I was 12 when Bias passed away, and I have never recovered. Whenever I see a Shawn Kemp video, I think "look, that'd have been Bias, but with a lot more offense". Bias would have been a power 3/4, to spell Bird/McHale, and he certainly would allow KC Jones to keep McHale on the bench when he broke his foot. So, yes he could have been a huge difference in 1987 and beyond.
The Celtics still would have drafted Reggie Lewis, who was a long SG/SF, and with that duo, we'd be talking about #20 or #21. Bias was that good, and Reggie could play shutdown D on Michael Jordan (3 blocks in a game? watch it on Youtube). The Celtics would've been kings in the East for a long time. But it didn't happen.
And for the horrible picks, you can look at this list (1st round):
1989 Michael Smith at 13th - no way you pick him with Bias on the team (over Tim Hardaway, Dana Barros, BJ Armstrong, Shawn Kemp, Divac and Cliff Robinson)
1990 Dee Brown at 19th - not bad, but Kukoc was available if they were ready to wait for him, or have they picked a PG like Hardaway.
1991 Rick Fox at 24th - not bad, only undrafted Darrell Armstrong and David Benoit showed flashes. Good pick
1992 Jon Barry at 21st - Sprewell was available, PJ Brown also, but anyway they traded him for Abdelnaby, who was available in 1990 when they picked Brown. Bad move.
1993 Acie Earl at 19th - Acie who? Ervin Johnson had a solid career, Sam Cassell was still there... Ups
1994 Eric Montross at 9th - that's when we all learned you have to draft the best talent available. Drafting a C that year was "turrible" (Yinka Dare, McIlvane, Rebraka...). Eddie Jones and Jalen Rose available, not a lot but still bad move.
1995 Eric Williams at 15th - Not bad (Ed O'Bannon was picked at 9th), he looked good and was an OK player, only Ratliff and Finley were available when he was picked.
1996 Antoine at 6th starts to make sense, have Bias stayed with the C's, he would be 32 and Toine seems a replacement. But still on the table were Kobe, Stojakovic, Nash, JO and Big Z. Not that good of a pick, that started the Kentucky-Pitino years... I'll stop here.
We would need a whole blog to discuss about all the bad trades in that era... if you dare, you can check it out at basketball-reference.
The sad fact is Len Bias and Reggie Lewis passed away, McHale broke his foot, Bird hurt his back, and only Chief lasted enough to get another ring (with da Bulls
). But we still are the Celtics, and I can't think about another NBA franchise who could go through all these misfortunes and still keep trying. If the Lakers had to bear half these hard times, they'd be the Las Vegas Lakers, or Oklahoma City Lakers.
That's why Celtics are #1, Celtic Pride. Go Celtics!!!
Topic: The 80's Celtics would have been better if they did one thing... (Read 13063 times)