Oklahoma City Thunder: History of No. 28 picks - NewsOK.com (blog)

on June 28, 2012M at 9:30 am

Barring trade, the Thunder picks 28th in the NBA Draft on Thursday. Sounds low. But the 28th pick over the years has yielded some decent players. In fact, the Thunder played against four No. 28 picks in the 2012 playoffs alone â€" Miami’s Norris Cole, San Antonio’s Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter, and Dallas’ Ian Mahinmi.

Here are the No. 28 NBA draft picks in the last 30 years, and how much they played in the NBA.

2011: Norris Cole, Cleveland State. Averaged 19.4 minutes a game as a Heat rookie point guard.

2010: Greivis Vasquez, Maryland. Also played against the Thunder, in the 2011 playoffs, as a backup point guard. Averaged 18.9 minutes over 136 games.

2009: Wayne Ellington, North Carolina. In Minnesota’s rotation all three years, averaging 18.7 minutes a game.

2008: Donte Greene, Syracuse. Four Sacramento seasons, with 82 career starts and 16.8 minutes a game.

2007: Tiago Splitter, Brazil. Came to the NBA two years ago and has averaged 15.6 minutes a game; scored 9.3 points a game this season.

2006: Maurice Ager, Michigan State. Played five seasons, 82 games total, just 6.2 minutes a game.

2005: Ian Mahinmi, France. Came to the NBA in 2007; 2011-12 was his first in a rotation, averaging 18.7 minutes a game as a Dallas center.

2004: Beno Udrih, Italy. Eight-year pro, averaging 23.7 minutes a game, with 234 career starts at point guard.

2003: Leandro Barbosa, Brazil. Career 12.5-point scorer, over nine seasons with Phoenix, Toronto and Indiana.

2002: Dan Dickau, Gonzaga. Lasted six years, averaging 5.8 points and 15.4 minutes a game.

2001: Tony Parker, France. Spurs point guard is headed for the Hall of Fame.

2000: Erick Barkley, St. John’s. Point guard played just 27 NBA games, over two seasons.

1999: Scott Padgett, Kentucky. Eight-year power forward but made just 18 NBA starts and averaged just 12.5 minutes per game.

1998: Corey Benjamin, Oregon State. Played just four seasons but averaged 14.3 minutes and 5.5 points a game.

1997: Keith Booth, Maryland. Played just 45 NBA games.

1996: Priest Lauderdale, Central State. Seven-foot-4 center played just 74 NBA games.

1995: Greg Ostertag, Kansas. Eleven NBA seasons, with 321 career starts and 19.5 minutes a game.

1994: Deon Thomas, Illinois. Never played in the NBA.

1993: Lucious Harris, Long Beach State. Twelve-year pro, averaging 7.2 points and 19.6 minutes a game.

1992: Marlon Maxey, Texas-El Paso. Played just 98 NBA games.

1991: Kevin Lynch, Minnesota. Played just 95 NBA games.

1990: Les Jepsen, Iowa. Played just 52 NBA games.

1989: Sherman Douglas, Syracuse. Solid point guard, who over 12 NBA seasons made 482 starts and averaged 11.0 points and 5.9 assists.

1988: Andrew Lang, Arkansas. Solid big man who played 737 NBA games and averaged 20.8 minutes.

1987: Rickie Winslow, Houston. Played just seven NBA games.

1986: Larry Krystkowiak, Montana. . Decent big man who played 420 NBA games and averaged 8.2 points and 4.9 rebounds a game.

1985: Ken Johnson, Michigan State. Played just 64 NBA games.

1984: Cory Blackwell, Wisconsin. Played just 60 NBA games.

1983: Rod Foster, UCLA. Point guard who played just three NBA seasons, but the first two were fairly productive.

1982: Dave Magley, Kansas. Played just 14 NBA games.

NBA draft evaluation seems to be getting better, based on the 28th picks. The last five have been rotational players; so have nine or 10 of the last 11, depending on how you want to count Dan Dickau. But in the 19 drafts before 2001, when Parker was picked, only six No. 28 picks had careers of any length.

Clearly, good players can be found at No. 28. And international players seem to be the way to go. Five international picks at No. 28 since 2000 have been the best â€" Parker, Barbosa, Udrih, Splitter and Mahinmi.

-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.

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