quality pg's or sg's.

Most of that spreads too many years to really matter or be remotely realistic, but the Shaq, Webber frontcourt came very close -- very close to being a reality until the Magic bailed and went with Penny instead. Do not know whether it would have worked or not, but if it had you are talking about the best frontcourt in NBA history.

 

[venom_7]

Well, by trading for Jameer Nelson on draft day, they essentially drafted him. JJ Redick has no business being anywhere in this topic, to be honest.

trades don't qualify the player.

but good point on JJ. Just for kicks I'm going to do the Pacers all-draftee line-up.

C- Eric Dampier
PF- Al Harrington
SF- Danny Granger
SG- James Jones
PG- Fred Jones

David Harrison
Primoz Brezec
Austin Croshere
Jerryd Bayless
Shawne Williams

Alexander Johnson
Nathan Jawai (what happened to this guy?)


holy. crap. that is awful. All this about Donny Walsh being a great GM, and granted, some of this was Bird/Isiahs fault, but that is just awful. Half of those guys aren't even in the league anymore and two of them were rookies that didn't get any playing time last year.

awful awful awful