Quote:
Originally Posted by Avalanche
I think we need to work on getting a pick in the late teens, early twenties aswell and pick up a center there...
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History is not on our side there. I just went through the past 20 drafts, reviewing the first round centers from pick 15 through the end of the round (which varied based on year, of course, as the league expanded). Wow. It's pretty bad. Only four of those years provided two centers who eventually gained regular starting jobs--and I don't mean star, featured centers, but just that the guys became regular starters. Several drafts didn't have a single regularly starting center in that range of picks.
Below is a subjective list of the top guys from each year.
1988: Mark Bryant (21st pick)
1989: Vlade Divac (26)
1990: Elden Campbell (27)
1991: Stanley Roberts (23)
1992: Oliver Miller (22)
1993: Ervin Johnson (23)
1994: Dicky Simpkins (21)
1995: Theo Ratliff (18) (Also Greg Ostertag)
1996: Jermaine O'Neal (17)
1997: Kelvin Cato (15)
1998: Rasho Nesterovic (17) (Also Nazr Mohammed)
1999: Jeff Foster (21)
2000: Jamal Magloire (19) (Also Primoz Brezec)
2001: Samuel Dalembert (26) (Also Brendan Haywood)
2002: Nenad Krstic (24)
2003: Kendrick Perkins (27)
2004: David Harrison (29)
2005: Johan Petro (25)
2006: Josh Boone (26)
2007: Tiago Splitter (28)
In short, banking on a legitimate center in that range of picks doesn't seem wise. However, in more recent years, using that pick on international players was a decent strategy.