NBA Draft Steals in History

The NBA has one of sports' shorter drafts, only two rounds long. This is due to the limited number of players required to field an NBA team, usually no more than 15. Despite this, few players beyond the mid to late 1st round make an impact in the NBA over their careers. Many never play a single minute in the NBA and many play hundreds of forgettable minutes, usually off the bench, before being dropped and forgotten. And this never minds the many top 10-20 picks that get drafted as franchise players but 'bust' as non-impact players.

How do so few NBA draftees make an impact? Until the rush of high school stars overran the NBA in the 1990's, it wasn't too uncommon for low draft picks to eventually become key contributors on NBA teams over their career. But as the influx of star teenage talent accelerated the league's natural increase in athletic talent, it became harder for anyone outside of top draft picks to break in, let alone make an impact.

Thus it's a surprise when a player picked late in the 1st round or anyone picked in the 2nd round goes on to become a star or key player. Such players often see no more than bench time or supporting roles. Many of the following steals in recent NBA draft history were late picks who ended up giving their teams more than they hoped for... though there is a notable top pick who was a great steal himself for entirely different reasons. Here are the top NBA steals of the post-modern basketball era, starting with the most recent:

Monta Ellis (Golden State Warriors, 40th overall 2006 draft)

The Warriors took a 2nd round flier on the talented Mississippi high school star guard who finished 2nd all time on the state's top career scoring list. After a quiet watch-and-learn rookie season on the bench, Ellis entered the starting lineup for the 2006-2007 season and averaged 16.5 points per game with over 4 assists and 34 minutes per game, never looking back. The Warriors' flier paid off, as Ellis is now the team's leading scorer and thief (2.3 steals) while leading a team known for distributing the basketball well with 5.4 assists per.

Carlos Boozer (Cleveland Cavaliers, 34th overall 2002 draft)

Despite a decorated college career as one of Duke's leading post players during 1999-2002, Boozer slid all the way to the 2nd round in a loaded 2002 draft (Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire, Nene, Caron Butler and a host of heralded others who didn't quite pan out). The Cavs, having figured they already scored with Memphis guard Dajuan Wagner, had to feel as if they scored a bonus when Boozer fell to their 2nd pick.

The funny thing is that Wagner was a non-factor for the pre-LeBron Cavs in a forgettable three seasons, while Boozer became their impact player from the 2002 draft as their top big man before he turned his back on the Cavs to sign with the Utah Jazz in 2004. With the Jazz, he has since become one of the league's best post players, averaging no less than 18.0 points and 9.3 rebounds in any of his five plus seasons since. While the Cavs lost Boozer to free agency, he was still one of the 2002 draft's biggest scores.

Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs, 28th pick 2001 draft)

The player picked two spots later in this draft, Gilbert Arenas (by the Warriors), would become a greater scorer. But few teams thought much of the teenage French point guard the Spurs happily swept up with the final pick in the 1st round. The Spurs are no strangers to luck with the draft, as you'll see later in this piece... and Parker ended up becoming the team's mainstay leader at point guard, remaining so to this day.

Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks, 43rd pick 2000 draft)

The typically woebegone Bucks didn't have much to crow about during the Aughts, but their leading scorer for years to come ended up coming from a forgettable 2nd round pick out of Ohio State University in the 2000 draft. After learning the ropes over his first three seasons, Redd vaulted past the 20.0 PPG mark in 2003-2004 and never looked back. He led the mostly forgettable Bucks in scoring for each of the next five seasons.

Manu Ginobli (San Antonio Spurs, 57th pick 1999 draft)

One year removed from a championship season, a talented Spurs team burned the 2nd to last pick in the 1999 NBA Draft on a lanky 21 year old Argentian wingman that could nail a long-range jumper, dish the rock like a 2nd point guard and take a charge with the sort of flair that draws phantom foul calls from unsuspecting referees. Like many foreign imports before him and since, Ginobli was taken more as a project than as an expected franchise-changer. But like Tony Parker after him, Ginobli's game translated better to the NBA than most could have imagined, and he has been a key player for one of the best teams of the NBA this past decade.

Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs, 1st pick 1997 draft)

Wait, you ask, how could the #1 pick in a draft be classified as a steal?

It's not the pick itself, an obvious one as Duncan was far and away the best player in the 1997 draft, but the circumstances that led to the Spurs acquiring their future franchise player.

The Spurs themselves were a fairly tough playoff team during the 1990's, led by star center David Robinson. Early in the 1996-1997 season, however, Robinson went down with a season ending broken foot. This with other injuries left the Spurs in shambles, and a normally competitive Spurs team stumbled to a league worst 20-62 record, which helped them win the NBA Draft Lottery and the 1st pick in the next draft.

This allowed the Spurs to add Wake Forest's Tim Duncan, giving the Spurs the leagues best post duo in the rehabilitated Robinson and the young Duncan. The #1 pick, usually reserved for giving one of the league's worst teams the draft's best talent, had by a twist of fate landed the best talent with one of the league's best teams.

The Spurs won their first NBA Championship the next season, and would go on to win three more NBA titles (2003, 2005, 2007) with Duncan as their centerpiece.

Nick Van Exel (Los Angeles Lakers, 37th pick 1993 draft)

The 3-point specialist out of a talented University of Cincinnati program didn't jump out at any draft scouts, but the Lakers were keen on Van Exel's shooting ability when their 37th pick came up and he remained on the board. Van Exel became the Lakers' starting point guard right away and he became a pivotal star for the post-Magic Lakers. He averaged 14-16 points per game and 7-9 assists during five Laker seasons, while nailing 1528 career threes and logging 76 career playoff games with three different teams over thirteen NBA seasons. Cincy coach Bob "Huggy Bear" Huggins taught him well.

Latrell Sprewell (Golden State Warriors, 25th pick 1992 draft)

Before he became known for choking out coach PJ Carlesimo at a practice, the one time rim-spinning basketball star was a talented but not quite heralded star from the University of Alabama, who jumped ship after a good but not great sophomore season at a so-so college program to go pro. As a result, his stock wasn't terribly high and he fell to the late 1st round, where the Warriors considered him an academic pick at 25. Before attempting to strangle his coach, Sprewell became one of the league's biggest scoring threats with an all around game of hyper speed power-dunks combined with an outside shooter's touch, leading a typically poor Warriors team in scoring from 1993-1994 until he choked out Carlesimo in December 1997.

The attack led to a season long suspension and an eventual trade to the Knicks. Violence and legal troubles hung over Sprewell for the rest of his productive but checkered career, but the Warriors still netted a huge score when he fell to him in the 1992 draft.