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Potent picks past No. 50

Owning only the No. 59 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, the Spurs aren’t expecting to add an immediate impact rookie. In reality, odds are good whoever’s name deputy commissioner Adam Silver calls second-to-last in Newark, N.J., will struggle simply to make the Spurs’ roster.

Yet the late second round is not always fallow ground, and the Spurs need only to look at their own draft history for proof. In 1999, they drafted an unknown Argentine guard named Emanuel Ginobili at No. 57. Express-News staff writer Jeff McDonald combs the archives for other “50-and-over” players who might offer the Spurs a bit of draft-night hope:

Anthony Mason

Selected: 53rd overall (third round) by Portland in 1988

The payoff: Bruising forward eventually developed into a key component of playoff teams in New York, Charlotte and Miami, winning NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1993-94, making the All-Star team in 2001 and being named third-team All-NBA in 1996-97.

Michael Adams

Selected: 66th overall (third round) by Sacramento in 1985

The payoff: Diminutive guard went on to become one of NBA’s most lethal scorers in Denver, averaging a career high of 26.5 points in 1990-91. Twice led the NBA in 3-pointers and made one All-Star team in 1992.

Mark Eaton

Selected: 72nd overall (fourth round) by Utah in 1982

The payoff: The 7-foot-4 center led the league in blocked shots in four of his 10 seasons, won two NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and made one All-Star appearance.

Drazen Petrovic

Selected: 60th overall (third round) by Portland in 1986

The payoff: In a prelude to the overseas invasion to come, Petrovic enjoyed his best years in New Jersey, where he averaged 20-plus points in back-to-back seasons and earned All-NBA recognition in 1992-93 before his death in a car accident.

Steve Kerr

Selected: 50th overall by Phoenix in 1988

The payoff: The NBA’s most accurate 3-point shooter in history had a hand in five championships, including two with the Spurs.

Mario Elie

Selected: 160th overall (seventh round) by Milwaukee in 1985

The payoff: Pugnacious swingman lasted 11 NBA seasons and won three NBA titles, two with Houston and one with the Spurs.

Luis Scola

Selected: 55th overall by Spurs in 2002

The payoff: Long considered the one who got away for Spurs fans, Ginobili’s teammate on the Argentine national team developed into a steady starter in Houston. In 2010-11, averaged 20.2 points and nine rebounds.

Marcin Gortat

Selected: 57th by Phoenix in 2005

The payoff: Traded on draft day to Orlando, where he spent three seasons backing up Dwight Howard. Broke out after return to Suns in 2010, averaging a double-double (15.4 points, 10 rebounds) this past season.

Isaiah Thomas

Selected: 60th by Sacramento in 2011

The payoff: Last year’s Mr. Irrelevant was anything but, averaging 14.2 points and 5.2 assists for the Kings after the All-Star break to garner a second-team All-Rookie mention.

Sarunas Marciulionis

Selected: 127th overall (sixth round) by Golden State in 1987

The payoff: Became sixth man for high-scoring Warriors teams of the early 1990s, averaging a career high of 18.9 points in 1991-92.

Sam Mitchell

Selected: 54th overall (third round) by Houston in 1985

The payoff: Forward spent 10 of 13 NBA seasons with the Timberwolves, averaging 14.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in 1990-91.

Spud Webb

Selected: 87th overall (fourth round) by Detroit in 1985

The payoff: The 5-6 Lilliputian lasted 13 seasons, averaging a high of 16 points with Sacramento in 1991-92. Memorably won 1986 slam dunk contest while with the Hawks.

Kyle Korver

Selected: 51st overall by New Jersey in 2003

The payoff: Has long been one of league’s deadliest 3-point shooters, leading NBA in long balls made in 2004-05 and percentage in 2009-10.

Patty Mills

Selected: 55th overall by Portland in 2009

The payoff: Still to come, perhaps. Hooked on with Spurs as backup point guard late in 2011-12 and finished with 61 points in final two regular-season games.

NBA draft: Potent picks past No. 50

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Late draft picks who made good

Bucks’ Anthony Mason, left (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Drazen Petrovic of the Nets. (Tim DeFrisco/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Knicks’ general manager Isaiah Thomas, right. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Bulls’ Kyle Korver. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Rockets’ Luis Scola. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Suns’ Marcin Gortat, left. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Spurs’ Mario Elie. (EXPRESS-NEWS/JERRY LARA)

Spurs’ Patty Mills, right. (EDWARD A. ORNELAS/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS)

Timberwolves’ Sam Mitchell, left. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Sarunas Marciulionis of the Warriors. (Mike Powell/Getty Images)

Anthony (Spud) Webb of the Hawks (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Spurs’ Steve Kerr. (JERRY LARA/Express-News)

Anthony Mason

Selected: 53rd overall (third round) by Portland in 1988

Michael Adams

Selected: 66th overall (third round) by Sacramento in 1985

Mark Eaton

Selected: 72nd overall (fourth round) by Utah in 1982

The payoff: The 7-foot-4 center led the league in blocked shots in four of his 10 seasons, won two NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and made one All-Star appearance.

Drazen Petrovic

Selected: 60th overall (third round) by Portland in 1986

Steve Kerr

Selected: 50th overall by Phoenix in 1988

The payoff: The NBA’s most accurate 3-point shooter in history had a hand in five championships, including two with the Spurs.

Mario Elie

Selected: 160th overall (seventh round) by Milwaukee in 1985

The payoff: Pugnacious swingman lasted 11 NBA seasons and won three NBA titles, two with Houston and one with the Spurs.

Luis Scola

Selected: 55th overall by Spurs in 2002

Marcin Gortat

Selected: 57th by Phoenix in 2005

Isaiah Thomas

Selected: 60th by Sacramento in 2011

The payoff: Last year’s Mr. Irrelevant was anything but, averaging 14.2 points and 5.2 assists for the Kings after the All-Star break to garner a second-team All-Rookie mention.

Sarunas Marciulionis

Selected: 127th overall (sixth round) by Golden State in 1987

The payoff: Became sixth man for high-scoring Warriors teams of the early 1990s, averaging a career high of 18.9 points in 1991-92.

Sam Mitchell

Selected: 54th overall (third round) by Houston in 1985

The payoff: Forward spent 10 of 13 NBA seasons with the Timberwolves, averaging 14.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in 1990-91.

Spud Webb

Selected: 87th overall (fourth round) by Detroit in 1985

The payoff: The 5-6 Lilliputian lasted 13 seasons, averaging a high of 16 points with Sacramento in 1991-92. Memorably won 1986 slam dunk contest while with the Hawks.

Kyle Korver

Selected: 51st overall by New Jersey in 2003

The payoff: Has long been one of league’s deadliest 3-point shooters, leading NBA in long balls made in 2004-05 and percentage in 2009-10.

Patty Mills

Selected: 55th overall by Portland in 2009

The payoff: Still to come, perhaps. Hooked on with Spurs as backup point guard late in 2011-12 and finished with 61 points in final two regular-season games.

Durant hasn’t changed since becoming NBA superstar

By Mike Monroe

OKLAHOMA CITY — You would need a hypodermic needle filled with truth serum to get Thunder general manager Sam Presti to reveal which player was No. 1 on his draft board on June 28, 2007.

On the job for just three weeks as general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics on that franchise-turning draft night, Presti had the No. 2 pick in a class with two potential Hall of Famers: Texas forward Kevin Durant and Ohio State center Greg Oden.

Oden was a 7-foot, 250-pound mix of power and size some believed capable of dominating the NBA paint for years.

Durant was the best pure player in the draft, the college player of the year with an All-American personality to match his game.

Ask Presti which player he would have taken had he been in the shoes of then-Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard, whose team had first choice, and he dances around the answer as if he were Fred Astaire.

“I don’t answer hypotheticals,” Presti said. “But there were two players in that draft, and we were happy to have one of the two.”

When it comes to choosing between players whose talents and potential are deemed equal, size typically rules. After all, a pair of 7-footers, Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie, were selected ahead of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft. Jordan’s six championships with the Bulls argue strongly that size alone shouldn’t trump transcendent skill.

Presti’s very first draft-night decision as a GM was made for him when the Trail Blazers chose Oden. But read between the lines of his elaboration on the hypothetical and there is inference, however slight, he would have chosen Durant if he held the No. 1 pick.

“Having been in San Antonio, in such close proximity to Austin and having relationships with the coaches at Texas, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to add Kevin to our organization because he personifies so many of the values we want our franchise to be identified with: humility, hard work, character, team focus and great citizenship,” Presti said. “We’re very fortunate to have him as a player. We’re more fortunate to have him as a person.”

The person who seemed too good to be true in 2007 hasn’t changed. Durant remains the humble, team-oriented superstar who insisted a national basketball magazine include the entire Longhorns starting lineup on its cover before he would agree to pose for the photograph.

When he trotted to the sidelines to give his mom a kiss during a stoppage of play in the final minute of the Thunder’s closeout victory over the Lakers last week, Durant endeared himself to anyone able to see the televised sincerity of his affection.

“The biggest compliment I can pay Kevin is that his development as a player has changed, almost by the month, since I’ve known him,” Presti said. “But the person I met in 2007 is the same.”

NO CEILING

Durant averaged 28.03 points per game this season, becoming the first player since Jordan to lead the league in scoring for three consecutive seasons.

At age 23, it also made him the youngest to do so, and there is little reason to believe he won’t have a chance to match the league record of seven consecutive titles shared by Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.

But Durant values a championship more than scoring titles and there is evidence of this in his performance in this season’s first two playoff rounds: He doesn’t even care if he leads his team in scoring so long as it wins. In his team’s first-round sweep of the Mavericks, Durant averaged 27.0 points but led the team in scoring just once. In the second-round elimination of the Lakers, he averaged 26.8 points but led the team only twice.

Guard Russell Westbrook has been the Thunder’s top scorer five times in nine playoff games so far — James Harden in one — and the Thunder have proven more difficult to defend when this happens. A year ago, he was his team’s high scorer in three of five games in the Western finals against Dallas and the Mavericks won four of those.

Does that Western finals failure mean a breakthrough against the Spurs is imperative?

“I can’t worry about myself or my legacy,” Durant said. “I’ve always been intrigued on how we do as a team and how we press forward as a team. At the end of the day, when I’m done playing, what’s going to be looked at is what the Oklahoma City Thunder team did that year.

“I know it’s going to be a tough matchup. I really respect the Spurs. We looked up to those guys when we were in the lottery my first two years. We wanted to kind of mold ourselves after them. But it’s time for us to go ahead and try to compete with these guys and make it a series. That’s what it’s about: Come out there and try to win every game.”

SIMILAR PATH

After spending seven years with the Spurs, Presti knows Durant shares traits with Tim Duncan, the Spurs’ captain, two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and three-time Finals MVP.

“It’s hard to compare people, obviously,” Presti said. “But Kevin has helped to establish the standard by which we live on a day-to-day basis here. He has a genuine appreciation for the work and craft itself. He has a humility and respect for the profession. And he is someone that is also a great representative of the community, not only the organization.”

Duncan has done that for the Spurs for 15 seasons. Durant is flattered at the suggestion his career might follow the same arc in Oklahoma.

“If I could pattern my career after Tim Duncan’s, every step?” he said. “Four rings? Labeled as the best power forward ever? Play for one of the best coaches to ever coach? Play in a great city? Of course I would.

“Hopefully, my story is planned out like that. Of course, I want to aim a little higher, but I will just take it a day at a time. You never know what will happen. But I love to be here and would love to fight for a championship every single year.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

SPECIAL TALENT

Five years ago, Kevin Durant decided that playing basketball for one year at the University of Texas would be enough. He was ready to take his talents to the NBA.

Five years later, no one doubts that decision. Three years ago, he became the youngest (21) to win a scoring title in what would have been his junior year at UT.

This season, he won that scoring crown for the third straight time.

A look some of Durant’s numbers:

1 – 2007-08 NBA Rookie of the Year

1 – 2012 NBA All-Star Game MVP

3 – All-Star Game appearances

25 – 30-plus point games this season, including four 40-plus point nights and a 51-point outing against Denver

26.0 – Career scoring average against the Spurs in 17 games (Spurs are 12-5 in those meetings)

26.3 – Career scoring average, which includes NBA-best 30.1, 27.7 and 28.0 the past three seasons

27.4 – Career playoff scoring average in 32 games, including 26.7 this postseason

49.6 – Career-best shooting percentage this season

9,978 – Career points total, just 136 shy of what the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili has in 10 seasons

– Douglas Pils