NBA Draft: Re-drafting the historic 2009 NBA Draft

Following a disappointing 46-36 season in 2008-09, a year where their better-than-most-people-thought defense cratered to 26th in points allowed per 100 possessions — the Phoenix Suns needed to bring in a player who could get this high-octane team back on the playoff track.

So who did the Suns take in the draft to help forward that mission statement? Louisville combo forward Earl Clark! Instead of droning on about how ineffective Clark was as a pro, I’ll just give you his career stats and let you come to that conclusion yourself: 4.4 points, 3.0 rebounds per game, 46.5 true shooting percentage, 10.2 PER, .038 WS/48.

The Suns thought they were getting another jack of all trades wing, perhaps even a springier version of Boris Diaw, but once he entered a league filled with great athletes, Clark struggled to stand out.

Given the change to do this draft over, Phoenix would’ve been better served to take Memphis Tigers combo guard Tyreke Evans, who won the NBA Rookie of the Year award for Sacramento Kings in the ensuing season.

Evans’ ball-dominant tendencies would’ve created some complications in Phoenix’s rotation — there was no way he was supplanting Steve Nash as the primary ball handler and the team already had a solid second unit scorer in Leandro Barbosa — but playing in Phoenix would’ve kept Evans from being forced to play out of position like he has for most of his career (the New Orleans Pelicans had the audacity to start him at small forward at various points).

Given how injury-prone those mid-to-late-2000s Suns teams were, having another scorer like Tyreke Evans would’ve been a nice insurance policy.