2004 - Drafted Rafael Araujo, one pick before Andre Iguodala
For those keeping track at home, we have covered three draft misses across the 2005 and 2006 NBA Drafts, and now we will discuss one from 2004. It was a brutal stretch of basketball for the Toronto Raptors when they couldn't surround a budding superstar in Chris Bosh with the kind of talent necessary to win at a high level or, ultimately, convince him to stay.
The Raptors owned the eighth pick in the 2004 NBA Draft and needed help on the perimeter. Chris Bosh looked like a rising star and they should have looked for an ideal wing or guard to pair with him. Instead, they concluded the best position to target was center.
Then, rather than draft Andris Biedrins, Al Jefferson or Anderson Varajao, all of which were longtime NBA veteran centers who went later in the draft, they took Brazilian center Rafael Araujo out of BYU. In defense of Toronto, Araujo was dominant in college playing in the Mountain West Conference, but he did a whole lot of nothing in the NBA. He played just three seasons, never averaging more than 12.5 minutes or 3.3 points per game, and was out of the league.
The worst part was that the perfect draft pick was on the board and went just one pick later. Arizona wing Andre Iguodala went ninth to the Philadelphia 76ers, and he became a do-it-all player who made an All-Star Game in Philly and later became the fifth member of the Death Lineup for the dynasty Warriors in Golden State. Araujo made it to 1,585 minutes in the NBA; Iguodala played 39,507. Oh, what could have been.