The Raptors & drafting. Remember those days when the Raptors were really good at dafting players? Damon Stoudamire, Marcus Camby, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Morris Peterson.. we had a good draft history for a first few years of the franchise. Now it seems drafting over the last 2-3 seasons has absolutely killed us. Now, im not making this thread to try & say Andrea Baragni is a bad pick or nothing like that, but can you think of where this team would be if we made better draft picks over the last 3 years? I think the front office made the huge mistake of trying to draft players that they thought had a chance to break-out a make a big impact rather than steady contributors that you knew were going to find a role with your team but might not have turned into a star. That was the case with Araujo I thought, they thought he had a chance to develop into something nice & it would've been a nice suprise, but it simply wasnt the case. We passed up much better options in guys like Andre Igoudala & Josh Smith. Both guys that I wanted them to take a chance on over Araujo. Then we took Joey Graham with our 2nd pick in the first round in 05.. a spot where I thought for sure we were going to land Danny Granger. They thought Joey was going to make a huge impact on our defense so they passed up the much steadier option in Granger for him.. now, Graham may still develop, but Granger is already developing & plays defense just as well as Graham does. Hell, I was even looking for a guy like Gerald Green or Jarrett Jack at that spot because we were lacking a PG. Both of those guys would look nice on that team rite now over Joey Graham. The one player that we did a good job in drafting was Charlie V, and then we traded him to make room for another guy who we thought could eventually break out and be a huge star, rather than than keeping the steady guy in Charlie V & doing something else with the pick. Im not saying I still dont like the trade for TJ Ford, because I love Ford, but hes very sparatic & clearly needs someone to calm his ass down. Im just imaging that we could've potentially had lineups like this had we drafted a little smarter rather than looking for something out of players that just wasnt there. PG - TJ Ford SG - Andre Igoudala/Josh Smith SF - Danny Granger PF - Chris Bosh C - Andrea Baragni or PG - Jarrett Jack SG - Andre Igoudala/Josh Smith SF - Charlie V PF - Chris Bosh C - Andrea Baragni Both of those are scary lineups for the future man. Just what could've been.. those lineups dont include the bench which would be a lot stronger with those guys in the starting 5.
<div class="quote_poster">Kaillou Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think the front office made the huge mistake of trying to draft players that they thought had a chance to break-out a make a big impact rather than steady contributors that you knew were going to find a role with your team but might not have turned into a star. .</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Im just imaging that we could've potentially had lineups like this had we drafted a little smarter rather than looking for something out of players that just wasnt there.</div> I agree with your post to a point although i feel your arguement got lost somewhere along the way. So i'm guessing the two things i quoted above were your main ideas. I tend not to think that our mistakes were due to management trying to draft guys who could break out but due to the following reasons: 1) Incompetence. If you look at everything that was said above Hoffa by Babcock (really our staff because Babcock had no time to prospect, so he was just feeding what was told to him) the following actually came out of his mouth: Ready to play right away, good bball iq, immediate impact. Could any of those been more wrong? The guys we had doing our scouting previously lost their minds (Mclosky) and had no idea what they were doing. 2) Drafting on needs instead of tallent. I don't think we drafted Joey Graham to become a star, same with Hoffa. We drafted them because they filled a need on our team. As a result we passed up players with more tallent or upside to get guys who were supposed to help us out. IMO this doesn't matter because we're so terrible we should just be looking for guys who can flat out play.
There's really no point in looking back at past drafts and point out who we should have drafted. There's a couple of players that will make a definite impact and the rest is just a crap shoot. No team has picked the best players in the draft no matter how much scouting they've done or how well they can judge talent. It's easy to look back at past drafts now that we know who's a decent player. Honestly did you know that much about Josh Smith or Jarett Jack before they were drafted?
<div class="quote_poster">MrJ Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">You can thank Isiah for some of those drafts.</div> Lol not sure if that's sincere or if you're taking a shot at Thomas, but he actually did a great job drafting for us, and has done a pretty good job drafting for the Knicks as well.
<div class="quote_poster">Eclipse Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">There's really no point in looking back at past drafts and point out who we should have drafted. There's a couple of players that will make a definite impact and the rest is just a crap shoot. No team has picked the best players in the draft no matter how much scouting they've done or how well they can judge talent. It's easy to look back at past drafts now that we know who's a decent player. Honestly did you know that much about Josh Smith or Jarett Jack before they were drafted?</div> Agreed. Hindsight is always 20/20. Its easy to say that they should have drafted him blah blah blah. The draft is not an exact science. Its part reserch, part conviction, and part luck.
<div class="quote_poster">Eclipse Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">There's really no point in looking back at past drafts and point out who we should have drafted. There's a couple of players that will make a definite impact and the rest is just a crap shoot. No team has picked the best players in the draft no matter how much scouting they've done or how well they can judge talent. </div> I don't know but the San Antonio Spurs has come pretty damn close to picking good to great players in a lot of drafts.
<div class="quote_poster">Gotrunks226 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know but the San Antonio Spurs has come pretty damn close to picking good to great players in a lot of drafts.</div> How so? Duncan was a no brainer (every other team would have done the same in the same situation). Other than Parker and Ginobili, who else have they drafted that can be considered "good to great"? They picked Leandro Barbosa in 2003 but they obviously didn't think that he was any good since they traded him immediately. Granted, they've picked low for a while now, but take a look at all their draft picks since they've drafted Duncan and almost none have made any kind of an impact for them (or in the league).
Yeah.. ^ thats probably right.. but Beno Udrih looks decent right now, and can turn out better. John Salmons who they traded seem to be better than some of the players picked above him. Yeah your right though.. no team can draft the best player in any draft. And I think their last two top picks were Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
