Retrospective: Where Does Tobias Harris Rank In All-Time Small Forwards?
2. Dennis Scott
Dennis “3-D” Scott was the first ever small forward lottery pick and just the team’s second first-round pick in franchise history. When Scott was drafted, it was fairly expected he would be mostly a 3-point marksman and gunner. There were even persisting questions as to whether he could defend at the NBA level.
But Scott was never the defensive liability many thought he would be, nor was he the non-athlete detractors billed him to be. He was hardly a high-flyer nor athletic specimen, but he was passable as a pro-athlete and at times it was even easy to forget he was rounded out a lot more like the average Joe than the likes of a LeBron James.
Most importantly, Scott helped change the look of NBA fastbreaks.
Rick Kamla pointed out to Dennis on his fantasy basketball segment on NBATV that Scott was the groundbreaker for teams starting to pull up for threes on fast breaks. Scott paused for a moment, chuckled, and said “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
It was the first time Scott realized it, and maybe that was an understated way of saying his career had a bit of a legendary aura to it.
Scott led the NBA in threes made in the 1996 season with 267 and he shot better than 42 percent from 3-point range in back-to-back seasons (granted, the line was brought in a foot in 1995 and 1996).
Scott’s minutes were tempered during the team’s Finals season, as Donald Royal provided superior defense and pushed Scott to a Sixth Man role. Even so, the next season he started all 82 games and saw 37 minutes a night, averaging 17.5 points per game, his career high.
He experienced little success after leaving Orlando in 1997, but his seven seasons in Orlando were worthy of the No. 4 overall pick tha was spent on him in the 1990 NBA Draft.
While the picture of Orlando Magic history may have been very different with a slightly higher pick (Hall of Famer Gary Payton went second overall), Scott became the perfect role player and role player to fill the equation out with regards to what happened later in franchise history.
It was almost as though he was selected with the knowledge Shaquille O’Neal would come a couple years later. That is a strange notion, but if history were written in forward fashion, it was as though GM Pat Williams already knew the Magic would land a Hall of Fame center in the 1992 draft.
Next: A unique talent that drove the 2009 Finals run