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Welcome back to Draft Trends, where we look at some of the data and patterns from the pro and college perspective of the NBA draft over the past decade, or two, or three.
Today and tomorrow we'll be looking broadly at how teams have opted to make their picks: by position. This look is at 15 teams from the Eastern Conference. In plenty of cases, teams had years where they traded away all picks. In other spots, some teams had four choices -- and doubled or tripled up on position.
The big/little man ratio with certain franchises is intriguing, for sure. And for those players whose positions are a little ambiguous -- or are tweeners -- I categorized them by their NBA.com position. In rare cases where there was no true distinction, I went by practicality and closest logical match.
We're looking at the trends since 2005, or the first year when high school-age players were not eligible for the NBA Draft. Since then, the Detroit Pistons have plucked the most picks (25), while Miami has been totally content to trade its blind assets away, opting to only make 12 draft choices in the past nine years.
In the Eastern Conference, by position, here are the teams that have drafted most:
Center: Boston, Brooklyn (4)
Power forward: Philadelphia, Orlando (8)
Small forward: Brooklyn, Detroit (6)
Shooting guard: Detroit (7)
Point guard: Boston, New York (4)
The only team in the Eastern Conference to not draft a specific position over the past nine years: Chicago, which is small forward-free since '05.
