Loaded drafts don't fizzle after the 5th pick and Hinrich was also considered a reach at 7. There were a lot of people disappointed in that pick also. His NBA career has been solid so that obscures the fact that there were not high hopes for the pick. There was not a lot of talk about the Bulls trading up to acquire Wade also (at the time). I listened to a lot sports talk back then and the thought was that if he fell to the Bulls fine but if not take the best guy available. The only reason that it even comes up now is because he turned out to be a Hall of Famer. His post draft career is the only reason that this is even being discussed. Why is it thus inappropriate to talk about the post draft careers of the other guys?

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i remember Paxson stating that it was the reason that he did not draft him. He'd had serious knee injuries in college and that was a red flag for him. He turned out to be correct on that. Paxson has for the most part drafted well particularly in the later parts of the draft. He missed on Aldridge obviously and the thing that pissed me off the most about Thomas was that it was un Paxson like. He usually doesn't draft so-called "upside guys". Thomas was a redshirt freshman that had a good game against Aldridge and Texas during the tournament and I think that swayed Paxson's thinking. If I remember right Aldridge was playing hurt that game. Aldridge clearly was the better player but Thomas looked freakishly athletic. He was all over the court and appeared to be the difference maker during the game.

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That was the reason. Paxson has been hesitant to draft a high ceiling/low floor guy since Thomas. They thought P.J. Brown could help Thomas make the transition but he wasn't able to. As Pippen said Tyrus Thomas was a hell of a player from the neck down.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Because for our purposes here, it doesnt matter what happened later. We were discussing how Dwayne Wade was thought of prior to the draft


Many thought Wade would be a star after his performance in March Madness when he shot up the mock drafts.

The fact that Chad Ford thought he would go 7th and he ended up going 5th doesnt speak to him not being highly touted.

Both mock drafts that I located ESPN and Draft net both had Wade going past five. In fact Draft net had Hinrich going fifth to the Heat. Wade was not predicted to be an NBA star. Probably a very good player not a star. I just provided evidence to what I originally stated. There isn't much more to do on that. He was a breakout college star but that doesn't mean he was going to be an NBA hall of famer. It's easy to say now but that wasn't predicted 12 yrs ago. There were two guys that were considered can't miss from that draft James and Anthony. Wade was not.

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