The 16 best 16th picks of all time in the NBA draft originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
With the NBA draft coming up next Wednesday and Thursday, the Sixers have the 16th and 41st overall picks.
After we look back 41st best selections in NBA historyHere is a summary of the 16 best players ever ranked 16th (in no particular order):
John Stockton
Stockton followed his four years at Gonzaga by playing 19 straight for the Jazz. He remains the NBA’s all-time leader in both steal It is Assists.
Metta Sandiford-Artest
The 2003-04 Defensive Player of the Year was known as Ron Artest when the Bulls drafted him 15 picks after Elton Brand. It certainly wasn’t the most stable and smooth career, but Artest was a fantastic defender unforgettable character and NBA champion.
Dana Barros
Before Tyrese Maxey came along, Barros was the Sixers’ single most improved player. The 5-foot-11 Boston College product shot 41.1 percent from three-point range for his career and knocked down nine triples against the Suns on Jan. 27, 1995. Danny Green and Maxey have been tied since then. franchise record.
Knight Brevin
Another under-6-foot guard here in Knight who led the league in total steals his rookie year. He played for nine teams in his 12 seasons.
Nikola Vučević
The Sixers made Vučević the pick after Kawhi Leonard in the 2011 draft. The big man didn’t crack Doug Collins’ playoff rotation as a rookie, was traded to the Magic in the Sixers for Andrew Bynum, and eventually became a (two-time) All-Star.
Tony Delk
Delk came between Steve Nash and Jermaine O’Neal in the incredible 1996 draft. He split his 545-game NBA career between eight teams and dropped 53 points on January 2, 2001.
Jim Price
Price began his career playing point guard alongside Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain on the defending champion Lakers. He made an All-Star Game in 1974-75, when he averaged 16.1 points, 5.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals.
Hedo Türkoğlu
The first Turkish NBA player was a highly skilled 6-10 forward happy to have the ball in the clutch. Türkoğlu was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in the 2007–08 season and played a vital role in the Magic’s Eastern Conference title the following year.
Alperen Sengün
Turkish big man Şengün took a big leap forward last year in his third NBA season, displaying smart feints, footwork and touch and averaging 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the Rockets.
Swen Nater
Nater’s Remarkable Story includes a period in which he went from playing at Cypress College to supporting Bill Walton at UCLA and winning the ABA Rookie of the Year award. The Dutch center led the NBA with 15.0 rebounds per game in the 1979-80 season.
“Scary Terry” came off the bench for the first 164 games of his NBA career and then recorded a triple-double in his first game. Rozier scored 20 points per game over his four and a half years with the Hornets and is now on his third team with the Heat.
Terry Mills
Mills became one of four original excerpts during his early years with the Pistons and shot 38.4 percent from behind the arc in his career.
Rickey Green
Known as “The fastest of all,” Green earned an All-Star spot in the 1983-84 season and led the NBA with 2.7 steals per game. At 36, Green was the Starting point guard for the Sixers in 1990-91.
Ricky Sobers
As a rookie, Sobers played for the 1975-76 Western Conference champion Suns (and fought Warriors superstar Rick Barry early in Game 7 of the Western Finals). “The Super-Sub” averaged 13.3 points and 4.3 assists in 821 NBA games.
Chris Gatling
Gatling was an NBA player who made an All-Star appearance in 1997. The 6-10 lefty logged 85 games – 45 with the Magic, 40 with the Nuggets – in the 1999-2000 season.
Denver signed Nurkić in a trade on draft night in 2014 … and also selected big man Nikola Jokić at No. 41. Nurkić led the NBA in total rebounding percentage last year in his first season as Sol.
