Yes, he lost a crucial year of development. Say what you want about NCAA, but these colleges have a far more proven track record in developing players than IMG
Anfernee disagrees. Says he was allowed to live in the gym and work on his game instead of going to classes.
It's not even really a criticism of the pick though. At 24 it's always who knows what you'll get. However, I don't see this as a "risk" at all for NO. Next year if Simons doesn't play, well we expected that. The year after that we will have another Draft, another round of FA's, and who knows what trades happen. If Simons doesn't play again, well it's easy to just say he didn't work out, or the roster changes put better players in front of him. Last year jumping up taking Collins and in the coming days saying I expect him to be part of the foundation moving forward, is much riskier than the Simons pick. My entire point is that I've read several people say this is high risk, high reward! What's the risk? They had the 24th pick, no one wanted it apparently, so they had to take someone. They took a guy that they admit isn't ready for the NBA, and the scouting reports say might be 2 years away from ready. If Simons never pans out, it's pretty easy to brush it off. It might be a good pick, because if he does pan out you got a player! There really is almost no risk in this pick for NO though, especially short term as the guy is expected to basically not play for a year or two.
Wasn't a top 10 pick (was a HUGE reach at 13), is smaller, less athletic than Simons, but hey, they both committed to Louisville, so I guess they have something in common. BNM
So, pretty much any pick you make at 24 is low risk, because the expectations are low. Or, in other words, is their such a thing as a high risk pick this late in the draft when all the blue chippers are already off the board? BNM
Exactly. The last high risk thing Olshey did was trading for Afflalo, and it didn't work. High risk is trading something of value for something that just might work but also might not. Like if we'd traded for Paul George or Carmelo (phew!) last summer. This taking a gamble on unknown quantities is different...because there is an out. If Simons doesn't work out, no one is going to lambaste Olshey about it--he's a child that went to high school for 5 years--but if it does work out then Olshey is a genius.
Well if he had Drafted another guy and said hey we expect him to be a rotational player at least that’s placing expectations and “risk for NO”, onto it. Taking a project, and placing no expectations on him is about as low risk as possible. The risk here is for Neil right he’s the GM.
There wasn't a player on the board at 24 that any GM in his right mind would say that about. Especially the GM of a 49-win playoff team. BNM
Fair enough, but my argument wasn’t that. My argument is that people saying this was a high risk pick, well in my opinion it wasn’t.
Carmelo expires after this coming season. Who cares if he makes 27 mil? Besides I imagine the trade was gonna be Hark, Turner, and Napier for Melo or Hark, Meyers, Napier, and Biggie. Which I would still do today.
Not trying to speak for anyone else, but what I think they may be referring to is, because of his complete lack of college experience, there is a high risk he'll flame out. In other words, most people associate high risk with high potential for reward. The guy has high potential, but there is a high risk he'll never reach it. BNM
I mean, this can be said for about 2/3rds of NBA prospects. The scary thing about HS kids/Simons is that we as fans haven’t got to really see him play. That’s why college is important.
As inconsistent as he is, I'd take 25-year old Harkless at $27 million over 34-year old Carmelo at $10 million. Carmelo is done. He has always sucked at defense, but when he was younger, his offense made up for it. Not any more. He sucks worse than ever defensively and his offense is rapidly catching up with his defense. BNM
no way that package would be comparable to what New York wanted as they didn't want long term contracts.
Especially for an 24th pick, any 24th pick, but at least with college kids you have plenty of tape of them competing against players of comparable ability. BNM
