Merged: The Draft Thread For Stuff About The Draft Including Thoughts About The Draft

Fueled a burning competitive desire among the players to never lose another playoff series? Acclimated the players to the intensity of playoff competition? Exposed individual and team weaknesses, which could lead to improvements in individual performance and team composition? Improved the bank account of some of the team support personnel?

 

Old news. Happened in February

 

Jonathan Jeanne anyone? Second coming of Rudy Gobert they say...

 

Collins was the only guy in the championship game who looked like a NBA player to me.

 

He's already 5x better than MyLe at low post scoring.

 

What did we trade away to get Nurk and the 20th pick? Potentially 5 spots in the draft? That's cheap. (I consider Plumlee and the $$ a minimal loss, or even no loss at all. We shouldn't have re-signed Plums for what he'd likely have cost us and for what he does anyway.)

 

Umm......what?

Hahahahaha...no.

Ok....I guess? This is where I might go for a higher ceiling/boom or bust kind of guy?

 

I haven't read the whole thread, but I do find it interesting that so many people want to trade out of the 1st round to nab 2nd round "gems". Do we need to get into a history lesson on 2nd rounders and their typical impact at the NBA level? I know I'm not fully in tune to all the prospects from around the world so I do lean heavily on DrafExpress for my education, and realistically their mocks are year in and year out pretty accurate. So when I see people in here talking about taking guys in the 1st round who aren't even on DE's 2nd round I kinda just scratch my head.

 

When has a draft and stash really worked out well? I mean Sabonis comes to mind right off the bat but we got him after injuries had immobilized him... Any recent examples when its worked out? I feel like its just a waste of a pick to spend it on a euro who might never even make it to the top spanish league let alone the NBA. and at #20 no less when NBA role players can still be had? hard pass

 

Dario saric

 

I like his length, but he is just so painfully skinny.
I'd have to watch him a bit more. As of right now, I'm inclined to pass.

I do like Pasecniks though.

 

Lottery tomorrow. I really, really hope Philadelphia get a top 3 pick at the expense of Lakers and as a result also get Lakers pick. Because that would mean Lakers failed at tanking and would get to pick in a worse 2018 draft, and would be ultimate end to The Process with two backcourt players.

 

He only played 16:40 in Game 3, most of it in the first half. We were up 7 after the first quarter and up 13 at the half with him playing. It was the only time we led in the series. In spite of still being hobbled by his injury, and playing very limited minutes, he still led all players in rebounds with 11 and tied for the team lead with 4 assists. He was +8, by far the highest of any Blazer.

Yeah, it's a ridiculously small sample size, and he was playing hurt, but it was the only time in that series we looked like we belonged on the same court as GSW. In fact, we pretty much dominated them in the first half when Nurk was in the game. Then, in the second half, with Nurk out, GSW went on their typical run and took over the game. That game was a microcosm of our season and showed how much better the team is with, than without, Nurkic.

That's a big assumption. With one pick, it's hit or miss. With two picks, at least you get better odds of getting one of them right.

Really, a one game difference? We were 11 games under .500 at the time of the trade and ended up at exactly ,500. That's a pretty impressive turnaround. And we didn't just get fat against weak teams at home. We were 14-6 with Nurk, including 7-4 on the road with road wins over OKC, SAS, ATL and MIA. We also had home wins over OKC and HOU during that stretch. It was easily the best 20 game stretch of the entire season.

Personally, I think Nurk will have a bigger impact on both ends of the court the during the 2017-18 season than ANY player selected in this year's draft. Even if we hadn't gotten Nurk and had continued on the same losing trajectory, we still would not have been in the running for a top 3 pick. It's not like making the playoffs cost us a sure fire superstar. We got a very young, very talented player that is a great fit with the rest of our roster. He addressed several needs. And we also got the 2oth pick as compensation for moving down 5 - 7 spots in the draft. I still think we came out WAY ahead.

The draft is a total crap shoot, even if you're picking in the top 8. We know we have a difference maker in Nurk and Neil has three shots at adding one, or two, more core pieces (either through the draft or trading the picks). Things look a hell of a lot better to me now than they did before the trade. I enjoyed all the wins after the trade and I'm looking forward to draft day (whether we keep the picks our bundled two, or more, in a trade).

BNM

 

Fingers crossed. I'd love to see Philadelphia with the 1st and 4th picks. They'd take Fultz #1, and then could take a PG, SG, or SF at 4 because Fultz and Simmons can play any combination of 1 & 3, 2 & 3, or 2 & 1.

 

Jokic.

 

Yes I dont mean to belittle the addition of Nurkic but he wont fix everything. Again I think its too soon to tell about the impact he will have net year. Markelle fultz could average 15-20ppg next year we dont know how it will shake out. But we all saw what this team was without Nurk and that is more my point, we're kinda terrible. The playoffs didnt help us. There was no confidence gained by the godawful performances of games 1,2, and most especially 4. We wouldnt be in the range for a top 3 pick but number 10 vs 15 is a big jump. We were in a tough spot you cant tell guys to take nights off but some pop style resting down the stretch when it was clear we were a dumpster fire (aka before nurk) could have saved us some embarrassment and draft positioning. We abandoned the development idea after last year and instead tried to act like we were gunna end up in the WCF. This was the fatal mistake of the entire season imo the delusion that we were a playoff team as constructed.

 

Wait, the fatal mistake was NOT telling Lillard and CJ to sit out games when they wanted to claw back into the playoff picture??

Everyone with this argument doesn't realize how things would actually shake out with the front office/coaching staff/players and how it would affect the culture.

Pop rests guys because they're old, and because he's in a position to (2nd seed in the West). What are we going to say we're resting guys for when we're 10 games under .500? You can't say your resting guys for the playoffs, because resting those guys will make us miss the playoffs. That will be obvious to everyone, and the day this franchise is sending Dame and CJ the message that they don't want them to play because they want a 3-4 pick increase in draft position is the day when Canzano's right about the "culture" and this franchise turns to shit.

Yeah, not doing that shit was a fatal mistake. SMH.

 

I hope that SAC jumps up to 3, and PHX jumps ahead of Boston. That would leave us with a draft order of:
1 PHX
2 BOS
3 PHI (Swap w/ SAC)
4 PHI (from LAL)
5 SAC (Swap w/ PHI)
...

The reason being: I think you could entice the Kings with a package of 15, 20, 26, and Harkless for the 5th pick. Maybe add in our 2018 1st. (I just want PHX to win because Fultz+Booker would be a joy to watch, and BOS would be an interesting team at #2 to pick between Jackson and Ball).

At 5, you could draft Jayson Tatum, who would be an excellent pickup. PHI likely doesn't want Tatum since they have Simmons at SF. If they wanted Crabbe for free, we could trade AC and 5 up to 4 (which would effectively just be dumping AC for free).

Tatum would be the best fit possible in this draft for us. 3rd scorer, another ball-handler, a versatile defender, can play small ball 4 and do things in the pick n roll.

I think that Sacremento might consider that offer because they need help at every single position. They don't have their 2019 1st (It's unprotected and guess who gets it... fucking Philadelphia!)... Therefore, SAC needs to add young depth immediately, and would probably like to add three 1st round picks in a deep draft as well as the 34th pick to their roster. Knowing Divac, this is possible. He traded 8 for 13 and 28 last year, and took Papagiannis at 13 when he could've taken Chriss at 8. 5 for 15, 20, 26, and Harkless seems about even to 8 for 13 & 28, especially since this draft is deeper.

Trading Moe for Tatum saves money, and by trading one of Aminu or Davis, you open up the full MLE (~$8M I believe). I'd try to trade Davis, Napier & the MIN/LAL 2nd for Kyle O'Quinn and then use the MLE on Amir Johnson. Then, ideally you'd swap Aminu for a PG. Maybe D.J. Augustin and one of ORLs 2nds?

Lillard / Augustin
McCollum / Crabbe
Tatum / Turner
Johnson / Vonleh
Nurkic / O'Quinn

Lillard, Nurkic, McCollum, and Tatum is a legit Big 4 going forward. Johnson and O'Quinn are good defenders that can hit shots. Not much turnover but makes us a lot better immediately and for the future.