Alexis Ajinca was picked 20th but has only played 37 games. And he was a first rounder. What happens to players chosen 10 to 40 picks later? ...Usually not much. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

This year the Knicks have no first round picks, although there have been rumors that they might try to buy a late one.  On the other hand, they do have two second-round picks, and yet another rumor (as mentioned by ESPN’s Chris Sheridan) has them possibly buying two more second-rounders.  Me, I can’t help but wonder why?  Many fans seem excited about it and love talking about these hidden diamonds in the rough that we might find to help us turnaround.  My first thought is that if we truly do want to get LeBron or some of the big names to come here, how excited are they going to be about a roster with five rookies (particularly since none of ‘em would be lottery picks or even top 25).  My second thought was: how often do 2nd rounders even end up being valuable players, let alone useable?

I decided to do a little research to answer that question.  I looked at the draft classes from the five years from 2000-2004.  Why those years?  I figured rookies sometimes take a little while to hit their stride, so this means everyone’s had at least 6 years to finally hit their groove.  If they haven’t come into their own yet, we can safely assume it ain’t gonna happen.  I didn’t want to go too much further back though ‘cuz it wouldn’t have included the influx of foreign players.  Plus the year 2000 is cool.  Oh, and one thing to note is that the Charlotte Bobcats joined the league in 2004, so that year we’ve got 30 second-rounders, but the earlier four had just 29 guys each.

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