I have been looking back at the draft from 1970 and building a "what if" list for each year. Here are the 1970-2023 drafts. Now I know this is just a could have been and many people don't care of these types of hyperboles, but I think it is interesting. For me I was born in '84 and obviously was not around for the 70's early 80's, nor do I have much accountable memory of the 90's as I was young. I would love to know what others think and to offer their memories of what/why draft trades happened, certain players were picked over others, etc. Of course we all know that if said players were drafted other than the ones Blazers did draft, then history in the draft would be different as our picks would change and thus it would all be for nothing...so naysayers, don't hate, just have fun with this and let's see just how badly the Blazers whiffed in some instances (or many). #BlazerFanForLife #RipCityBaby *I have the list by pick and then the next available player with the highest win share for the "what if" scenario* 1970 - Geoff Petrie (Calvin Murphy, Tiny Archibald) Walt Gilmore (Curtis Perry, Gar Heard) Bill Cain (Dennis Awtrey) Jim Penix, Ron Knight (George Johnson) George Janky (Billy Paultz, Charlie Scott) Claude English (Dan Issel) Doug Boyd (Steve Patterson) Billy Gaskins (Coby Dietrick) Israel Oliver, Dan McLemore, Paul Adams, Alex Boyd (Randy Smith) Frank Lothridge, Wayne Canaday (Harvey Marlatt) Doug Williams, Bruce Butchko, Mark Gabriel 1971 - Sidney Wicks (Fred Brown) Charlie Yelverton, Rick Fisher (Spencer Haywood) Larry Steele (Clifford Ray) William Smith (Dave Robisch) Bobby Fields (Tom Owens) Hector Blondet, Jim Day (Randy Smith) Gene Knolle (Artis Gilmore) John Sutter, Goo Kennedy, Greg Starrick, Howard Burford, Don Sechler 1972 - #1 LaRue Martin (#2 Bob McAdoo) #14 Bob Davis (#17 Chris Ford, #24 Steve Hawes) #26 Dave Twardzik, #30 Ollie Johnson, #31 Lloyd Neal (#39 Kevin Porter) #48 Gary Stewart (#58 Henry Bibby) #64 Mike Reid (#70 James Silas) #81 Joe Gaines, #98 Bob Lynn (#113 Mickey Davis) #114 Ruben Vance, #130 Scott McCandlish, #144 Kresimir Cosic, #157 Jimmy Wilkins, #175 Larry Morris, #181 Paul Kelley, #188 Rich Habegger, #193 Mose Adolph 1973 - #15 Barry Parkhill (#16 Swen Nater, #22 George McGinnis, #31 Jim Chones, #32 Caldwell Jones, #50 Larry Kenon) #55 Bird Averitt (#57 Luke Witte) #71 Fran Costello (#76 M.L. Carr) #89 Neal Jurgensen (#96 John Williamson) #105 Larry Hollyfield (#106 Tim Bassett) #123 Lindell Reason (#138 Harvey Catchings) #139 Mike Contreras, #154 Sam Whitehead, #167 Eddie Payne, #177 Rick Holdt 1974 - #1 Bill Walton (#5 Bobby Jones, #11 Jamaal Wilkes, #14 Maurice Lucas) *I am not advocating for Jones, Wilkes, or Mo being a "better" pick. RIP Bill. You were the greatest! #20 Jan van Breda Kolff (#25 John Drew) #34 Phil Lumpkin (#35 Kevin Stacom) #36 Ruben Collins (#40 George Gervin) #56 Mickey Johnson, #74 Bernard Hardin (#80 Dean Tolson) #92 Dan Anderson, #110 Doug Richards, #128 Eldridge Broussard, #146 Lee Haven (#160 Al Skinner) #163 Ron Jones (#169 Rod Derline) 1975 - #6 Lionel Hollins (#20 Gus Williams, #23 World B. Free) #25 Bob Gross (#28 Dan Roundfield) #42 Tom Roy (#47 Rudy White) #50 Gus Gerard, #61 Phil Hicks (#75 Wilbur Holland) #78 Maurice Presley (#92 Don Ford) #97 Gerald Willett (#113 Mike Flynn) #114 Steve Fields, #133 Charlie Neal (#136 Andre McCarter) #149 Quentin Braxton, #166 Tyrese Foster 1976 - #5 Wally Walker (#6 Adrian Dantley, #8 Robert Parrish) #20 Major Jones (#22 Johnny Davis) #22 Johnny Davis (#23 Alex English) #39 Jeff Tyson (#43 Tom Abernethy) #56 David Everett (#70 Ron Davis) #73 Gary Redding (#74 Paul Griffin, #99 Mike Dunleavy) #109 Al DeWitt, #127 Brant Gibler, #145 Rob Torresdal, #162 Marcos Leite 1976 (ABA dispersal draft) - #2 Maurice Lucas (#5 Moses Malone) *I am not advocating for Maurice Lucas not being picked. RIP The Enforcer! #5 Moses Malone (#10 Louie Dampier) *I certainly am not saying that Louie Dampier is a better pick either....yeesh, this draft is tough. 1977 - #19 Rich Laurel (#22 Norm Nixon) #28 Kim Anderson (#40 Robert Reid) #41 T.R. Dunn (#46 James Edwards) #63 Ricky Brown (#66 Mike Bratz) #85 Greg White (#88 Tony Robertson) #107 Donn Wilber (#115 Billy McKinney) #128 Myron Jordan (#136 Alvin Scott) #148 Don Smith, #167 Harold Rhodes (#168 John Olive) 1978 - #1 Mychal Thompson (#6 Larry Bird) #7 Ron Brewer (#9 Reggie Theus) #24 Keith Herron (#36 Maurice Cheeks) #44 Clemon Johnson (Michael Cooper) #66 Sterling Edmonds (#104 Carlos Terry) #110 Clay Johnson, #131 Tim Evans (#133 Stan Pietkiewicz) #152 Walter Reason (#157 Earl Evans) #170 Mark Wickman, #186 Paul Cozens (#190 Rickey Williams) #202 Tim Warkentin 1979 - #12 Jim Paxson, #40 Andrew Fields (#65 Bill Lambier) #56 Mickey Fox (#73 James Donaldson) #78 Darryl Robinson (#104 Allen Leavell) #100 Matt White (#107 Mark Eaton) #120 Ray Ellis, #140 Jeff Tropf, #159 Willie Pounds (#165 Charles Jones) #177 Stan Eckwood (#185 Paul Dawkins) #195 Kelvin Small (#198 Keith McCord) 1980 - #10 Ronnie Lester (#11 Kiki Vandeweghe) #32 David Lawrence (#35 Rick Mahorn) #33 Bruce Collins (#58 Kurt Rambis) #56 Mike Harper (#75 Rory Sparrow) #79 Kelvin Henderson, #102 Larry Belin, #125 Perry Mirkovich (#141 Lorenzo Romar) #148 Gig Sims, #168 John Stroeder (#169 Clarence Kea) #188 Rick Boucher, #205 Dave Kufeld 1981 - #15 Jeff Lamp (#20 Larry Nance ) #16 Darnell Valentine (#31 Danny Ainge) #26 Brian Jackson (#29 Eddie Johnson) #50 Derek Holcomb (#57 Frank Brickowski) #61 Petur Gudmundsson (#76 Lewis Lloyd) #85 Pete Verhoeven, #107 Herb Andrew, #131 Roshern Arnie (#150 Clinton Wheeler) #153 Julius Wayne (#165 Bobby Cattage) #176 John Smith, #196 Sid Williams, #217 Steve Cochran 1982 - #11 Fat Lever (#18 Ricky Pierce) #33 Linton Townes (#35 Derek Smith) #37 Audie Norris (#48 Craig Hodges) #66 Phillip Lockett (#72 Mark Eaton) #79 Eric Smith (#82 Tony Brown, #86 Rory White) #103 Cherokee Rhone, #125 Leo Cunningham (#140 Eddie Hughes) #149 Terry Long (#166 Ed Nealy) #171 Dave Porter, #195 Mark Dearborn, #215 Grant Taylor 1983 - #14 Clyde Drexler #39 Granville Waiters (#48 Craig Ehlo) #62 Tom Piotrowski (#139 Sedale Threatt) #85 Tim Dunham (#97 Manute Bol) #108 Gary Monroe, #131 Derrick Pope (#152 Dane Suttle) #154 Paul Little, #177 Frank Smith, #199 Phil Hopson, #220 Russ Christianson 1984 - #2 Sam Bowie (#3 Michael Jordan) #19 Bernard Thompson (#20 Tony Campbell) #26 Victor Fleming (#27 Ron Anderson) #33 Steve Colter (#39 Danny Young) #46 Jerome Kersey #65 Tim Kearney (#70 Rick Carlisle, #87 Bob Thornton) #88 Brett Applegate (#90 Ozell Jones) #111 Mike Whitmarsh (#133 Eddie Lee Wilkins) #134 Lance Ball (#156 Ken Bannister) #157 Victor Anger, #180 Steve Flint, #202 Dennis Black, #224 Randy Dunn 1985 - #24 Terry Porter #25 Mike Smrek (#31 Manute Bol) #39 George Montgomery (#45 Hot Rod Williams) #61 Perry Young (#77 Arvydas Sabonis, #66 Michael Adams) #85 Joe Atkinson (#87 Spud Webb) #107 James Anderson (#160 Mario Elie) 1986 - #14 Walter Berry (#25 Mark Price) #24 Arvydas Sabonis (#27 Dennis Rodman) * Tough choice here...really wish they would have just drafted Sabas in '85. #37 Panagiotis Fasoulas (#46 Jeff Hornacek) #49 Juden Smith (#60 Drazen Petrovic) #60 Drazen Petrovic (#66 Anthony Bowie) #83 David Shaffer (#89 Conner Henry) #106 Jerry Adams (#120 Pete Meyers) #129 Tony Hampton (#134 Alexander Volkov) #152 Randy Schiff 1987 - #17 Ronnie Murphy (#18 Mark Jackson) #29 Lester Fonville (#39 Vincent Askew) #30 Nikita Wilson (#52 Donald Royal) #63 Kevin Gamble #86 Norwood Barber (#100 Ron Grandison) #109 David Moss (#127 Sarunas Marciulionis) #155 Kenny Stone 1988 - #21 Mark Bryant (#29 Vinny Del Negro) #26 Rolando Ferreira (#33 Grant Long) #53 Anthony Mason #71 Craig Neal (#74 Gerald Paddio) 1989 - #22 Byron Irvin (#26 Vlade Divac) #36 Clifford Robinson 1990 - #25 Alaa Abdelnaby (#27 Elden Campbell, #29 Toni Kukoc, #45 Antonio Davis) 1991 - #54 Marcus Kennedy 1992 - #26 Dave Johnson (#29 P.J. Brown) #31 Reggie Smith (#41 Popeye Jones, #42 Matt Geiger) 1993 - #21 James Robinson (#24 Sam Cassell) #48 Kevin Thompson (#52 Mike Peplowski) 1994 - #17 Aaron McKie #43 Shawnelle Scott (#46 Voshon Lenard) 1995 - #8 Shawn Respert (#21 Michael Finley, #15 Brent Barry, #10 Kurt Thomas) 1996 - #17 Jermaine O'Neal #46 Marcus Brown (#54 Shandon Anderson) 1997 - #18 Chris Anstey (#43 Stephen Jackson, #23 Bobby Jackson) #48 Alvin Williams 1998 - * Blazers did not have any picks this year. 1999 - #52 Roberto Bergersen (#57 Manu Ginobili) 2000 - #28 Erick Barkley (#43 Michael Redd) 2001 - #19 Zach Randolph (#28 Tony Parker) #50 Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (#53 Jarron Collins) 2002 - #21 Qyntel Woods (#35 Carlos Boozer, #23 Tayshaun Prince) #43 Jason Jennings (#46 Matt Barnes) #51 Federico Kammerichs (#56 Luis Scola) 2003 - #23 Travis Outlaw (#42 Zaza Pachulia) #54 Nedzad Sinanovic (#56 Brandon Hunter) 2004 - #13 Sebastian Telfair (#15 Al Jefferson) #23 Sergei Monia (#43 Trevor Ariza, #26 Kevin Martin) #46 Ha Seung-Jin (#47 Pape Sow) 2005 - #6 Martell Webster (#17 Danny Granger) #27 Linas Kleiza (#30 David Lee) #35 Ricky Sanchez (#45 Lou Williams, #57 Marcin Gortat, #56 Amir Johnson) 2006 - #4 Tyrus Thomas (#24 Kyle Lowry) *I am absolutely fine with the results that landed LMA! #30 Joel Feeland (#47 Paul Milsap) #31 James White (#35 P.J. Tucker) 2007 - #1 Greg Oden (#2 Kevin Durant, #3 Al Horford, #4 Mike Conley) #37 Josh McRoberts (#48 Marc Gasol) #42 Derrick Byars (#49 Aaron Gray) #52 Taurean Green (#56 Ramon Sessions) #53 Demetris Nichols 2008 - #13 Brandon Rush (#24 Serge Ibaka, #25 Nicolas Batum, #26 George Hill) #33 Joey Dorsey (#35 DeAndre Jordan) #36 Omer Asik (#45 Goran Dragic) #55 Mike Taylor (#60 Semih Erden) 2009 - #22 Victor Claver (#26 Taj Gibson) #33 Dante Cunningham (#42 Patrick Beverly) *I could never advocate for Beverly, so.... #38 Jon Brockman (#46 Danny Green) #55 Patty Mills 2010 - #22 Elliot Williams (#33 Hassan Whiteside) #34 Armon Johnson (#35 Nemanja Bjelica, #40 Lance Stephenson) 2011 - #21 Nolan Smith (#30 Jimmy Butler) #51 Jon Diebler (#60 Isaiah Thomas) 2012 - #6 Damian Lillard *nobody is taking this pick away! #11 Meyers Leonard (#35 Draymond Green, #39 Khris Middleton) #40 Will Barton #41 Tyshawn Taylor (#49 Kyle O'Quinn, #43 Mike Scott) 2013 - #10 CJ McCollum (#15 Giannis Antetokounmpo) #39 Jeff Withey (#44 Mike Muscala) #40 Grant Jerrett (#47 Raul Neto) #45 Marko Todorovic (#50 James Ennis III) 2014 - * Blazers did not have any picks this year. 2015 - #23 Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (#32 Montrezl Harrell) 2016 - * Blazers did not have any picks this year. 2017- #15 Justin Jackson (#22 Jarrett Allen) #20 Harry Giles (#19 John Collins) #26 Caleb Swanigan (#29 Derrick White) 2018 - #24 Anfernee Simons (#33 Jalen Brunson, #36 Mitchell Robinson) 2019 - #25 Nassir Little (#38 Daniel Gafford, #31 Nic Claxton) 2020 - #16 Isaiah Stewart (#21 Tyrese Maxey) #46 CJ Elleby (#52 KJ Martin) 2021 - Blazers did not have any picks this year. 2022 - #7 Shaedon Sharpe (#12 Jalen Williams) *I'm still holding out strong that Shae IS the pick. #36 Gabriel Procida (#47 Vince Williams Jr.) #57 Jabari Walker 2023 - #3 Scoot Henderson (#12 Derek Lively II, #4 Amen Thompson) *This will be Scoot's year! #23 Kris Murray (#57 Trayce Jackson-Davis) #43 Rayan Rupert (#52 Toumani Camara)
They really wiffed on Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore....and yes I know so did the other teams. Also, did they really draft a guy named Goo? Lol Go Goo Go!!!
And in case any of you nerds get on my arse for my "sauces": https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1970.html
You're just building up to the torture of the 1984 draft. Out of possibly getting Hakeem, Jordan, or Barkley, end up with Bowie. Having Hakeem or Barkley would have given us at least 4 championships. And with Jordan...10.
I know, and again, haters gonna hate, but that draft wiff is widely known. I am actually seeing some pretty big misses in the 70’s too. Have anything else to offer?
We were never getting Hakeem. He was always going first to Houston. Jordan would have won us championships for sure. Barkley? The guy that never won one? Might have won a championship with him, but not guaranteed.
Yeah, my reason for not including players like The Dream in the lists I will add for those years are due to them being drafted higher than our 1st available pick.
Mainly, I want to know if anyone remembers these years and what their thoughts were of players drafted vs who could have been. I don’t know many of these players from the 70’s except a few names.
We only lost him because of a coin flip. And Barkley certainly would have put the Blazers over the top. A core of Porter, Drexler, Kersey, Barkley...
@beast blazer, thank you. Now I am intrigued. What do you mean by a coin flip? Edit: I know what a coin flip means, but what do you mean happened?
To think that the Blazers could have started the first few years with Tiny Archibald, Dan Issel, Fred Brown, Artis Gilmore, Bob McAdoo, and George McGinnis...
Getting tons of draft capital and drafting well is the most important part of winning in the NBA for a non-destimation city.
Dang....that Vernon Maxwell part is crazy...Was anyone here at that game? *Feb, 6th, 1995 - Memorial Coliseum
In February of '95 I was in 5th grade and probably working on my lame state project....I had Idaho. Worlds largest potato (slow clap) . Hopefully I was watching this game on TV with my pops, but I don't recall anyone getting punched in the stands.
