You mean like Morris Almond? How did he fit with Sloan' style of ball. Look I am not criticizing O'Connor, because the draft is a crap shoot when you get past the first few picks. But I used to listen to the arrogance of the Jazz management team on the radio following the draft, and how they draft "differently" from teams like the Blazer (yes they would use the blazers as an example) and I would be flabbergasted because when I looked at their roster, I never saw many drafted players listed after a couple of years. Which is normal, but really how much better could they have been at evaluating talent? They routinely missed out on their first round picks, but did well with second or third picks. But why didn't they apply the same philosophy in the first round? I agree that Sloan's type of guy is the hard working hungry player. Those type of players are usually found in the 2nd round or go undrafted. As for Lopez and his injuries.....they still took him over Parker even though they brought Tony in for 2 work outs. Now it turned out well because they ended up with Williams 4 years later, but wouldn't he have been a good fit? You win some and you lose some. But the Jazz do nothing better than anyone else on draft day.
I'm trying to remember where I saw it...I can't claim to have made it up... Someone was talking about post-lottery drafting and saying that red-flagged, really talented players are the ones that teams in our position should take. We're pretty set, and getting someone talented who falls for whatever reason (like Blair and his knees last year, or Batum and his "heart issues", or Monroe and his motor this year) has the potential to be a really high-reward, over-the-top player. There's also the potential to go Oliver Miller/Jerome James and laze your way out of the league or blow something Shaun Livingston-style, so the floor is REALLY low. (To be fair, KP could very well be lumping "talented, but with big Euro buyout and/or contract issues" into this category) Teams that need lots of help might be better to go for the "solid" pick, a guy with lesser talent but higher motor, b/c they'll have something they can count on to contribute immediately. Think Tyler Hansbrough, maybe. Before he got injured, he was a solid contributor with a high motor that you could count on to "scrap". You might not have been sure that Blair would stay on the court, or Ty Lawson would stay out of trouble, or Brandon Jennings would know his anus from his elbow. And that risk is too much for bad teams that need some solid contributors to build around. For us, missing on Claver wouldn't necessarily cripple the franchise. Ask NYK how much they'd prefer Blair or Jennings or Lawson to Jordan Hill right now.
Dude. Fuck. I asked you Monday night while you were posting in this thread. I checked again yesterday during the day and you still hadn't said anything. I figured you were either ignoring me or didn't believe me so I asked someone else. I wish you had responded earlier. Would've been fun to finally meet The DaRizzle. Well, no worries. I'll get tix like this again sometime and will ask you then.
Morris Almond is pretty talented, just the guy can't play a lick of defense due to his lack of athleticism. If you watch Utah, a lot of Utah's offense gets wide open curls from 15-18ft away, so Morris Almond was a good fit if he could of been an NBA level athlete. The guy was also picked @ the end of the 1st round, you don't exactly have a pool full of talent left that late. Raul Lopez was a nice little player, but you can't deny him tearing up his knees after Utah drafted him didn't effect the outlook of the pick. At the time, Lopez was a much different player w/ the physical tools but ended up tearing an ACL before his rookie campaign. I'm sure if Tony Parker tore his ACL his rookie year trying to adapt to not only a new team but a new culture, he wouldn't be the same superstar. I'm not saying Lopez would of became better than Tony Parker, but you can't say Utah made a mistake for not taking Parker when the fact that he was picked #27, Utah wasn't the only team that missed on him. Lately Utah has had some pretty decent picks compared to past years.
A very easy computer class I have an A in.....I would have figured something out to have my cake and eat it too
