New Orleans Pelicans: A look back at NBA Draft history before 2017

The New Orleans Pelicans have the 40th overall pick in the upcoming 2017 NBA Draft. Do they have a chance to find an impact player at this spot?

The New Orleans Pelicans don’t have a lengthy NBA history. In fact, they’ve only been in the league a total of 15 seasons.

During that time, they have made it to the playoffs six times, with their most impressive season taking place in 2007-08. That year, the Pelicans won a franchise-best 56 games and finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference.

They defeated the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to the San Antonio Spurs 4-3 in the conference semifinals. After making it to the playoffs five times in their first nine years of existence, the Pelicans have just one postseason appearance over the last six years.

That appearance occurred in 2014-15 when the Pelicans nabbed the No. 8 spot after finishing with a 45-37 mark. The Pels were eventually swept in the opening round by the eventual champion Golden State Warriors, but that series proved to be a coming out party for Anthony Davis.

In that four-game set, he averaged 31.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.0 blocks, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals per contest. On top of that he shot 54 percent from the field and converted 33 of his 36 attempts from the charity stripe.

On the heels of the team’s first playoff appearance in four seasons, Pelicans fans were hoping this was a sign of things to come. However, that has not been the case as New Orleans has won just 39 percent of its games over the last two seasons.

Taking that into consideration, the Pelicans could certainly use an impact player in the upcoming 2017 NBA Draft. The big question is whether or not they will be able to find one by the time they’re on the board at No. 40.

If their past history with this pick is any indicator, the answer is probably not. The one and only instance in which the Pelicans held the 40th overall pick occurred just a year ago.

With that pick, they selected Diamond Stone from the University of Maryland. Stone was billed as one of the more gifted big men in the draft following a season in which he averaged 12.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest on 57 percent shooting in his lone season at Maryland.

Despite the reports about his scoring ability, the Pelicans traded both their 39th and 40th overall picks to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for the rights to Cheick Diallo.

How did Stone fare with the Clippers in 2016-17? Well, not too good to say the least. He appeared in just seven games and averaged 1.4 points and 0.9 rebounds in 3.4 minutes per contest.

Conversely, Diallo averaged 5.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17 games with New Orleans. Perhaps the Clippers knew something the rest of the sports world did not.

While the 40th overall pick isn’t anything to be overly excited about, there are a couple of instances in which this selection produced positive results.

One such example occurred back in 1989 when the Boston Celtics selected Dino Radja at No. 40. Radja spent four additional years playing overseas before joining the Celtics in 1993-94. During his rookie campaign, he averaged 15.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest on 52 percent shooting from the field.

Additionally, Radja earned a spot on the All-Rookie Second Team.  His production was even better over the next two seasons as he averaged 17.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in 1994-95 and 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per outing in 1995-96.

Unfortunately, a knee injury limited Radja to just 25 games in his fourth season. But even still, he averaged a respectable 14.0 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

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The Celts attempted to trade him to the Philadelphia 76ers in the summer of 1997, but he failed the physical and was subsequently waived. Although his career lasted only four seasons, Radja averaged 16.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per contest for a Celtics team that never won more than 35 games during his tenure.

Another instance in which the 40th pick turned out to be a good selection occurred in 2005. That year, the Warriors took Monta Ellis. Initially, it didn’t appear that the Dubs had made the right choice following a rookie season in which he averaged 6.5 points per contest.

In his second season, however, Ellis nearly tripled his scoring average (16.5 PPG) en route to winning the Most Improved Player award. Not only that, from that point on, Ellis’ scoring output never dipped below 17 points per contest during his seven-year tenure with the Warriors and he holds career averages of 17.8 points, 4.6 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 35.7 minutes per outing during that stretch.

Realistically, the chances of the Pelicans finding an impact player at this spot in the draft are very unlikely. Then again, perhaps there is a diamond in the rough waiting to be discovered.

Next: 2017 NBA Mock Draft: Post-Lottery edition

Only time will tell.