The Sports Bog had an absolutely dumbfounding review of the Bullets past draft lotteries, full of black cats and broken mirrors. But let's look at how they did in evaluating talent just to be sure we don't have to blame it all on bad luck.
I hope this provides a useful resource for you guys, and I didn't mess up too many facts or misspell too many names!
I'll start in 1989, because I'm at home sick, it's raining outside, and I have nothing better to do:
1989
Bullets pick: No. 9, Tom Hammonds
Players still on the board:
Tim Hardaway
Shawn Kemp
Vlade Divac
Fun Fact: Pervis "Never Nervous" was the No. 1 pick in 1989.
1990
Bullets pick: None in first round.
Fun Fact: Traded the ninth pick for Jay Vincent. Picked up A.J. English and Greg Foster in the 2nd Round. Not terrible!
Players on the board:
Loy Vaught
Elden Campbell
1991
Bullets pick: None in 1st or 2nd round.
Fun Fact: Traded our 1st rounder for Michael Adams. Rick Fox and Bobby Phills were still on the board when they drafted LeBradford Smith. Just sayin.
1992
Bullets pick: No. 6, Tom Gugliotta (no need to rehash the Googs saga here)
Players on the board:
(of course our draft luck knocked us out of getting Shaq or Zo)
Walt Williams
Fun Fact: Brent Price was picked up in the second round, a favorite of mine, and Tracey Murray, another Unselds fave, was drafted 18th by the Spurs.
1993
Bullets pick: No. 6, Calbert Cheaney (Jarvis Hayes, see below, was the second coming of Calbert, who I loved watching play D on Michael Jordan)
Players on the board:
Lindsay Hunter
James Robinson
Fun Fact: As always, plenty of busts like Bobby Hurley, Vin Baker and Shawn Bradley. Picked one slot before Calbert? J.R. Rider. I'd take J.R.
1994
Bullets pick: No. 5, Juwan Howard
Players on the board:
Wesley Person
Fun Fact: I wonder what the Boulez would have done with a higher pick? Picked before Juwan were Glen Robinson, Jason Kidd and Grant Hill. This draft was pretty weak.
1995
Bullets pick: No. 4, Rasheed Wallace
Players on the board:
Fun Fact: Wow, Kevin Garnett was picked next, but I can't argue with selecting Sheed. Unfortunately, the Bullets couldn't control his attitude and he went on to be a star somewhere else. In the 2nd Round they took Terrence Rencher. Who the hell is that??? They also traded a pick for Mark Price. We know how that turned out.
1996
Bullets pick: Traded the No. 11 pick and Googs for Chris Webber
Players on the board:
Zydrunas Ilgauskis
Fun Fact: The Webber trade would have been great if he didn't sacrifice professionalism for talent and smoke weed on his way to practice. Not to mention that they parted with picks in 1996, 1998 and 2000 for his services.
1997
Bullets pick: No. 17, Forfeited over Juwan Howard's stupid contract. That's a total of three forfeits for Juwan and C-Webb, counting college.
Players on the board:
Scott Pollard
Fun Fact: This will forever be known as the Year of God Shamgod
1998
Bullets pick: No. 13, Yeah, we traded this one too.
Players on the board:
Fun Fact: This was a hit-and-miss draft, with the Candy Man going No. 1, but Mike Bibby, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison rounding out the Top Ten. This was the Year of Jahidi.
1999
Bullets pick: No. 7, Rip Hamilton
Players on the board:
Fun Fact: Obviously Rip was a great pick, probably our best of the last 11 years. You could argue he was a better pick than the previous seven players, including Lamar Odom, Elton Brand and Stevie Franchise. He was traded for Jerry Stackhouse and a Bag of Chips.
2000
Bullets pick: No. 7, yeah, we traded this one too.
Players on the board:
Hedo Turkoglo
Fun Fact: We took Mike Smith at No. 35 because he looked deep into Michael Jordan's eyes or something, and he barely made the team. Then Ernie Grunfeld picked Michael Redd at No. 43.
2001
Bullets pick: No. 1, Kwame Brown
Players on the board: (this is a long one)
Fun Fact: Brenden Haywood was drafted at No. 20. Gilbert Arenas was selected at 31!
2002
Bullets Pick: No. 11, Jared Jeffries
Players on the board:
Fun fact: This was a crappy draft , but we took Jefferies AND Juan Dixon over these two guys. This was also the Year of Rod Grizzard.
2003
Bullets Pick: No. 10, Jarvis Hayes
Players on the board: (this is a long one)
Daniel Pietrus
Fun Fact: The Knicks suck more than us at drafting. They took Mike Sweetney.
2004
Bullets Pick: No. 5, traded for Jamison
Players on the board:
Fun Fact: If hindsight were 20-20, there are several players I would prefer to Jamison, but let's give them a pass on this one. This was the Year of Peter John Ramos.
2005
Bullets Pick: No. 20, traded for Brenden Haywood
Players on the board:
Fun Fact: Andray Blatche, of course, was selected at 49.
2006
Bullets Pick: No. 18, the Year of Little Stewie
Players on the board:
Marcus Williams
Fun fact: Randy Foye went 7th, but we were dumb enough to trade for him last year, so we're dumb.
2007
Bullets Pick: No. 16, Nick Young
Players on the board:
Aaron Afflalo
Fun Fact: Rodney Stuckey was available at the slot before, but we probably would have taken Nick anyway because we are dumb.
2008
Bullets Pick: No. 18, JaVale McGee
Players on the board:
J.J. Hickson (ouch!) at 19
Fun Fact: Many of us, including me, wanted Mario Chalmers and had no idea who JaVale McGee was. Many liked Darrell Arthur, too, and I haven't heard anything from him.
2009
Bullets Pick: No. 5, traded for Mike Miller and Randy Foye (UGH!)
Players on the board:
Ricky Rubio (so overhyped)
Steph Curry
(need I go on???)
Fun Fact: This will forever be known as the Year of Dejuan Blair, the guy Mike Prada predicted would be the steal of the draft and was absolutely right.
Looking back at all of this you can see over the past decade and change, the real carnage was C-Webb and his doobie plus Kwame Brown and several other really bad picks.
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