ESPN's D.R.A.F.T. Initiative flawed, Spurs genius misguided

June 21, 5:04 AMSan Antonio Spurs ExaminerMichael Chartier

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In ESPN’s D.R.A.F.T. Initiative (Data-Related Analysis For Truth), one team topped all others as the best drafting team over the last 20 years – the San Antonio Spurs.

Really?

“The San Antonio Spurs are proof that drafting well may be less about consistently identifying great talent than having the patience and persistence to develop whatever great talent you find,” ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher wrote.

Considering San Antonio hasn’t kept or developed one pick since selecting Tony Parker in 2001, that statement baffles me.

Of the 18 players drafted after Parker, the Spurs have exactly one who currently plays with them. George Hill was selected last year.

Of the 33 players drafted since 1989, there were only four players of note.

The caveat? It reads like a Who’s Who Among San Antonio Spurs -- Sean Elliott (1989), Tim Duncan (1997), Manu Ginobili (1999) and Tony Parker (2001).

To read what Bucher and ESPN has to say about the D.R.A.F.T. Initiative -- the concept, formula and results -- you’ll have to pay for it. But I’ll tell you its biggest flaw for free.

They got credit for drafting Tim Duncan. If the research would have included the last 22 years, they would have gotten credit for David Robinson, too.

Not that the Spurs were asking for any, but comedian Chris Rock says it best -- you don’t get credit for stuff you supposed to do.

“I take care of my kids.”

"We drafted Tim Duncan."

Duncan and Robinson were more than lead-pipe locks. Any team drafting in that position would have done no different. In the 1987 Draft, the first to have a three-team lottery system, the Spurs beat out Phoenix and New Jersey.

Armon Gilliam and Dennis Hopson would follow.

A decade later, a fractured foot forced Robinson to miss all but six games and the Spurs again won the draft lottery beating the entire field of teams that did not qualify for the playoffs. The result was Tim Duncan.

The consensus number two? Keith Van Horn.

Keep in mind that the Spurs have been in the NBA since the 1976 ABA-NBA merger. In those 33 years, the Spurs have missed the playoffs all of 4 times.

Twice they won the lottery. A third time, they got Sean Elliott.

In the 1989 Draft, the first season included in the D.R.A.F.T. Initiative, the lottery still consisted of just three teams. Remember, San Antonio waited two seasons before Robinson joined the Spurs.

But the Spurs didn’t win that lottery, allowing Sacramento to select Pervis Ellison and the Los Angeles Clippers to select Danny Ferry.

It’s no trade secret -- Elliott was picked by default.

Don’t get me wrong. The San Antonio Spurs are a well-run, highly successful organization by almost any measure. The fact that Robinson and, eventually, Duncan will end their careers in San Antonio speaks volumes to that. But their draft genius is a bit overrated.

I’ll throw in Duncan and Elliott anyway and 4 for 33 still doesn’t look good.

In baseball? That won’t get you out of Single A.

In basketball? 4 NBA Championships says it all.

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