Utah Jazz Draft Woes, Fact or Fiction?

With one day left until the 2006 NBA Draft a lot has been said in the Utah sports media about the "futility" of the Utah Jazz. There was an article that caught my attention by Gordon Monson outlining the mistakes of the Jazz front office, in particular that of Kevin O'Connor. Needless to say the media has been very critical of the Jazz.

I understand that the media is paid to write and opinion and to put something out there that will cause controversy, but often times I feel that they do not always do enough research to support their claims. That being said I decided to perform a statistical analysis comparing the Jazz draft history to that of the rest of the NBA. I looked at all of the drafts from 1996-2005, and here is what I found:

• There have been 288 first round draft picks since 1996, the Jazz have made 13 of those picks.
• On average the Jazz have drafted with the 21st pick.
• The Jazz have 2 of their 13 picks, or 15% still with the team, AK-47 and Deron Williams.
• 91 of the 288 total picks, or 32%, are still with their original team.
• 2 of the 10, or 20%, of the 21st picks are still with their original team.
• 218 of the 288 total picks, or 76% are still in the league.
• 5 of the 10 21st picks, or 50%, are still in the league.
• 10 of the 13 Utah Jazz draft picks, or 77%, are still in the league.

So what does this all mean? In my opinion it means that the Jazz are pretty much on par with the rest of the league, especially when you compare it to their average draft position. They are a little low when it comes to retention of players, but they are above average when it comes to picking players that are going to stay in the league. In my opinion the Utah media is not telling the complete story. The Utah Jazz are on track and are ahead of schedule to a return to the playoffs. Remember that it was only 4 years ago that two of the 50 greatest basketball players in NBA History, John Stockton and Karl Malone, left the team and this rebuilding process began.