And the 51st pick of the 2004 draft, Christian Drejer, likewise never saw a minute of NBA action. 51 pick, Federico Kammerichs, never played a second in the NBA. He may not have had an amazing peak but he was a quality shooter for contenders for a very long time.Ĭompared to other picks before and after him, you see how much value Korver produced out of that spot. Korver wound up being a massive steal in the 2003 draft class, which is considered by many to be one of the two or three greatest of all time. What’s more, Korver even has one All-Star nod under his belt even without ever having averaged more than 14.4 points in a season. Korver currently ranks fourth all-time in three-pointers made with 2,450, despite playing in an era nowhere near as three-point friendly as today’s NBA. His career stats may not stand out as much as other players on this list, but Kyle Korver will go down as one of the greatest outside shooters in league history, and did so despite nearly going undrafted. Players drafted right ahead of him: Mo Williams, James Lang, James Jones and Paccelis Morlende Other players who could be considered steals from this draft class are Amare Stoudemire, who ended up being the best player in the draft class but fell to the No. It’s an interesting thought exercise to consider what might have happened with Boozer’s career in an alternate universe where he doesn’t back out of a deal with the Cavaliers early in his career and remains LeBron James’ sidekick throughout the mid-2000s. Boozer wound up by far the best Duke player drafted in 2002, which is impressive considering the prestigious university had two players taken in the Top 3 picks that year in Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy. In his heyday, Boozer was a stud offensively at power forward, with one of the nicest face-up games for any big men of his era and a reliable mid-range jumper. Boozer also won gold as a member of the 2008 USA Olympic ‘Redeem Team’. Players drafted right ahead of him: Roger Mason, Robert Archibald, Vincent Yarbrough and Dan GadzuricĬarlos Boozer may not have had the championship accolades of Parker, but he did enjoy an impressive 13-year career that saw him make two All-Star teams and a 3rd Team All-NBA while averaging nearly a triple-double during his playing days. The 2001 draft had other steals besides Parker, including Gilbert Arenas (No. The French ball-handler started at point guard for the Spurs by the fifth game of his rookie year as a 19-year-old, which was almost unheard of in the early 2000s and is even pretty rare to this day, especially for lead guards.
Parker almost started the trend of late-draft steals for San Antonio during their run of excellence of the 2000s and 2010s. Tony Parker was drafted late in the first round of 2001 and wound up winning four championships with the team who took him, the Spurs, took home a Finals MVP and made six All-Star and four All-NBA teams.
Players drafted right ahead of him: Raul Lopez, Gerald Wallace, Samuel Dalembert and Jamaal Tinsley So with the 2021 draft coming up, we decided to take a look at the biggest steal from each draft this century, starting in 2001.įor this exercise, we take into account overall player careers and not just how well they played for the team that drafted them.Ĭareer stats: 15.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 5.6 apg and 32.4 3P% in 18 seasons That includes the 2020-21 league MVP, a second-round draft pick from 2014.
Every NBA draft class has a player, and usually more than one, who fell far too low and wound up being a major steal for the franchise lucky, and smart, enough to take them.