1. Buck Williams (PF) – No. 3 in 1981 NBA Draft
Career stats (with the Nets, 1981-89): 635 GP, 16.4 PPG, 11.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, 0.9 SPG, 1.1 BPG, 55.0% FG, 10.0% 3P, 64.9% FT
The Nets’ best draft pick off all time led the team to its second-longest streak of success. His 42.1 win shares from 1981-86 helped New Jersey clinch five consecutive playoff berths.
Buck Williams is the only Nets draftee to have multiple All-Star appearances, netting three. He was also the 1981 Rookie of the Year, made the 1983 All-NBA Second Team and the 1988 All-Defensive Second Team.
Williams was an ironman for the Nets. From 1981-87, he played 491 out of the team’s 492 games. He also averaged a double-double every season from 1981-88. Williams averaged 16.9 points and 12.3 rebounds per game over those seven years.
Those numbers are particular impressive considering his size. Williams was a dominant post presence and rebounder while standing 6’8″ and weighing 225 pounds.
Much like Lopez, Williams did all of this while the organization around him seemed to always be in flux. Players were constantly getting injured, the team went through six different coaches during his time, and one of his best teammates — Michael Ray Richardson — was banned from the league due to drug violations.
But Williams wanted to remain with the team, serving as a stabilizing force. He expressed this to Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News in 2012.
"“We had so many characters, it was like ‘Animal House,’” he said. Back in the mid-80s, everybody told Buck to demand a trade to escape the destructive eccentricities of his teammates. He wouldn’t do it. ‘I believe in being loyal to a fault, I guess,’ Williams said. ‘We had all kinds of problems keeping that team intact. If I publicly criticized the team, we wouldn’t have had a foundation. All around, everything was falling apart. I had to be the Rock of Gibraltar.’”"
Williams would be that rock until he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer of 1989. Oddly enough, despite his amazing play in the 80s, most modern NBA fans know him more for his time with the Blazers (1989-96) and the Knicks (1996-99).
Next: Knicks - Top 10 NBA Draft picks in franchise history
Still, Buck Williams is the second-longest tenured Net. This undersized forward out of Maryland helped the Nets see their first taste of sustained success in the NBA. That makes him the best draft pick in Nets history.