Looking around Locke's site, I see this. Sloan often makes starters out of new guys. http://1320kfan.com/index.php/story...hould_the_jazz_get_gordon_hayward_his_minutes It goes on with quotes from other young players Sloan started.
Nate started Roy as a rookie, and Roy got ROY. He also started Batum over Outlaw after a few games on what ended up being a 54-win team. Oh, and Oden made the "rookie" team All-Star game squad, and Rudy had a 15+ PER and set a rookie record for 3s. Has Sloan has a ROY in his one million years coaching the Jazz? I don't know.
The blog shows that Sloan has made many surprise starters out of rookies who weren't top picks. That must have saved the team a lot of money over the years.
I get what you're saying, and I for one don't blame Nate for lack of player development, but I think the Sloan argument is a different one. Since Sloan became coach in 1988, he's had one pick higher than 14, and that was All-Rookie, 2x All-NBA 2nd Team and Olympian Deron-is-Deron Williams. Even his 2nd round picks have been, other than CJ Miles, lower than 47. Nate and KP, otoh, got a #1 (Oden), #2 (LMA), #6 (Webster), #6 (Roy), #11 (Bayless) in the last 5 years, while also getting great value from Batum (26) and Rudy (24) and Jack (23). Sloan's been working with Williams (3), Ronnie Brewer (14), Maynor (traded out from under him --20), Koufos (23), CJ Miles (34), Paul Millsap (47), Fesenko (55), Matthews (UFA)...and now Heyward at 9...while really only striking out on Mo Almond at 25. It's more like criticising Adelman and Carlesimo and Cheeks, b/c Bassy, Qyntel, Z-bo, Jermaine, Respert, J-Rob, Dave Johnson (remember him?), Alaa, Irvin didn't make RoY either, though a couple became good-if-not-great players later. Picks taken after 10 are about as much a crapshoot as you can get, while top lotto picks are usually a) on a bad enough team where they can get playing time, b) some are talented enough to deserve it (you can't say that Jermaine and Z-bo were talented enough to start for us in their rookie years), c) hyped enough to get some mainstream media watching them. None of that happens, generally, for low-first-rounders on mediocre-to-good playoff teams. Which kind of makes what Sloan's done impressive, in its own way and irrespective of Nate.
