"High Five" at 10
Truman Reed Index ranks top No. 10 draft picks in NBA history (Part I of a series)

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By Truman Reed

National Basketball Association franchises have been busy putting prospects through the paces in preparation for the 2009 NBA Draft, set for Thursday, June 25, at Madison Square Garden.

As of June 9, the Milwaukee Bucks had the 10th selection in the opening round.

In its own prelude to the draft -- the first segment of a three-part series -- the Truman Reed Index returns to bucks.com to rate the top No. 10 NBA Draft picks of all time.

This isn't a tough call at all. Reed earned seven NBA All-Star selections during his 10 seasons in the league and averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds in 650 games. Those who nicknamed Larry Bird "The Hick from French Lick" could have called Reed "The Hic from Hico." He was born in that small Louisiana town, grew up on a farm in nearby Bernice and played his college ball far from the national spotlight at Grambling University. He led the Tigers to three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and one NAIA championship, rang up 2,280 career points and averaged 26.6 points and 21.3 rebounds as a senior. Reed rewarded the Knicks' drafting diligence immediately, finishing seventh in the NBA in scoring at 19.5 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 14.7 per outing to earn the league's rookie-of-the-year award. Injuries limited his pro career to 10 seasons, but during that span, he scored more points than all but one (Jeff Mullins) of the nine players drafted ahead of him, 8,967 points more than the first player (George Wilson) drafted that year and 2,822 points more than the combined total of four players (Wilson, Jim Barnes, Gary Bradds and Barry Kramer) chosen ahead of him. In 1970, Reed became the first player in NBA history to be named NBA All-Star Game MVP, NBA regular-season MVP and NBA Playoffs MVP in the same season, leading the Knicks to the title. He played on another NBA championship team in 1973 and was named Finals MVP. Reed was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982 and recognized as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History on the league's 50th anniversary in 1997.

2. Paul Pierce
Boston Celtics, 1998

Pierce entered the 1998 NBA Draft following his junior year at the University of Kansas, where he earned first-team All-American honors. Raised in Inglewood, California, Pierce certainly made a name for himself during his three collegiate years, but wasn't even the first player from his Kansas team chosen in his draft class -- that distinction went to Raef LaFrentz, who was selected third. In 2002, Pierce led the Celtics to the playoffs for the first time in seven years, and they advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Since then, he has averaged 22.9 points over an 11-year NBA career and become a seven-time NBA All-Star. On May 18, 2008, Pierce recorded the second-highest playoff point total in Boston history with 41 points as the Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He went on to be named 2008 NBA Finals MVP after the Celtics captured their first NBA championship since 1986 with a 131-92 victory in Game 6 over the Los Angeles Lakers.

3. Jack Twyman
Rochester Royals, 1955

A 6 foot, 6 inch forward from the University of Cincinnati, Twyman was, like Pierce, a well-known commodity when he entered professional basketball, yet still became an overachiever. Drafted in 1955 by the Rochester Royals, who moved to Cincinnati a year later, Twyman became the first NBA player to average more than 30 points per game in a single season, scoring at a 31.2 clip during the 1959-60 campaign. He went on to earn six NBA All-Star selections in his 11 seasons, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. Only two other players taken in the 1955 NBA Draft -- Tom Gola and Maurice Stokes -- achieved Hall-of-Fame status, and Twyman scored 15,840 points (4,654 more than Gola and Stokes combined). Twyman earned national acclaim for his humanitarian deeds as well. When Stokes, his Royals teammate, sustained a head injury in the final game of the 1958 season that would eventually leave him paralyzed, Twyman became his legal guardian and established fundraisers to pay for his medical expenses up to and after Stokes' death in 1970.

4. Jeff Malone
Washington Bullets, 1983

This 6 foot, 4 inch sharpshooter from Mississippi State University entered the 1983 NBA Draft just a few months after sharing the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year award with the University of Tennessee's Dale Ellis. Malone scored a school-record 2,142 points (and averaged 19.5 ppg) during his four years at Mississippi State, bowing out with a blazing senior season in mhich he averaged 26.8 points per outing. Somehow, though, the three-time all-SEC pick slid all the way to 10th in his draft class before being chosen by the Washington Bullets. Malone made just two starts as a rookie, but still averaged 12.4 points per game, and that was only the beginning. In the 12 years that followed, he amassed 17,231 points, averaging 19 per game. He became an NBA All-Star with the Bullets in 1986 and '87 and averaged a career-best 24.3 points in his final season with the Bullets, 1989-90. He went on two play parts of four seasons with the Utah Jazz, three with the Philadelphia 76ers and one with the Miami Heat.

5. Paul Westphal
Boston Celtics, 1972

A native of Torrance, California, Westphal was a high-scoring prep star who stayed close to home for college and chalked up 1,085 career points at the University of Southern California. He averaged a team- and career-high 20.3 points as a senior in 1971-72, and was taken 10th in the 1972 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics in one of the many shrewd moves engineered by Hall-of-Famer Red Auerbach. Westphal paid dividends, helping Boston win an NBA title in 1974, but he didn't fully emerge until after he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in 1975. He led the Suns to the NBA Finals against the Celtics in 1976, ranked sixth among NBA scorers at 25.2 points per game in 1977-78 and seventh at 24.0 a year later. Westphal scored a total of 12,809 NBA points for an average of 15.1 a game. A five-time All-Star, he is Phoenix's fifth all-time scorer with 9,564 points and is a member of the Suns' Ring of Honor. The 1972 NBA Draft was a rather infamous one. Its top pick, center LaRue Martin, lasted just four seasons, never averaged better than 7 points and is widely considered the worst No. 1 pick of all time. Of the nine other players selected before Westphal, only Hall-of-Famer Bob McAdoo (Dwight Davis, Corky Calhoun, Fred Boyd, Russell Lee, Bud Stallworth, Tom Riker and Bob Nash were the others) scored as many as 3,000 career points in the NBA, and two of them totaled less than 300.

Honorable Mention:

Terry Dischinger, Chicago Zephyrs, 1962: Dischinger was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 1962-63 season after averaging 25.5 points and 8 rebounds per game. He went on to become a three-time NBA All-Star and averaged 13.8 points and 5.6 rebounds over a nine-year pro career.

Eddie Jones, Los Angeles Lakers, 1994: Jones averaged 14 points and 2.05 steals in his first season and was a 1994-95 NBA All-Rookie First-Teamer. He developed into an NBA All-Star in 1996-97 and 1997-98 and was named to the 1997-98 and 1998-99 NBA All-Defensive Second Team. He also made an All-Star appearance as a Charlotte Hornet in 2000 and went on to play for the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks and Indiana Pacers, totaling 14,155 points over 16 seasons.

Horace Grant, Chicago Bulls, 1987:
Grant helped the Bulls capture consecutive NBA championships in 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93, punctuating the third with a blocked shot in the closing seconds. He earned four NBA All-Defensive Team selections and was an NBA All-Star in 1994. He moved on to play for five seasons for the Orlando Magic, one for the Seattle SuperSonics, one for the Los Angeles Lakers, earning his fourth championship ring in 2000-01, then put in two more years with Orlando and one with the Lakers. He scored 12,996 points and averaged 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds over his 16-year NBA career.

Clyde Lovellette, Minneapolis Lakers, 1952:
The 6 foot, 10 inch, 234-pound forward was a three-time All-American at the University of Kansas and led the Jayhawks to the 1952 NCAA title as a senior. Lovellette led the country in scoring that season at 28.4 points per game, yet saw nine players selected ahead of him in the '52 NBA Draft. He helped the Lakers win the NBA title in his rookie season, then emerged as one of the league's premier frontcourt players the following year. In 704 NBA games with the Minneapolis Lakers, Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawks and Boston Celtics, Lovellette garnered 11,947 points (17 ppg) and grabbed 6,663 rebounds (9.3 rpg). He was chosen to play in three NBA All-Star Games, and helped the Celtics win league titles in 1963 and '64. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Caron Butler, Miami Heat, 2002:
The Racine, Wisconsin native averaged 20.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in carrying the University of Connecticut to a sweep of the Big East Conference regular-season and tournament titles in his sophomore campaign and helped the Huskies reach the Elite Eight before declaring for the 2002 NBA Draft. On the day of the draft, after going 10th to the Miami Heat, he publicly vowed that he would make the nine teams that bypassed him pay for the rest of his career. After two years with Miami, he went on to play for the Los Angeles Lakers for one season before being dealt to the Washington Wizards. The 6 foot, 7 inch forward earned NBA All-Star Game selections in 2007 and '08, then averaged a career-high 20.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in 2008-09, bringing his career point total to 8,112.