NBA Draft: 2013 historical redraft shows vast differences
By Phil Watson
C. New Orleans Pelicans. Steven Adams. 6. player. 69.
Actual selection: Nerlens Noel, C, Kentucky
The real question with this re-invented pick is whether or not the New Orleans Pelicans would have swapped the rights to Steven Adams to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Jrue Holiday and the rights to second-rounder Pierre Jackson. While Noel’s career in Philadelphia didn’t go as planned, Adams might have solved a dilemma that haunted the Pelicans for several years.
In the Pitt product, New Orleans would have had the guy it needed to free up Anthony Davis from playing the 5 — which he dislikes — while also providing the team with a player who would do the dirty work on the glass and in the screen-and-roll game without needing to have plays run for him.
Adams had increased his scoring numbers every season, from 3.3 points per game as a rookie to 13.9 in 2017-18, a figure he matched in 2018-19, before sliding back to 10.9 points a night this season (but his shots shrunk from 10.1 in 2018-19 to 7.6 in 2019-20).
He’s an old-style center — although he did make his first career 3-pointer this season, he’s hardly what anyone would call a stretch big — who is improving as a passer, adequate as a rim protector and a big body on the glass.
SF. Sacramento Kings. Robert Covington. 7. player. 84.
Actual selection: Ben McLemore, SG, Kansas
What was supposed to be intersects with what actually was in a huge way at No. 7. The Sacramento Kings thought they had gotten a steal in wing Ben McLemore, a consensus All-America and a Wooden Award finalist in his lone season at the University of Kansas.
McLemore averaged a team-best 15.9 points for a Jayhawks team that went 31-6 and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament before stumbling against Michigan in the Sweet 16. McLemore was among the players in the mix for the No. 1 overall pick in this draft before he slipped down the board on draft night.
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By contrast, Tennessee State forward Robert Covington had no such hype. A three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection, Covington missed 10 games due to injury as a senior and the Tigers finished just 18-15, losers in the first round of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.
McLemore was at last a part-time starter for four seasons with the Kings, but underwhelmed before a big bounce-back season in 2019-20 with the Houston Rockets, where he is a teammate of none other than … Robert Covington.
Covington went undrafted, signing with the Rockets and spending most of his rookie season in the D-League, where he averaged 23.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 1.4 blocks per game while earning Rookie of the Year and All-Star MVP honors for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Cut by the Rockets at the end of the preseason in 2014, Covington landed with the Process-era Philadelphia 76ers two weeks later and became a 3-and-D mainstay for the improving club, earning All-Defensive honors in 2017-18, when the 76ers returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
He was later part of the package the 76ers used to rent Jimmy Butler for five months and two playoff series before the Minnesota Timberwolves traded him back to Houston as part of a four-team swap before the deadline last month — what seems like five years ago now.