Ridiculous Upside 2001 ReDraft: #7 New Jersey Nets

This is the season of our inactivity.  We are doomed by September to a life of boredom and pre-training camps. So we rounded up the rest of the SBNation homeys and some others, and we're ReDrafting the 2001 NBA Draft. Up next? The New Jersey Nets. 

With the seventh pick in the 2001 SBNBA ReDraft, the New Jersey Nets, represented by Nets Daily, select...

Shane Battier, guard/forward, Duke University.

Nets Daily says: This was a very tough call. At draft time, the Nets had a deal in place (that couldn't be finalized until mid-July) to swap point guards with the Suns and bring Jason Kidd to New Jersey. The rest of the core (Kerry Kittles, Keith Van Horn and Kenyon Martin) were all coming off injuries, but they fit in well with Kidd. All that's missing was a center. The Nets would sign free agent Todd MacCulloch later that summer, so Tyson Chandler would have been able to come off the bench and develop at his own pace. Still, as we found out quickly, the Nets were ready to win right away, and even though Byron Scott was the right coach for Chandler, Shane Battier was more ready to contribute in his first few seasons. Battier is a nice complement to Van Horn at the small forward spot (which means he plays defense - and the Nets won with defense back in those days), and while he isn't the finisher that Richard Jefferson is, he can run the floor.

Original Pick:  Traded the rights to Eddie Griffin to Rockets for Richard Jefferson and pieces.