NBA 2004 Redraft: Picking between high school and college champions

#12 Pick: Anderson Varejao (Originally: Robert Swift)

Robert Swift was a solid prospect for the Sonics who had his career ravaged by knee injuries so quickly that he was never quite able to make it. He will still be taken later in this draft but what he ended up being is not worthy of a lottery pick.

Instead we will go with a different, extremely raw center in Anderson Varejao. From the start, Varejao was exactly the kind of player you wanted to compliment your star, whether it be a young James in Cleveland or Ray Allen in Seattle. He was all hustle, all defense and completely unselfish. He was a per 36 All-Star, averaging a career line of 10.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.

Varejao was extremely efficient (career eFG percentage of .511) and was a phenomenal teammate. In the worst-case scenario, he is a carryover and gets to play with Kevin Durant in a few years as the team moves on from Seattle.

Sometimes bad luck is all that you can blame for someone like Robert Swift and no matter the pick it was not meant to be. But Varejao took many a beating and kept getting back up, so it’s worth taking your chances on him here.

With the thirteenth pick in the 2004 NBA Redraft, the Portland Trail Blazers select…