How did Pierce fall so far in the Draft?

[MiamiCelticfan]

Sixers had made a promise to Hughes and didn't want to be the franchise to back out on a promise, so they kept it.  See linked video to interview with Larry Brown who says he would have taken Pierce without the promise.

http://dimemag.com/2009/06/nba-draft-promises-could-cost-you-the-next-paul-pierce/

Pierce also supposedly told the Raptors at 4 and Kings at 7 that he didn't want to play for them.  None of the other teams really had a need until Boston.  In addition, there were grumblings that some of his workouts were poor and people questioned his attitude.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1998/weekly/980706/nba0706/a.html

You basically just solved this mystery for me.  Thanks.  I just can't believe looking back that anyone would take LaFrentz (who played with Pierce in college) at #3.  Anyone remember who Denver had at SF and SG that year (1998)?

There in lies the problem. Kansas fans will tell you that roy williams put to much faith in lafrentz when pierce was clearly the better player. Im still amzae
amazed that team with vaughn, hass, pierce, lafrenta, ans scott pollard never won the title.

[goz421]

Let me tell you young guys how it is.  This is right in my time period when I followed every thing in college hoops.  During the regular season Kansas was a juggernaut pounding everyone.  They were the favorites going into the tournaments. Pierce's numbers were lower because they pounded so many people.  Then he suffered a really bad sprain going into the tournament.  Like Pierce is he gutted it out, but he wasn't the same.  I remembering watching him struggle and Kansas go down to a lesser team.

Then he shirked some workouts.  I remember telling everyone when he was drafted he was the real deal and they just smirked at me.  It was kind of the Curtis Martin syndrome.

[Jon]

I think a lot also had to do with

1) Teams becoming obsessed with big men and point guards.  Even Larry Hughes was thought to have PG potential at that point.

2) Teams drafting for need, rather than talent (somewhat of an overlap with 1, but how else do you explain Tractor Traylor?). 

[Jaycelt]

This questions seems to come up at least once a year and there is still a lot of erroneous information passed off as fact.
Let me just clear up a few things.

 #1- Pierce was not outplayed by Cutino Mobley. They never even guarded each other. Pierce played small forward his entire college career.  The guy that got out played by Mobley did have a short stint with the C's however, remember Billy Thomas?  True, Pierce couldn't hit a single outside shot in that game but he still finished 9 of 19 with 23 points.  Thomas was 2 of 15.  I've never heard any NBA scout point to that game as a negative.
 #2- The poor workouts was a rumor started by Denver after they immediately caught tons of flack for their choice of LaFrentz from their fans and hometown media.  Pierce and his agent adamantly denied those rumors and even the other GM's he tried out for came to his defense on this issue saying he had great workouts.

#3- The only team Pierce's agent said he would not play for was Toronto. He made a choice that he would rather play near friends and family in his birth town of Oakland.  No one even considered he could go lower than that.  The problem comes when Denver picked size in LaFrentz, the Warriors picked size in Jamison (in a trade with Toronto for Carter), the Mav's picked size in Nowitzki, the Bucks picked size in Traylor (also in a trade) and the 76ers held to their promise to Hughes. Sacramento's choice was just odd, although his ESPN highlights did bring a lot of fan buzz.  A lot of dominos falling against Paul, only one of which he had anything to do with. 

#4- Carter and Jamison were both highly thought of, both being consensus all Americans, as were both Pierce and LaFrentz.  As has already been mentioned Hughes was also well thought of having been a freshman force at St Louis playing basically as a one man team.

[ibby]

TP for you Jaycelt.  I forgot that LaFrentz was an All-American.  I always thought he would be a pro closer to what Christian Laettner became.  I actually was excited when the C's traded for him.

[Brendan]

LaFrentz was an athletic big man with range and All American.

Pierce and Dirk both should have gone further and it was our good fortune both were around at 9. WIN - WIN at that point.

[kozlodoev]

LaFrentz was a very, very good NBA player before the injuries -- he lead the NBA in blocked shots, and had legitimate three-point range. Of course, we all know how that ended, but hindsight is always 20/20.