2011 NBA Draft Pick Recap, Results And Grades From SB Nation

by Scott Schroeder on Jun 24, 2025 6:00 AM EDT in NBA Draft 2011

The 2011 NBA Draft is unarguably the best day of the year so it makes sense that Ridiculous Upside didn't sleep the entire day to soak it all up. This is good for the readers, too, because that means we've got you covered on everything you missed while sleeping.

The most exciting news for those who follow the NBA Development League as close as the NBA Draft is that Chukwudiebere Maduabum was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers and then later traded to the Denver Nuggets. He only played three games in the D-League, for the Bakersfield Jam, but it's fun to see the out of nowhere prospects get their day in the sun.

Not everyone was as lucky as Maduabum, however, so we've also gathered up a look at the best undrafted players. Among them are players frequent readers have noticed on the front page including Michael Dunigan, Malcolm Thomas and Julyan Stone.

Following the afternoon trade, it seemed like it was going to be a pretty dull night as there weren't any more trades being pulled off during the lottery portion of Thursday night's festivities. It got hot and heavy pretty quick after that, however, and Mark Porcaro has done a solid job of recapping all of the draft night trades as well as a handy recap of which teams ended up with which players.

Last but not least, Tom Ziller over at SB Nation put together a good list of draft grades, if that's what you're into -- and let's be honest: Why wouldn't you be?

Feel free to drop anything else you found interesting in the comments!

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Mark Porcaro has done a solid job of recapping all of the draft night trades as well as a handy recap of which teams ended up with which players

thank you very much, i was trying to do it myself and struggled because some pages haven’t even got all trades right. very confusing deals, but a very fun draft overall. lots of surprises.

by Dubbel on Jun 24, 2025 6:10 AM EDT reply actions

btw, here's a link to all the trades that happened:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;ylt=AjaNSM06FdSeI5L3n5y8Req8vLYF?slug=ys-nbadraft_2011_trade_breakdown_062411

hope this is complete.

i’ve read a few articles and it’s funny that there are no clear winners or losers. on some blog, the Cats are getting bashed for their deals and picks, on another they are the winners. same for the Jazz and other teams. it’s weird, and i think the dealing is far from over.
i’m glad that i had a few picks right in my mock (including Big V to the Raps, Kemba to the Cats, Big M to the Rockets) and that my Bulls did a solid job in picking a lottery talent (Mirotic) and a defensive minded rotation player (Butler). and it’s good to see Joseph land at the Spurs. he played for the wrong team last year and should be able to crack the Spurs’ rotation now that Hill is gone.

my winners: Wizards (solid # 6 pick in Vesely, two steals with Singleton and Mack), Detroit (Knight is a steal at # 8, so is Singler at # 33), Bucks (i like both the Harris and the Leuer pick, plus they got a scorer and defender (Steph Jackson, assumed he stays) and got rid of Salmons and Maggette - good work!

by Dubbel on Jun 24, 2025 6:24 AM EDT reply actions

My Wolves went through a whacked series of trade-downs with cash on their way to getting their man at #43 overall.

There was a pre-draft season ticket holder meeting that identified Malcolm Lee as someone they really like potentially for the #20, but I swear it was six or seven trades later that they finally took him with #43. The outcome wasn’t completely irrational, but we couldn’t even keep track of who was picking for whom. ESPN’s “coverage” was no help at all, not surprisingly.

In the meantime Minnesota had actually at one point seemingly made a deal in which Miami got back its own pick at #28 and the Wolves got back their own pick at #31. And that was only halfway down the trade chute.

by feral on Jun 24, 2025 6:30 AM EDT reply actions

Best summary of this goofiness:

Look under “Minnesota deals again…. And again…. and again” on this page.

by feral on Jun 24, 2025 6:32 AM EDT up reply actions

how'd you like the Wolves picks/deals?

i think they could have done better. picking Williams was a no-brainer, but the deal that sent Motiejunas and Flynn to Houston and the 28th to Miami, then end up with Brad Miller, Malcolm Lee, cash for Parsons, a futire 1st rounder (Rockets) and a future 2nd rounder (Heat)? i think they should have just kept Motiejunas or the rights for Mirotic (i’m fine with that one though, since my Bulls got him).

by Dubbel on Jun 24, 2025 6:40 AM EDT up reply actions

The outcome was rational, but they're eating the seed corn.

Derrick W. was a consensus best player available, so we can sell that as not overthinking things. That definitely puts the roster imbalance high on our list of questions, though.

Malcolm Lee appears to have been their identified target even if they’d just sat tight at #20, so one can see that as understanding his value and then trading to wring extra assets out of their pick, get away from guaranteed money, and so on. Seen afterward that makes the series of moves seem less like pointless churn.

But the Wolves have the NBA’s most conspicuous overseas talent scout, Tony Ronzone, as their assistant GM. It takes this fanbase aback I think to see him leave European value on the table in the form of a Motiejunas or a Mirotic or a Bogdanovic. To a fair number of us, it looks like that cash back was mostly to offset Rambis’s buyout, which sucks. Budget shouldn’t lead you not to pick up talent. Plant that seed corn.

The first deal in the series of cascading deals essentially swapped Jonny Flynn, the #6 overall two years ago, out for a protected future first, which is lost value all on Kahn’s watch. I guess I can live with his cleaning up his mistake; at least he didn’t stick to a sunk cost. But that leads us up to the precipice: To accept things like Malcolm Lee as your target and make the rest of it seem rational, you have to tack on the provisional assumption that they know what they’re doing in terms of basic talent evaluation. I don’t think many of us are ready to do that. We don’t think the team is judging talent very well.

Mirotic should be a nice player to complement Boozer or take over for him, if you all hang onto him for the necessary time.

by feral on Jun 24, 2025 10:55 AM EDT up reply actions