Re-Drafting Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and the 1985 'Frozen Envelope' Draft | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
16. Dallas Mavericks: Spud Webb
Though best known for winning the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest at 5'6", Spud Webb played a dozen seasons in the NBA, finishing with career averages of 9.9 points and 5.3 assists per game. His best year came with the Kings in 1991-92 when he averaged 16.0 points and 7.1 assists in 35.4 minutes per game—all career highs.
He ranks fourth in the class in total assists and ninth in steals, and, perhaps most remarkably, his 111 career blocks are the third-most by a player under six feet. Webb used his bounce to do more than dunk.
17. Dallas Mavericks: Gerald Wilkins
True to the Wilkins name, Gerald (Dominque's brother) could fill it up. Though he never cracked the 20-points-per-game barrier, Wilkins was a regular starter in each of his first nine seasons, averaging between 11.1 and 19.1 points per contest in that span.
The 6'6" wing also tallied at least 200 assists in seven separate seasons and bested Dominque in career assist percentage, 16.1 percent to 12.1 percent. Some trivia: Webb bested both Wilkins brothers in the 1986 dunk contest.
Wilkins was also an accomplished defender, but you can guess how the purported "Jordan stopper" fared when put to the test against MJ in a postseason setting.
18. Detroit Pistons: Benoit Benjamin
Benoit Benjamin was a gifted 7-footer and one of the league's top shot-blockers the moment he debuted for the Los Angeles Clippers in 1985. He averaged at least 2.6 blocks per game in each of his five full seasons with the Clips, peaking at 3.4 in 1987-88.
When focused, he could produce monstrous stat lines. Benjamin put up 34 points, 23 rebounds and eight blocks in a loss to the Hornets on March 17, 1989, and he posted 25 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks in a win over the Spurs two weeks later. Manute Bol has 18 of the 20 double-digit block games produced by 1985 picks, but Benjamin has the other two.
There was never any question about Benjamin's talent, but the phrases "accused of being lazy" and "difficult to coach" show up in a 1993 New York Times article detailing his trade from the Los Angeles Lakers to the New Jersey Nets. From that, you can intuit how the No. 3 pick in the real 1985 draft ends up all the way down at No. 18.
Theoretically a cornerstone, Benjamim played in just 18 postseason games.
19. Houston Rockets: Sam Mitchell
Selected 54th in 1985, Sam Mitchell bounced around the CBA and USBL and spent time playing professionally in France before signing a deal to join the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves in 1989-90. He averaged 12.7 points as a 26-year-old rookie and would play at least 75 games in each of his first nine seasons.
Despite the late start, Mitchell is ninth in games played and 17th in win shares among 1985 selections. Though partly due to the fact that he so infrequently passed the ball, it's still notable that Mitchell almost never coughed it up. He has the lowest turnover rate of any 1985 pick who played at least 12,000 career minutes.
20. Boston Celtics: Manute Bol
We already spoiled it in the Benjamin section, but Bol is this class' most renowned shot-swatter. Yes, Ewing had more rejections in his career, but that's only because he logged nearly four times as many total minutes.
As a rookie with Washington, the 7'7" center averaged a league-leading 5.0 blocks per game and sent back at least 2.1 per contest every year after that until 1992-93, his last relatively healthy season.
Bol was too thin and immobile to do anything besides defend the rim, but Don Nelson, one of the most strategically nonconformist coaches in league history, let him shoot threes, producing some of the more delightful sequences of the last 30 years.
And yes, it's just a coincidence that the team that currently employs 7'5" Tacko Fall lands Bol in this re-draft. Maybe.
21. Philadelphia 76ers: Terry Catledge
Terry Catledge only played eight NBA seasons, the last four of which came in relative obscurity for the expansion Orlando Magic. He might be best remembered as the guy who refused to give up his No. 33 jersey to a rookie named Shaquille O'Neal, forcing the Diesel to sport No. 32 during his Orlando tenure.
That bit of trivia shouldn't overshadow the fact that the 6'8" power forward averaged 12.7 points per game for his career, cresting at 19.4 in 1989-90 with the newly minted Magic. He also hit the Warriors for 49 points on Jan. 13, 1990, the eighth-highest scoring total produced by a member of the 1985 class.
22. Milwaukee Bucks: Ed Pinckney
If this were a re-draft of guys who played within themselves, Ed Pinckney would have been a lottery pick. A reserve forward who averaged 19.8 minutes per game for his career, the journeyman's 53.5 field-goal percentage is tops among 1985 picks who played at least 100 games.
In a dozen seasons, he never took more than 17 shots in a game. That said, Pinckney was a solid defender who rebounded well for his size and logged a 21-point, 22-rebound night on April 19, 1994.
23. Los Angeles Lakers: Jon Koncak
It's exceptionally rare for a player taken as high as Jon Koncak (fifth overall) to disappoint the team that picked him so profoundly and still, somehow, stick with that franchise for several years. Usually, organizations try to rid themselves of their draft whiffs, but the Atlanta Hawks held onto a center for a full decade who never averaged over 8.3 points or 6.8 rebounds.
More than that, Atlanta lavished the backup center with a six-year, $13 million deal in 1989—superstar money (at the time) for a player who'd just averaged 4.7 points in his fourth season. Twenty-first in VORP and win shares but No. 1 in contract negotiations in his class, Koncak closes out the first round of one of the most consequential drafts in history.
