Best NBA Draft Sleepers of All-Time
6. Sarunas Marciulionis (1987 NBA Draft, 6th Round, 127th Overall)
Sarunas Marciulionis wasn’t selected until the sixth round of the 1987 NBA Draft and didn’t come to play for the Golden State Warriors until the 1989-90 season. When he did arrive as a 25-year-old for that season, though, the Lithuanian winger made his impact felt immediately.
Marciulionis came off the bench for much of his career, starting out in a small role for his first two seasons in Golden State. In 125 games over those first couple of years, he averaged 11.6 points, 1.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals in only 21.5 minutes per game while shooting 51.2 percent from the field. It was in his next two seasons that he truly put himself on the map, though.
From 1991-93, Marciulionis was an absolute monster for the Warriors. Still largely coming off of the bench in the 102 games that he played, he put up 18.5 points, 3.4 assists, three rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 54 percent from the field in 29 minutes per game. He established himself as a force every time he tore off the warm ups and checked in at the scorer’s table.
Marciulionis played three more seasons in the league after that and, while he still produced, never reached the peak that he did in his final two years in Golden State. However, he also had a terrific run on an international stage, winning the gold medal in the 1988 Olympic Games as part of the Soviet Union and taking home the bronze medal in both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. The fact that a player with his prowess and talent, no matter how brief his run was in the NBA, fell as far as he did is remarkable.
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