NBA Draft promise that led to 76ers picking Larry Hughes instead of Paul Pierce

[stb]

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2015/05/larry_brown_explains_nba_draft.html

[CelticGuardian]

Wow, I like how incompetent the 76ers and the Nets are, it is pure comedy.

[Emmette Bryant]

Larry Hughes wasn't the only bad player in that draft that went before Paul Pierce.  The really epic screw up was by the Clippers, who drafted the Candyman at #1.

Funny thing is that a lot of the players in that draft ended up playing for the Celtics.  Michael Olowokandi, Ricky Davis, Raef LaFrentz, Shammond Williams, and Bruno Sundov all ended up in Boston.

[bdm860]

I'm not really sure why GM's make these promises in the first place (maybe so a team drafting behind them won't interview the player, fall in love with him, then try to trade up a few spots to steal him)?

But to be fair, Pierce was supposed to be a top 3 pick (example here, here, and here), and after #5, if we exclude Dirk (because foreign scouting hadn't really taken off yet), Hughes was arguably the best player taken between 6 and Rashard Lewis at 32 (though Jason Williams or Al Harrington fans might disagree with that).

Most other years, that's probably a pretty safe promise.  He was probably around the 8th best player taken in that entire draft.  If anything Larry Brown seems spot on with his player analysis, from the article it says he ranked Pierce #2 and Hughes no worse than #8.  That looks pretty spot on to me