Finn Wentworth isn’t a well-known Nets executive. He was franchise president back in 2000 and was chosen by the team to witness the draft that year in a back room at the NBA TV headquarters in Secaucus, N.J. where the ping pong balls were drawn. The New Jersey Nets had a 4.4% chance in the Lottery that May 20 after finishing seventh. Moreover, the Draft was not very good. In fact, it may well have been the worst draft in NBA history (until maybe 2004.)
There was only one obvious top pick, Kenyon Martin
of Cincinnati and he had broken his leg at the end of the season! When the careers of the picks were tallied up, Martin was one of three players eventually selected to an All-Star team and he was only selected once. Mike Miller of Florida, taken at No. 5, was Rookie of the Year and the player with overall best career, an All-Star and All-NBA selection, Michael Redd of Ohio State who was taken all the way down at No. 43. A lesson to be learned there!
So hopes were not high. “Ours was the worst draft,” Wentworth told Brian Lewis recently. But the oddsmakers were wrong and the Nets secured a building block. The franchise-changer would come the next off-season when Rod Thorn traded Stephan Marbury for Jason Kidd.
When the winning combination for the Nets came up — 6-8-9-14 — Wentworth was the first to know things had finally changed in the Meadowlands.
“I had the sheets in front of me, and when he pulled out those balls, I checked them off, and I just yelled ‘bingo,’ because I thought it was kind of a fun exercise just to show how it works,” Wentworth said. “Then he goes, ‘Finn Wentworth and the New Jersey Nets have the No. 1 pick in the 2000 draft.’”
Immediately, the told Lewis, representatives from other teams approached him about possible trades … before he had left the room!
“I was like, ‘No, we’re good, we’re good,’” Wentworth recalled. “We’re just going to keep this thing.”
The fun had only begun. The results were brought to the TV studio and deputy commissioner Russ Granik read them out, much to the never-ending delight of co-owner Lewis Katz…
“That was the worst draft in NBA history, arguably. And we got the only guy who became a star. We got the only guy who really should’ve been [a top pick],” he said, ticking off the names of prospects once revered but now footnotes. “It was [Martin] and Stromile Swift and Darius Miles, guys that most people unless you’re a basketball-aholic wouldn’t recognize.” Another lesson learned, perhaps?
The ramifications were instant. On June 7, three weeks before the Draft, Thorn was hired away from the NBA head office where he was Commissioner David Stern’s No. 2.
“If we don’t have the No. 1 pick, I’m not sure if Rod’s coming,” said Wentworth who recruited Thorn in the back of co-owner Ray Chambers corporate jet. “Rod comes [in], and they were saying Stromile Swift and Darius Miles. As hard as it is for a lot of people to think, but they thought Darius Miles was going to be the next Penny Hardaway, and Stromile Swift was going to be the next [Karl] Malone from Utah.
“But, of course, Rod looked right through it, and said Kenyon’s the guy. And then on the Kidd deal, some people were nervous trading Stephon Marbury away at a young age. And inside the organization, they didn’t want it to be the next Dr. J … [but] Rod saw it clearly for what it could be. And he was right.”
What’s Wentworth’s take on the situation today? He likes their chances, he told Lewis. He even offered some advice, based on his experience in the Draft Room when he was surrounded by the lottery losers.
“Ours was the worst draft,” Wentworth said. “This is arguably the best draft in the modern era…
“Depending on who you believe is the No. 1 player — the kid from BYU or Duke or Peterson from Kansas — if you’re saying that’s my guy and you believe the [top team] might want someone else, but you’re not sure about the guy in between, if you’re No. 3, I’d offer draft picks, move up and take my guy,” Wentworth said. “This is one of those drafts where it’s very, very deep. You have three or four guys that are A-pluses, and you have a bunch of As.
“… If [the Wizards] are looking at finally rebuilding and getting up to the next level, it’s going to take more than one player in this draft. So keep an eye out for that. … If [Brooklyn] gets the No. 1 pick, it’s not an issue. But if you get the No. 3 pick for example, or if they ended up No. 4. They have something we did not have, which is the amount of capital, equity that they could use to buy up.”
Indeed, an NBA insider told ND that he thinks that with all their assets, all those picks — 13 firsts, 22 seconds and two first round swaps — the Nets could move up two spots.
“The only reason you bank firsts like that is to be able to strike opportunistically,” he said. “Now [moving up] in this Draft and they will have to find a dance partner but say they land in the dreaded fifth spot. They have enough draft capital to get them to the third.”
All of that, of course, can wait till Joe Tsai starts shaking hands. A lot, hopefully.
