Round #8/Pick #306: Sarunas "Rooney" Marciulionis
Sarunas Marciulionis, one of the first European players to play in the NBA, was an elite shooter (career .595 TS%) whose career was unfortunately cut short by injury. In the NBA, he was primarily a 6th man (the runner-up for the NBA Sixth Man Award in 1991 and 1992 according to
wikipedia), and played primarily at the SG. However, Marciulionis also often led the fast breaks in reserve for Tim Hardaway on the early 90's Run and Gun style Warriors (highlight #6
here and highlight #3
here). He was a good passer and ball-handler, playing PG for the Soviet Union national team (winning a
gold medal in the 1988 Olympics) and for the
Lithuanian national team (two Olympic bronze medals). During his career, Marciulionis was also a good character guy (
wikipedia claims that "Marčiulionis was a devoted teammate and active in the communities he played in. In the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1989, Marčiulionis appeared at the site of a commuter train accident wearing his Warriors warmup outfit and helped by pulling out trapped passengers and administering first aid.")
During his time in the NBA, Marciulionis posted per-36 numbers almost identical to Drazen Petrovic (who was drafted in the 3rd round, and considered a good pick) with 20.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.0 steals, a career PER of 16.7 and career TS% of .595). His career was pretty marred by injury (which I'll have to be investigating when time permits) and, like many other white shooters, not too good at defense.
Reasoning:
Sarunas Marciulionis provides a dynamic and versatile offensive spark off of the bench. He can back up both the PG and SG (guarding the easier matchup) and can score quickly and more important, efficiently. I believe he is easily the best shooter, and am fairly surprised he lasted this long. Having yet another good locker room guy will hopefully prove instrumental for building chemistry in a league where every team is starting from scratch.
My team is far:
PG: Kenny "The Jet" Smith
SG: Sid "The Squid" Moncrief
SF: Vince "Vinsanity" Carter
PF: Antonio McDyess
C: Mark Eaton
BN: Joe Barry Carroll (PF/C)
BN: Eddie A. Johnson (SG/SF)
BN: Sarunas Marciulionis (SG/PG)
mmbt0ne, you are on the clock...