Biggest draft mistakes were
1) selling the #1 pick that became magic Johnson for cash
2) drafting kanter at what, 3? And in the same draft picking Burks over Kawhi? Ugh
3) giving up assets to move up to draft Trey Burke instead of the Greek freak
4) D Will over CP3, although I see this as more of a crap shoot. Coming out of college they were pretty even.
5) giving up Dominique. I know he didn't want to play here but man they just dumped him for nothing.
6) Lopez over Parker. I normally give a pass for late draft flubs because of the substantial drop-off past about pick 12, but this one was just a bad read.
7) drafting Exum at all.
You could probably move them around a bit in order but that's how I see it generally. I don't count taking players that just didn't pan out as mistakes unless they gave up assets to get them because the draft is always something of a crap shoot.
1. Magic Johnson/Gail Goodrich. The Jazz did not sell the #1 pick that became Magic Johnson for cash. Nor did they trade the pick to the Lakers for Gail Goodrich. What happened was the Jazz acquired Gail Goodrich as a free agent, and AFTER THE FACT the NBA made the Jazz give up the draft choice that became Magic Johnson to the Lakers as compensation. Complete hose job by the NBA to discourage teams from signing away other teams' free agents.
2. Kanter. Who should the Jazz have drafted instead? The five players taken immediately after Kanter were Tristan Thompson, Jonas Valanciunas, Jan Vesely, Bismack Biyombo, and Brandon Knight. Three of those players were significantly worse picks than Kanter and two of them are only arguably better.
3. Trey Burke. He was the college player of the year, and most experts thought the Jazz made a major steal trading up to get him. While 20/20 hindsight tells us it was a mistake not picking Antetokuompo, there is a reason he went 15th in that draft: the experts didn't know what to make of him. He was a lightning-in-a-bottle find by the Bucks.
4. DWill/CP3. Almost no expert thought DWill and CP3 were even coming out of college. Nearly all projected CP3 as the better player. And regardless of what the experts thought, they were taken back-to-back and CP3 turned out to be MUCH better. Biggest draft mistake the Jazz ever made.
5. Wilkins. The Jazz had no choice. Dominique refused to report to the Jazz and said he would rather sit out an entire year than ever sign with the Jazz. Dominique forced that trade and there was really nothing the Jazz could do about it.
6. Lopez (24th, 2001) over Parker (28th). Agreed. This was definitely one of the biggest draft mistakes in Jazz history. I know many Jazz-colored-glasses fans still defend this pick, but even without the injury problems, I never viewed Lopez as a starter-caliber PG in the NBA. Indeed, all six players taken immediately after Lopez turned out to be better picks (which is highly unusual for that late in the draft): Gerald Wallace, Samuel Dalembert, Jamaal Tinsley, Tony Parker, Trent Hassell, and Gilbert Arenas.
7. Exum (5th, 2014). Hard to know if this was a mistake. Completely unpredictable injury bugs have given him virtually no opportunity to show what he could have been or might become. Nor have the players taken immediately after him turned into major stars: Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Nik Stauskas, Noah Vonleh, Elfrid Payton, and Doug McDermott. Meh.