NBA Draft: Every team’s best pick ever

Every team has victories and failures in their NBA Draft history. Which player was the best pick each team ever made?

The NBA Draft is a day full of excitement and dread — the anticipation of adding a new player to your favorite team, and the dread of drafting someone from Duke. All the legends of the game can trace their beginnings back to the draft, and all the busts can trace their beginnings back to that fateful day as well.

For each team, which player has been their best pick in franchise history? For some franchises (Cleveland, cough, cough) the choice is obvious. For other franchises, like the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers, with a pile of Hall-of-Famers, which player has been the best pick ever?

Some rules for this exercise: the player has to be a pick by the team they played for. Pau Gasol isn’t the best Memphis Grizzlies draft pick ever, because he was selected by the Atlanta Hawks. Dirk Nowitzki isn’t the best Dallas Mavericks draft pick ever, because he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks. It doesn’t matter if it was a trade agreed to before the draft — originals only.

With that rule in place, let’s see which players were the best picks ever for their team.

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