21. New Jersey Nets: Jerryd Bayless
We've exhausted the supply of mid-tier starters, which makes Bayless a sound pick here. A career 36.1 percent shooter from deep, Bayless had a strong shoot-first instinct, but he was also a decent distributor, averaging 4.8 assists per 36 minutes in his 11 seasons.
Bayless had some bounce in his younger days, and though he wasn't much of a defender, he was competitive on that end.
22. Orlando Magic: Kosta Koufos
Koufos lasted 11 seasons, primarily as a second-string center, and he's one of four players in this class to average at least 12.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per 36 minutes. Limited mobility and iffy touch meant Koufos only played more than 20.0 minutes per game once, but you knew what you were getting in his short stints.
A somewhat quirky offensive player, Koufos took 41.7 percent of his shots from the awkward three-to-10-foot range. If you tuned into a random stretch of his playing time, there was a good chance you'd see him toss up a floater or hook from a lot deeper than most bigs attempt them.
23. Utah Jazz: Marreese Speights
It just took Speights a little too long to find his niche. By the time he realized his destiny as a stretch big in 2016-17, he was already 29. He shot 37.2 percent from deep on 3.4 attempts per game for the Los Angeles Lakers that year then hit 36.9 percent of his 4.5 deep tries per contest the following season with the Orlando Magic.
That was the last year he played.
Speights was always a perimeter-oriented big, but he'd only attempted 141 threes in his first eight years. He got 510 up over his final two seasons, producing the only positive offensive box plus-minus figures of his career.
Overall, Speights is 20th in points and 16th in rebounds among 2008 selections. If he'd defended a bit more or taken a step back on his jumpers sooner, he'd be a top-15 pick.
24. Seattle SuperSonics: Anthony Morrow
Morrow had one trick, and it was a great one.
He couldn't defend, dribble, pass or finish at the cup, but the undrafted guard out of Georgia Tech shot a blistering 46.7 percent as a rookie with the Golden State Warriors. Then he proved his stroke was real by draining 45.6 percent of his treys the next year. He "slumped" to 42.3 percent in 2010-11 but produced two more campaigns north of 43.0 percent and finished his career at 41.7 percent.
Among players with at least 1,900 career attempts, Morrow's hit rate ranks sixth in NBA history.
25. Houston Rockets: Brandon Rush
Rush tore his right ACL in a 2007 workout then tore his right on a dunk attempt against the Memphis Grizzlies two games into the 2012-13 season. The year prior to the second injury, he averaged 9.8 points and shot a blistering 45.2 percent from deep in a three-and-D role. From a career-momentum perspective, the setback couldn't have come at a worse time.
Still, Rush would recover and rejoin the Dubs in 2014, winning a ring and reaching the Finals again the following year.
At 40.2 percent from deep for his career, Rush had great length on the wing and was a terrific finisher at the rim before that second ACL injury.
26. San Antonio Spurs: Michael Beasley
Picked second overall by Miami, Beasley scored 13.9 points per game on 52.8 percent true shooting as a rookie, establishing a career-long trend of mostly empty-bucket generation. To his credit, the skilled 6'9" forward honed his shot selection and posted four of his five most efficient scoring seasons in the final four years of his career, which he spent bouncing between the Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers.
Beasley ranks 16th in his class in total points, but he has more career turnovers than assists and never contributed meaningfully to a winning team. Anyone else giggling while imagining him playing for Gregg Popovich?
27. New Orleans Hornets: Luc Mbah a Moute
Though he was a non-factor on offense and routinely ignored on the perimeter by savvy opponents, Mbah a Moute found other ways to contribute during his 11-year career. His 6.3 boards per 36 minutes marked him as an excellent rebounder, and he's the only player picked in 2008 to log at least 4,000 minutes with a block rate of 1.3 percent and a steal rate of 1.9 percent.
He's also the only actual prince in this draft, which is something.
28. Memphis Grizzlies: Omer Asik
Asik started all 82 games for the 2012-13 Houston Rockets and averaged 10.1 points and 11.7 reboundsāhis best season by a substantial margin. His 7.1 rebounds per game tie Westbrook for fifth in the 2008 class, but he had no offensive game to speak of and amassed nearly twice as many career turnovers as assists. He also shot 55.1 percent from the line, which made him hard to keep on the floor in key moments.
The five-year, $60 million deal he signed with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2015 remains one of the most inexplicable contracts in recent memory.
29. Detroit Pistons: J.J. Hickson
Hickson hurt his team's net rating in all but one season of his career, which is why one of just five players in this class to average a double-double for a season comes off the board this late.
Hickson could get up, as Derrick Favors learned, but his step-slow timing meant he wound up on the wrong side of poster jams as often as the right one.
30. Boston Celtics: Darrell Arthur
Arthur ruptured his Achilles before his fourth season, and after sitting out all of 2011-12, he made it back to play six more campaigns split between the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets.
Another late-comer to the stretch role, the 6'9" power forward didn't start shooting threes with any real volume until 2014-15. From 2015-16 to 2017-18 (his last year), he shot 41.2 percent from distance on 257 attempts, second-best among players 6'9" or taller with 200 deep tries in that span.
