2012 NBA Redraft: How wrong we were in real time

#2 Pick: Damian Lillard (Originally: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist)

As bad at the Michael Kidd-Gilchrist pick has aged looking back at the Bobcats roster at the time it makes a lot of sense. Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo were rookies on the team so given that many of the other prospects at the top of the draft were centers and guards it complicates things far beyond the fact that everyone was a believer in MKG. I tend to look at the best player available in the same position they drafted but there is no world where Harrison Barnes goes second.

So drafting the best player available when you win seven games is the right call and we are going to have to go with some positional overlap. Damian Lillard is the only person who comes close to pushing Anthony Davis for number one overall. There was some pause on Lillard coming out of Weber State as a senior but he has been truly phenomenal. Lillard is consistently underrated and is one of the best guards in an era with generational guards.

While Lillard and Walker play ostensibly the same position Lillard has shown for years that he can play with another star guard. Kemba Walker is showing the ability to play alongside ball-dominant teammates this season and Lillard would have clearly been the best teammate Walker ever had in Charlotte.

I love crushing Michael Jordan the executive but I do not know anyone who did not have Kidd-Gilchrist going number 2. The fact that he was a miss still befuddles me.

With the third pick in the 2012 NBA Redraft the Washington Wizards select…