In light of the 2020 draft and whom you think is a can’t miss, curious if folks are able to go back to the last few days prior to previous drafts to recall who was a no-brainer.
== 2013 Draft ==
In the Cody arena-boo draft, looks like Bleacher Report had the following as top per position in the draft
PG: Trey Burke
SG: Ben McLemore
SF: Otto Porter
PF: Anthony Bennett (I didn’t realize anyone other than CLE valued him in any top tier)
C: Nerlens Noel
from:
For me personally, I don’t think I knew who to like in this draft. I didn’t dislike the Cody pick as the word out of the combine was that he was otherworldly athletically. But I think he wasn’t in the top 2 or 3 I would have picked. At the same time, the only guys I absolutely did not want was Len and Noel.
== 2014 Draft ==
I think the link below reflects most opinions at the time that the top 3 were locked at Parker, Embiid, and Wiggins.
Here we’re picking 9th and I recall that a lot our talk here never thought Vonleh would drop to us. I had several odd crushes but the guy I thought was an absolute won’t miss, can’t miss absolutely appears to have missed - Dante Exum. I recall a couple folks here were solidly sold on Nik Stauskas and Doug McDermott. In the end, the funnier miss might be Jokic at pick #41 rather than misses in the top 10.
== 2015 Draft ==
Bogg, this godfather deal is for you buddy 
So maybe this one is just bad karma to open up but funny to replay this one. Like 2014, I had several man crushes and none of them included Frank the Tank (though I was not unhappy with the pick at the time). IIRC, Hezonja was one I kept coming back to wanting if we could get him. I believe I was pretty convinced I’d be happy with Stanley Johnson as well. Either way, the only guy I absolutely did not want was Winslow.
(skipping 2016 because - gestures in Italian)
== 2017 Draft ==
I sheepishly wanted John Collins - strong want because Wake Forest but sheepish because I was afraid I was over-hyping him due to proximity and familiarity. The other guy I really liked to try pair him alongside Kemba (because Cliff liked the 2 PG pairings) was Ntilikina. The two guys I absolutely did not want was Luke Kennard and Justin Jackson. It really was an ACC-issues draft for me
I was super happy with Monk, I never thought he was falling to us. I thought most mocks had him going between 5-8.
– hoping some of you guys can recall your man crushes, right or wrong - and add.
I think the two drafts that come to mind for me as the ones where I knew who I definitively wanted and would do whatever it took to get there (and I’m sure the posts are up here somewhere to validate my claims), were the Steph and Luka drafts. In both drafts, I was adamant to trade whatever we had to in order to move up and take them. I know it takes a trade partner, but I don’t know many teams who would turn down 3 1st rounders (at least, and I’d be willing to go as high as 4) from a historically dysfunctional franchise lol. Also, knowing what we know now with how Kemba’s chapter ended here, we could’ve definitely thrown him in there in a package for Luka. I bet the Hawks are kicking themselves right now as well.
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