NBA 2004 Redraft: Picking between high school and college champions

#20 Pick: Chris Duhon (Originally: Jameer Nelson)

This is a tough loss for the Magic given just how successfully Nelson paired with Howard. Nelson needed to be an older rookie with past success in college. Rather than taking a chance on Sebastian Telfair to pair two high school prospects together, we are copying the mold of Nelson.

Chris Duhon had an extremely successful career at Duke, winning a championship as a freshman and making an additional Sweet Sixteen and Final Four appearance. He averaged 2.3 and 2.2 steals per game in his sophomore and junior seasons, respectively.

While he did not repeat these gaudy steal numbers in the NBA, he was still an above-average defensive player for his position, pairing well with the defensive-minded Howard and Stan Van Gundy.

Duhon was also a solid shooter, averaging 36.3 percent from long range for his career. This is a downgrade from Nelson without a doubt, but remember the run to the Finals came when Nelson was injured. Given the minutes that Nelson got, it’s not hard to imagine Duhon performing similarly.

He only had one season where he averaged more than 31 minutes per game. In 2008-2009 (coincidentally the season the Magic made the Finals) he played 36.8 minutes per game and put up averages of 11.1 points and 7.2 assists per game on 39.1 percent shooting from three. The fit is there. With Nelson off the board, it seems like it could have worked.

With the twenty-first pick in the 2004 NBA Redraft, the Dallas Mavericks select…