<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Chris Mullin has seen the NBA's draft lottery from about every angle imaginable. Starting with its inaugural edition, in which he was the consolation prize. "I probably knew a little less than everyone else knew," he said Tuesday, recalling the heady days between the end of his college career and his professional assignment. "I was kind of, whatever happens, happens. As a young kid, I just wanted to go play." Life wasn't quite that simple in the NBA. For years the league had run the draft as an act of charity. The draft order was the inverse order of the final standings; the worst teams in the two conferences flipped a coin to decide which would draft first, and which would pick second. For years, however, there were whispers, even some anecdotal evidence, that mediocre teams were deliberately losing games at the end of disappointing seasons in order to qualify for the coin flip, and a 50-50 shot at the No. 1 pick. Then, in 1984, the Houston Rockets turned tanking into free-form art. A .400 team as late as March 13, the Rockets lost 14 of their final 17 games. In the process, they overtook (undertook?) the San Diego Clippers for last place in the Western Conference. They won the coin toss, and selected Hakeem Olajuwon. It was such a blatant act that the NBA instituted a new procedure in 1985, the year Mullin came out of St. John's. In this scenario, the league's seven non-playoff teams would enter a lottery, with each having a 1-in-7 chance at the top pick (presumed to be center Patrick Ewing). No team, it was believed, would risk missing the playoffs for a mere 14.3 percent chance at the draft's No. 1 pick. It turned out the league had eliminated one problem but created another. The Warriors, who finished last that season, were dismayed when they fell to seventh in the lottery. (The New York Knicks jumped from third to first.) Warriors fans, who had been drooling over the prospect of Ewing, got Mullin instead. "If I (could have drafted) a center, I'd feel kind of slighted, too," Mullin said. "To this day, ... sorry," he added, laughing. No apologies necessary. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Warriors fan who would change things now. Not given Mullin's Dream Team-caliber playing career and the residual popularity he still enjoys as the team's head of basketball operations -- a job that gives him final authority over this year's draft picks. Nor does Mullin have any regrets, even though his pro career got off to a slow start. "I was told, 'You're going to love it out here,'" said the Brooklyn-born Mullin. "But it just wasn't happening. It was a day-by-day thing, not something you can fast-forward. My children were born here. Now, my wife and I are the foreigners. My kids tell us, 'You talk funny.'"</div> Source
I don't like Mullin's decision-making, but Elgin Baylor and Donald Sterling are proof that one of these days we could end up far in the playoffs or make the playoffs! But first we need some key veteran pieces working down low in the inside and some absolute torches from the outside (who can also drive the ball and pass). At least Mullin didn't draft as poorly as Baylor did! If Baylor was relying on his own picks like Mullin is doing now, we'd be really screwed. So hopefully, we can find our very own Chandler for Brand type of trade. And get a seasoned backcourt that can shoot well, drive, pass. And a center and small forward that don't suck. Big guys that can rebound, block shots, and score with either hand and use footwork.
