NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years
T-9. LA Clippers: 39.5 points
- 2000: Darius Miles: -1 (bust with 3rd overall pick)
- 2000: Quentin Richardson: 0.5
- 2003: Chris Kaman: 1 (1x all-star – wins the award for most surprising all-star selection in at least the last 20 years)
- 2008: Eric Gordon: 0.5
- 2008: DeAndre Jordan: 18 (1x all-star, 1x 1st team, 2x 3rd team, double points for second-round pick)
- 2009: Blake Griffin: 19 (6x all star, 3x 2nd team, 2x 3rd team)
- 2010: Eric Bledsoe: 0.5
- 2018: Landry Shamet: 0.5 (Joe Johnson rule)
- 2018: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 0.5
The Clippers were an absolute disaster for most of the 2000s but they’ve nailed the 2010s, and that started with strong 2008 and 2009 drafts. Having a little luck to win the lottery in 2009 and take Blake Griffin certainly helps, but the Lob City Clippers era doesn’t happen without their 2008 draft.
That draft is highlighted by their pick of DeAndre Jordan in the second round, but the Eric Gordon selection with the 7th overall pick may have been equally important to their future. Without Gordon, the Clippers simply wouldn’t have had the assets to make the Chris Paul trade in 2011 and launch themselves into a six-year stretch where the shortened 2012 NBA lockout season was the only time they didn’t win at least 50 games.
They’ve once again used their draft capital to push their chips in the middle, sending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the centerpiece along with approximately 75 future first-round picks to Oklahoma City for Paul George and essentially Kawhi Leonard as part of the deal.
If you would have told me this in the early 2000’s I would have thought you were almost as insane as Donald Sterling, but the Clippers have turned themselves into one of the best-run teams in the NBA.