3. Nate Robinson
With the 21st overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, the same draft that saw Marcin Gortat traded for cash, the Suns took the undersized Nate Robinson out of Washington. Phoenix already had Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa at the point guard position, with Eddie House rounding out the rotation.
But as all know now, Robinson developed into one of the best second/third-string point guards in the league, a spark off the bench that might have been useful to the Suns during the Seven Seconds Or Less era. Something tells me Mike D’Antoni would have gotten great things out of Robinson in that up-tempo system.
Unfortunately, the front office didn’t feel the same way, trading Robinson (along with Quentin Richardson, who had had a phenomenal season the year before) to the New York Knicks for Kurt Thomas, the rights to Dijon Thompson and cash considerations on draft day. Thomas played in Phoenix for two seasons and Thompson played a grand total of 10 games for the Suns.
The ripple effects don’t stop there, however. When the Suns traded Thomas’ ugly contract two seasons later, they included not one, but TWO future first round picks in a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder that netted the Suns only one future second-rounder in return.
In 2008, the Thunder used the first pick from Phoenix on Quincy Pondexter, which wasn’t a huge loss. But in 2010, OKC used the 24th pick from the Suns to draft Serge Ibaka. You think he would have been useful as insurance for Amar’e Stoudemire? And to think, it all started with trading Nate Robinson on draft day, 2005.
Next: No. 2