Monday, June 25, 2007

Memory Lane: Nuggets Draft Day History Part V

(Boulder-CO) Along with being one of the overall worst busts in recent NBA Draft history, Nikoloz Tskitishvili is by far and away the worst draft choice the Nuggets have made in the last ten years, and maybe since the formation of the franchise.

Despite not being one of the strongest drafts in recent memory, 2002 is still the class of Amare Stoudemire, Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, (a second round selection), and Caron Butler. Keep in mind, however, that Denver decided on Nikoloz Tskitishvili and will probably never be able to live down such a downright blunder of a selection.

‘Tskeeter, as he liked to be called, turned out to be a terrible professional basketball player and was about as useful to the Nuggets as is bringing firewood to the forest! How a guy with so few tangible skills could go through pre-draft training sessions designed to weed out players who just do not have what it takes to play at the NBA level and become the 5th overall pick belonging to the Denver Nuggets is still beyond me!

‘Tskeeter’s best season by far was his rookie campaign when he averaged 3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in 81 appearances. The seven footer’s career numbers are 2.1 points, 1.3 rebounds, and get this, 0.1 blocks and he is thankfully now the Phoenix Suns’ problem.

Talk about blowing it.

1 comment:

The Unitary Executive said...

Good call, Tskitishvili was terrible. I remember watching the draft with some buddies of mine begging they wouldn't take him. The only thing that saved the day was the Nene trade. I swear, if they had the 2nd pick in 2003 we would have Darko right now while everyone else from that draft class tore it up. However, although Tskitishvili was bad, Efthimios Rentzias was worse. He had a total of 52 pts. in the league (and he got them for a different team eight years after the nuggets drafted him).

Also, they drafted Raef because after a guy named Vince Carter impressed everyone with what was apparently the best workout in Nuggets history (he dunked a medicine ball something like 23 times in a row), the Nuggets didn't draft him because they were "set" at shooting guard (you know, Bryant Stith).

Recently, the draft pick of Julius Hodge was ridiculous (when you need a shooter, why would you pick one of the worst shooters possible?). Also, getting two late 1st round sleepers (jarrett jack and jameer nelson) was awesome, except we gave them away immediately.

Whoa, this game is too much fun. All I can hope for is a Marcus Camby for #3 pick and salim stoudemire trade, and the signing of Jason Kapono as a free agent (midlevel exception). Then they can do some serious damage next year.