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NBA Draft 2016: History of the #52 draft pick and Utah Jazz possibilites this year

The impact is hard to find this low, but some of these guys turned into rotation player.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

When you have a pick in the #52 range you have to be realistic. These are among the last 10 picks in the draft, and some of the guys who go undrafted may be less regarded but have a higher fire to compete. As a result you see a tale being told with the late draft picks in the modern era -- they are trending more and more towards draft and stash types. And with international scouting being what it is, and international players increasingly putting their names up for being drafted, this is a trend that is only going to continue. For example, the last two #52 picks haven't even played a minute of NBA ball, and both are foreigners. Last season the Utah Jazz had a late pick as well, #54, and selected Dani Diez and promptly traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers. That's not a bad move, history tells us so because the #52s that we see here are rarely difference makers. If anything, they are warm bodies. You need to carry at least 13 on a roster and have a maximum number of spots that ends at 15. If you are looking for a warm body you will find one here, but it's unlikely that the player will actually be distinguishable from a 2rd or 3rd year NBA DL player. There are a few exceptions:

Draft Tm Player Age Pos College G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% WS WS/48
1 1986 CHI Ricky Wilson 21.3 G George Mason 24 17.5 5.2 1.1 2.9 1.0 0.1 39.1% 38.5% 72.5% 0.3 0.032
2 1987 CLE Donald Royal 21.0 F Notre Dame 504 16.8 6.3 2.8 1.0 0.5 0.2 47.3% 0.0% 77.0% 19.1 0.109
3 1988 NJN Derrick Hamilton Southern Mississippi
4 1989 PHO Greg Grant 22.3 G Trenton State 274 12.2 2.8 0.9 2.7 0.6 0.0 38.3% 28.1% 71.0% 1.6 0.023
5 1990 CLE Stefano Rusconi 21.3 C-F International 7 4.3 1.1 0.9 0.4 0.0 0.3 33.3% 40.0% -0.1 -0.104
6 1991 LAL Anthony Jones Oral Roberts
7 1992 CHI Matt Steigenga 22.1 F Michigan State 2 6.0 1.5 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.5 25.0% 0.0% 50.0% 0.0 -0.126
8 1993 SAC Mike Peplowski 22.3 C Michigan State 68 10.4 2.9 2.6 0.4 0.3 0.4 55.6% 0.0% 53.1% 1.0 0.067
9 1994 PHO Anthony Goldwire 22.3 G Houston 266 18.6 6.3 1.3 2.8 0.6 0.0 40.7% 38.6% 79.2% 6.4 0.062
10 1995 IND Fred Hoiberg 22.3 G Iowa State 541 18.4 5.4 2.7 1.6 0.8 0.1 43.1% 39.6% 85.4% 27.6 0.133
11 1996 IND Mark Pope 23.3 F Kentucky 153 10.7 1.9 1.7 0.4 0.2 0.3 40.1% 17.9% 57.3% 1.3 0.038
12 1997 VAN C.J. Bruton Indian Hills
13 1998 SAS Derrick Dial 22.2 G Eastern Michigan 82 8.4 3.1 1.6 0.8 0.3 0.1 37.2% 19.0% 67.2% 0.6 0.045
14 1999 POR Roberto Bergersen Boise State
15 2000 MIA Ernest Brown 21.0 C Indian Hills 3 7.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 16.7% 25.0% -0.2 -0.349
16 2001 UTA Jarron Collins 22.2 F-C Stanford 542 15.8 3.9 2.9 0.8 0.3 0.2 45.5% 0.0% 69.9% 15.7 0.088
17 2002 MIA Rasual Butler 23.0 G-F La Salle 809 21.3 7.5 2.4 0.8 0.4 0.5 40.3% 36.2% 74.7% 20.8 0.058
18 2003 TOR Remon Van de Hare International
19 2004 SAS Romain Sato Xavier
20 2005 DEN Axel Hervelle 21.2 F International
21 2006 LAC Guillermo Diaz 21.1 G Miami 6 3.0 0.8 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.0 25.0% 0.0% 60.0% 0.0 0.033
22 2007 POR Taurean Green 20.2 G Florida 17 4.4 1.6 0.6 0.6 0.1 0.0 28.0% 18.2% 91.7% -0.1 -0.066
23 2008 MIA Darnell Jackson 22.2 F Kansas 138 7.5 2.2 1.5 0.2 0.2 0.1 44.9% 23.5% 64.4% 1.3 0.059
24 2009 IND A.J. Price 22.3 G UCONN 261 15.1 5.8 1.4 2.2 0.5 0.0 38.0% 31.6% 74.2% 4.7 0.058
25 2010 BOS Luke Harangody 22.2 F Notre Dame 70 12.4 3.6 2.8 0.5 0.3 0.3 37.6% 24.1% 73.7% 0.9 0.048
26 2011 DET Vernon Macklin 24.3 F Florida 23 5.9 2.0 1.5 0.2 0.2 0.2 54.3% 57.1% 0.5 0.161
27 2012 GSW Ognjen Kuzmic 22.0 C International 37 4.4 0.9 1.0 0.2 0.1 0.1 52.0% 60.0% 0.2 0.061
28 2013 MIN Lorenzo Brown 22.3 G NC State 63 13.2 3.3 1.7 2.3 0.7 0.2 36.9% 15.2% 66.7% -0.2 -0.013
29 2014 PHI Vasilije Micic 20.2 G International
30 2015 DAL Satnam Singh 19.2 C International
31 2016 UTA To Be Determined

Thanks to Basketball-Reference for the data, by the way!

Donald Royal. Fred Hoiberg. Jarron Collins. Rasual Butler. These are the only #52 picks over the last 30 seasons who played in at least 500 career games. Common thread here? Three of those guys could play defense, one of them was a solid shooter. Does that mean that #52 is chock full of "three and D" types? Nope. Also, this is a startling reminder of just how invisible Jarron was. His career numbers are 3.9 ppg and 2.9 rpg. If the best chance for a #52 could be a Jarron Collins it is easy to say "pass" on this pick.

Don't: even expect to draft Jarron Collins.

Do expect: that it's someone who you could be seeing very shortly in the Salt Lake Summer League!

Prediction: this pick is the result of trading the Jarnell Stokes draft rights. I predict that whatever happens, we're still going to be scratching our head after. It's more likely that the Jazz trade this pick unless there's someone they really want. The team did spend a lot of time scouting guys who are bubble 2nd rounders, so maybe they know something special about one of the guys on the board. I'm okay with being surprised. We were last year with Trey Lyles -- who was a way better Pro player than NCAA guy. If the Jazz are going to draft around this spot it could be a draft and stash (lots of the same bigmen from #42 could be around, like Rade Zagorac (Serbia) and Georgios Papagiannis (Greece)). But I'd actually like to see a player at some point . . . remember that Jarrod Uthoff guy? The skinnier stretch big from Iowa who is athletic, blocks shots, and hit threes? Let's just pencil him in here. There are sexier names, of course, like Wayne Selden and Anthony "Cat" Barber. But the Jazz didn't work those guys out. They did work out Uthoff.

Gut Feeling: Utah could trade his pick. And really, all this pick is right now is an asset. And if anything, we shouldn't get too attached to our picks, it's the players they eventually turn into that matter. Right now I have the Jazz trading #12, likely to be trading #42, and should be trading #52 as well. That doesn't mean Utah isn't getting any new guys. I think it's more than fair to assume a 2013 Draft style for the 2016 Draft. The front office will get the guys they want, but they may not start the night off picking at those spots (#14 Shabazz Muhammad, #21 Gorgui Dieng, and #46 Erick Green turned into #9 Trey Burke, #27 Rudy Gobert, and #47 Raul Neto). I don't think anyone would pick the hand the team was dealt (Bazz, et al.) over the team they turned their cards in for (Rudy, et al.). So my gut is that we may also be trading #52. But the team may be leaving the draft with some of the guys they did work out pre-draft.