Geoff Petrie (left) stands with prototypical Petrie draft pick (right)
One of the guys that has been getting a lot of recent burn as a potential lottery selection for the Kings is Greg Monroe. Invariably, there is a statement that runs something like, "He is a Geoff Petrie type of player," or "he could be successful in the Kings Princeton-style offense." Never mind the fact that the Kings really have not run the Princeton for the last couple of years, I am intrigued as to what kind of draft pick is a Petrie pick. I mean, I know that GP has had a penchant for signing certain types of free agents (prefers bigs that can hit a mid-range jumper), but is there a pattern to his 1st round draft picks? For brevity and relevance, let’s stick to the last ten 1st round picks.
Jason Williams (7th pick, 1998) – Williams was a bit of an unknown and arguably a reach at #7. He was a ball handling wizard and a halfway decent shooter with a spotty reputation, which included a background in imbibing in weed. Williams really didn’t really replicate any Petrie pick prior to J-Will’s selection or since.
Hedo Turkoglu (16th pick, 2000) – This pick cemented Petrie as an international man of mystery. Turkoglu marked Petrie’s 2nd foray into drafting 1st round Euros (Peja being the first), and if you include GP’s 2nd round selection of Dejan Bodiroga, Petrie was now regarded as having a leg up in the foreign markets. It would be another nine years before Petrie used a 1st round pick to draft his next foreign player.
Gerald Wallace (25th pick, 2001) – Wallace was very highly regarded coming out of high school, but a disappointing freshman year at Alabama dropped him into the lower portion of the 1st round. Wallace was known as a freakish athlete, but no one was sure how his game would translate to the NBA. The young man could finish with authority, but couldn’t really shoot a lick.
Kevin Martin (26th pick, 2004) – Martin was known as a scorer, but the ugly hitch in his shot, coupled with his small college background, had most NBA teams looking the other way.
Francisco Garcia (23rd pick, 2005) – Garcia was pretty well known for his leadership at Louisville, especially in the NCAA tourney. The question on Garcia was whether he did anything exceptionally. He was a good (but not great) shooter. He was a good (but not great) floor general. He was a good (but not great) defender. He was thought to be a pretty good pick at 23, maybe a guy that could have a decent NBA career.
Quincy Douby (19th pick, 2006) – Ah, the downside of selecting a guy that kills it in workouts. Douby shattered all known Kings workout shooting records, and the Kings were certain that they had drafted (at best) the next Bobby Jackson or (at worst) Eddie Johnson. They wound up with a ‘tweener that could not forge a niche for himself in the NBA.
Spencer Hawes (10th pick, 2007) – This was called a Petrie pick, but I just don’t see where any of the above mentioned players replicate Hawes. Certainly, one could draw comparisons to Vlade Divac (free agent) and Brad Miller (trade). But Hawes was the first of his kind as a Petrie draft pick. And it would have been interesting to see who Petrie would have chosen if he would have had his choice of Hawes, Joakim Noah and Brendan Wright (both were selected just prior to the Kings pick).
Jason Thompson (12th pick, 2008) – On the surface, this would fit that perceived mold of a Petrie player – a big guy that can handle, pass and shoot. But what we have found out about Thompson is that he has a little more banger in him and a little less polish on him. And as has been discussed around StR, Hawes and JT are really more different than they are alike.
Tyreke Evans & Omri Casspi (4th & 23rd pick, 2009) – The tough guy draft. The draft where we went away from white collar players in favor of blue collar players. And I’ll buy that to an extent, though I think that (especially) Garcia and Thompson are tougher than they are given credit. Petrie must have completely eschewed the shooting drill results when it came to Evans. Casspi fits the Turkoglu/Stojakovic mold inasmuch as he is a foreign-born player, but his game is more Shawn Marion than it is Hedo or Peja.
So, how does this help us determine who Petrie will select this year? Well, he will select either a guard, forward or center, between 6 and 7 feet tall, weighing somewhere between 165 and 245 pounds (sorry about that, DeMarcus). The pick will be male, and will hail from the planet earth. He will be a college or foreign player. If he comes from the college ranks, it will be from a larger or smaller school. He will be smooth or rough. The selection is likely to catch at least a few people by surprise.
And that is the definition of a Geoff Petrie pick. Really, it’s that simple.