The Official Around The NBA Thread.... June

I know the pro tank crowd is always advocating blowing it up to get into the lottery, but SAC has had 9 top 8 picks in the last 9 years and is still a 27-win team that hasn't made the playoffs in 12 years. Most of the guys they drafted are now gone, they have no established stars and none of their young guys looks to have the potential to break out. It really is a LOT worse than watching the second youngest team in the league improve from 41 wins to 49.

BNM

 

This would be the most Pop move ever to be like “Fuck you, enjoy the Kings...”

 

Did we learn nothing from these past few years? Regular season means jack shit. We were swept by a mediocre Pelicans team. We should be concerned.

 

Concerned, yes. Our weaknesses were exposed and need to be addressed.

I still prefer our situation over SAC's - by a mile. They have so many weaknesses, I wouldn't even know where to start.

We have a 1st team all-NBA PG who has just entered his prime to build around. Their leading scorer was 37-year old Zach Randolph.

BNM

 

That’s like a current day Ducks fan talking about Beaver football when in reality, Ducks football is mediocre right now and looks to be for the foreseeable future.

 

Their pick next season is only top 1 protected. They have no reason to tank. Makes sense.

Would be hilarious to see Leonard traded there after wanting to go to LA.

 

I don't think anyone's advocating atrocious scouting and drafting. You could make a drinking game out of Sacto's picks in the lottery...take a drink every time you wince when you hear the name of who they just selected.

 

Hindsight is 20:20. So, of course, their picks look bad now, but were they really that laughable at the time?

Tyreke Evans - picked 4th won ROY. Sure, in hindsight, Steph Curry would have been a better pick, but for the first couple years, it looked like SAC made the correct pick. Nobody laughed at the time.
Demarcus Cousins - a steal at 5, easily better than the 2, 3 and 4 picks. Again anyone who laughed at this pick is a moron.
Bismack Biyombo - a reach at 7, Kemba Walker would have been the safe pick, Klay Thompson would have been the right pick (in hindsight).
Thomas Robinson - looks like a horrible pick at 5 now, but at the time, all the mocks had him going 4th or 5th. At the time, people weren't laughing about Robinson going 5th, they were laughing about Waiters going 4th.
Ben McLemore - again, at the time, this was not considered a laughable pick at 7. He was considered a top 3 pick in most mock drafts. Five of the leading mocks had him going No. 2.
Nik Stauskas - a bit of a reach at 8, was a consensus top 10 pick - at the time.
Willie Cauley-Stein - a pit of a reach at 6, consensus was 9.
Marqueese Chriss - picked 8th, traded for 13, 27 and 28. The player they wanted, Buddy Hield, was already taken, and that was a really shitty draft. So, trading down probably made sense. Especially given that the 36th pick in that drafty won ROY.
De'Aaron Fox - was a good pick at 5, because Foxes are smart. Seriously too soon to tell, but most mocks and him going 4th or 5th.

Biyombo, Stauskas and Cauley-Stein were all reaches, but all were picked within 2 or 3 spots of where they were projected to go. Evans and Cousins were great picks. The others were picked at, or below, where they were projected to go.

I think most of the laughter is coming after the fact. In general, this illustrates what a crap shoot the draft is, even when picking in the top half of the lottery. In hindsight, the Kings haven't really done any worse than the pundits. In fact, overall, they've done better (the pundits had Ben McLemore as a top 3 pick and Noah Vonleh as a top 4 pick).

BNM

 

So basically, when it comes to drafting, it's better to be lucky, because no one is really all that good at it.

 

A certain amount of luck is definitely involved. It also sucks that they typically had picks in the 5 - 8 range in weak drafts that were 3 - 4 players deep.

BNM

 

I wasn't thinking as far back as Tyreke, so good call there. Cousins is the only one I was giving them credit for, but he was a no-brainer that low, only available because of his attitude problems. McLemore was a reasonable pick, but more on size and name recognition than production.

The rest were horrible picks, and I'm not just saying that with the benefit of hindsight. I know I'm one of the few who felt TRob was barely a lottery talent, let alone a #1 candidate, but damn are there some bad talent evaluators out there.

 

I didn't mean to imply that the brain trust in Sacramento is worthy of that title. Just pointing out what a crap shoot the draft is, even when you're constantly in the lottery. You could do the same exercise for MIN and half a dozen other perennial lottery teams and see just how futile it can be. Drafts like 1984 and 2003 are so rare, and even in those historically great drafts, people who should no better screw up (especially if you happen to have the 2nd pick).

BNM

 

So tired of this. Barkley said exactly that - but we were the ones who spurned Barkley.
All we need to do is make it to the WCF and we'll once again have good players wanting to play here.
But first we need to FIRE TERRY!

 

Except the draft is probably what Olshey is best at. And you also have to factor is the fact that Divac is running the show in SAC. Do you really think we'd have fucked up that many picks in the same way SAC did?

 

Barkley said that. Over a quarter century ago, the NBA landscape has changed. The Grizzlies recently made the WCF, did that help them get free agents?

 

The Spurs could get a much better deal than the Lakers offer...they could get Dragic and Whiteside for Kawhi with Miami...they could probably get Porzingas from the Knicks for him if they wanted. Porzingas has a problem with the Knicks front office..they could probably even get Booker and Tyson Chandler from the Suns for him

 

One can only dream.