2014 Draft Thread

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

What if Exum flops? That seems much more likely to me than Randle flopping...it certainly is a safer pick. That being said we need a home run with the fourth pick.

What if Smart flops? What if Wiggins flops?

any prospects can.

 

Randle is a TERRIBLE pick at 4, he better learn more than the 1 move that he has before he gets to the NBA

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

Even if Randle is a safe pick, so what? Since when has the safest pick ever been the best pick? From the past 2 drafts alone there are Thomas Robinson and Otto Porter both those guys got labeled as "safe" picks and are yet to do anything at all in their careers. Emeka Okafor was another "safe" pick and I'm sure as hell glad we didn't pick him at the time.

Otto Porter was supposed to be a safe pick last year, look how well he did

[Nyce_1 311]

Otto Porter was supposed to be a safe pick last year, look how well he did

Exactly. NO such thing as a sure bet.

[HeHateMe 697]

Otto Porter was bad but I'm not one to write a guy off after just one season. Based off of that, Redick would have been a terrible pick. I guess if you're gonna call a guy the safest pick in the draft he should produce better than Porter, but still.

 

As far as "safe" pick goes this year, I would say Jabari Parker is the only guy I can feel 100% confident in saying he's going to be a good NBA player. Everyone else to me has their flags, either big or small. I would call Smart a safe player as well. Does not have the ceiling as a guy like Exum but probably not the floor either.

[OrlandoFeds 34]

In 2003, the Detroit Pistons went to the ECF. They had the second pick in the draft, and had Billups, Hamilton, and Prince. Rather than take BPA (Wade, Anthony, Bosh, Reece Gaines), they chose to fill a hole in the front court and took Darko Milicic.

 

I'm not sure this counts. They already had Rasheed and Ben Wallace too and if I remember correctly Milicic was projected higher than Wade and Bosh. It wasn't like a typical Cleveland reach for him.

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

when it comes to smart, all you hear about as strengths are "size/strength/motor" nothing about basketball SKILL, He doesn't seem to be that skilled of a player and that worries me

[HeHateMe 697]

when it comes to smart, all you hear about as strengths are "size/strength/motor" nothing about basketball SKILL, He doesn't seem to be that skilled of a player and that worries me

 

I'll give you that and that's a legitimate worry. But his numbers reflect that of a skilled basketball player so he must have more than just size/strength/motor.

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

I'll give you that and that's a legitimate worry. But his numbers reflect that of a skilled basketball player so he must have more than just size/strength/motor.

the steal rate, the rebounding, and ability to draw fouls are very interesting, the advanced metrics DO like him alot which is probably why we're researching him so closely to see if the skills matchup and will translate

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

In 1984 the Portland Trail Blazers were a playoff team that finished 3rd in the western conference, had the second pick in the draft, and a young shooting guard named Clyde Drexler. Rather than take BPA (Michael Jordan), since it duplicated Drexler, they chose Sam Bowie to fill a giant hole at center.

 

You have literally no idea what you're talking about. For starters, they didn't have a "giant hole at center". They had Mychal Thompson at center already, and it's not like he was used up: he had the best year of his career in '84-85, posting 18.4/7.8/2.6 on great efficiency.

 

Second, the Trailblazers DID have a very, very good shooting guard going into the '84 draft. Of course, what you clearly don't know is that the shooting guard in question was named Jim Paxson, not Clyde Drexler. Paxson had just been an all-star and second team All-NBA. Of course, the Trailblazers traded Paxson for a point guard because they thought Paxson was about to be too expensive and because he duplicated their recently acquired Kiki Vendeweghe, which was dumb as hell, but that's something you clearly didn't know and isn't relative to your overall point.

 

Thirdly, and this is probably the most important point: if you were correct that Portland didn't really want to duplicate Drexler, then WHY THE HELL WERE THEY TRYING TO TRADE DREXLER(and the #2 pick) FOR RALPH SAMPSON on draft night?

 

Oh, you didn't know that, did you? See, the Blazers had themselves a SERIOUS hard-on for Ralph Sampson, and according to Olajuwon's book, offered a draft night trade of Drexler and their #2 pick in exchange for Sampson, the 7'4" ROY who had the handles of a point guard. When Houston said no, they took Sam Bowie because their GM convinced himself that Bowie could be the next Sampson. That was an utterly ridiculous thing to believe, even before Bowie wrecked his career with knee injuries, but that belief had nothing to do with Jordan.

 

So that draft had nothing to do with filling a position of need. There was no need. It had EVERYTHING to do with the team's GM having a total man-crush on a player, and deciding when he couldn't get him to draft his non-union, Mexican equivalent. His Esteban Spielbergo, if you will.

In 2003, the Detroit Pistons went to the ECF. They had the second pick in the draft, and had Billups, Hamilton, and Prince. Rather than take BPA (Wade, Anthony, Bosh, Reece Gaines), they chose to fill a hole in the front court and took Darko Milicic.

 

Yep. In 2003, a team with no pressing needs that was already contending chose to draft a 17 year old foreign player with a high ceiling but questionable work ethic instead of proven players that could help immediately, and that decision blew up in their faces.

Wait, are you arguing my point for me now?

 

But strong work on proving you can demonstrate incredible hindsight with only 11 years and, jesus, 30 years to look back and make your decision. Can we talk about Dallas taking Stansbury instead of Stockton next? Or Perkins instead of Barkley?

I'm not sure you're aware, but teams are allowed to make trades in the NBA. If you have two good players at the same position, you are allowed to trade one for a player who plays a different position. The only time I would draft for need is if the two BPA's are considered equal.

 

This line of thinking is, literally, how Atlanta ended up with like 12 SFs on their roster in the mid 00s. I'm not even joking here. They admitted it.

 

You really ripped on Deandre Jordan, who signed a 4 year $43M offer sheet from Golden State that the Clippers matched. He's not my favorite player either....but it's nice to have an asset that other teams want.

 

Except that they didn't trade him, and now likely couldn't. Other teams wanted to give Rashard Lewis huge money too. Then we did, and we could only trade him for a worse contract. That's how things work: A whole bunch of people rush to be the one to make a decision, then everyone breathes a sigh of relief when they weren't the ones to do it if it turns out bad. It's why I have to read a piece about how stupid the Grant Hill signing was from people like you every month or two on this board: because you're great at judging things in hindsight, while ignoring anything and everything that was going on at the time.

 

Do I need to explain asset to you? Here's a hint...I'm not talking about your how your ass set at the end of the bar on nickel beer night trying to pay your bar tab with food stamps.

 

You really need to clarify this. Are you childishly insulting me by saying that I'm an alcoholic or childishly insulting me that I'm poor? **** be ambiguous.

 

But good job on ignoring the 80% of my original post you had no answer for. I'm sure no one will notice that after reading this, ahem, "witty" jape at my expense.

Your Ibaka rant was a joke, saying he played the same position as Lewis. Rashard played the 3 in Seattle and could have easily slid over after Turk left. If you're worried about his defense at the 3, could it have been any worse than Hedo's?

 

 

After Hedo left a year later? Or do you mean they should have followed OKC's strategy of drafting Ibaka and then stashing him for a year before bringing him over? That would have killed their chance to contend in '08, obviously, since they'd have no longer had their starting shooting guard, but I guess what's more important to you is that they'd have had Ibaka, who has turned himself into a really useful role player....6 years later.

 

 

 

[~O~ 565]

-internet walk in-

 

-sees red highlights-

 

uh oh

 

-internet walks out-

[Soul Bro 1,422]

-internet walk in-

 

-sees red highlights-

 

uh oh

 

-internet walks out-

 

That's pretty funny

[Soul Bro 1,422]

You guys remember when Junkie was somehow connecting with Orlando scouts, TMac, Dooling and others? Dude was a hungry fan!!! And the Garrity awards??? Glory days!!! We need that fandom to return!!!