Most memorable NBA Draft moments ever

Bruno Caboclo is two years away from being two years away, 2014

One of the more notable and useful draft proclamations was uttered by international basketball expert Fran Fraschilla when a relative unknown was drafted in the first round by the Toronto Raptors. Even most of the draft experts in the building were confounded. In fact, I’ve graded mock drafts the past two years, and when he was picked I noted that no one even had him going in the second round, much less the first. In the modern NBA draft where there’s a mountain of player information online with an innumerable amount of articles on who will or should draft whom, there are rarely true surprises, and this was one of them.

The pick was not a total failure, however. Crowd reactions aren’t always the most informed. I’ll always remember Knick fans jeering Renaldo Balkman at the 20th pick in the draft. It’s late enough that players there are rarely useful, and he actually was a decent player for them for a while — this was during a particularly chaotic era where he was one of a handful of reliable players for them. There’s no reason to boo a pick that late. It’s been two years since Caboclo has been drafted, and he’s actually been ahead of many expectations. He’s logged a few stray NBA minutes and appeared like the sort of raw player you’d see at the end of the first round, not an unknown who was two years away from being a prospect.

I don’t know what Caboclo will be in 2018 — perhaps he’ll be a real rotation player. He could be a breakout star. Or he could be out of the league. But back in 2014, he was the centerpiece of one of the most memorable draft moments.

Next: Cleveland picks Anthony Bennett number one overall, 2013