I actually liked the draft quiet a lot. Got an great shooter in the second round, a big man who is known for shot blocking and a stash. Our lottery pick will immediately help and will be perfect coming off the bench. We did nothing spectacular but nothing bad so i'd give us a B+. We have set ourselves up for big improvements if we don't strike out in FA. The need for a rim protector or even a paint clogger is the big acquisition we should be looking for. We have the lid half open, now can we open it all the way is the question.
You're right, but not exactly. Yes, the 1st-rounder comes with a cap hold. It's about 900k for the 27th pick. But it takes up one of the "roster hold" spots (that are 490k), so you're losing 400k in cap space in order to guarantee a guy on basically a 4yr, 5M total deal--with the ability to cut him loose after two years like Nolan Smith if he really sucks and you don't want to pay 1M/yr for him. And the 2nd-rounder doesn't cost anything in cap space, but you can't sign him after you've used your cap space unless you use one of the exceptions. Rookie minimum is 490k. You could use our Room Exception to do something bigger, but only on a 2yr max deal. IN which case you end up getting Lin'd (or Asik'd) if he turns out to be good, and if he sucks you've only spent less than 1M total over the 2 years that would've been guaranteed at #27 (or whatever) So if we would've traded, say, #40 and $2M for Crabbe at 27, then we could've a) kept our future 2nds, b) locked Crabbe up on a guaranteed 2yr 1.9M TOTAL deal, with team options for year 3 and 4 at about 3M total if he's worth it, c) avoided an "Early Bird" situation like Lin and Novak---at the cost of 400k in cap space and 4M or so in cash. This is one of the great things about the #31 pick. First, you aren't locked into the rookie salary scale, so you can get a Euro who has a big buyout (teams can only contribute 575k to a buyout, player's on the hook for the rest). If you could, say, offer a guy with a 2M buyout the MLE (or some portion of your cap space), then you have a much higher chance of bringing him over than if you draft him #27. Second is if you want to draft and stash a guy and keep him off your cap, then a 2nd is the way to go b/c you have to have a first round stasher sign that he won't come over in the following year (even in trade). Guys like Schroeder, Karasev, Adetobunbo didn't want to do that, so teams like DAL didn't want to draft them if they weren't guaranteeing that, or else the cap hold would still be on their contract. My personal philosophy on end-of-first/beginning of second is that you should draft role players or red-flagged guys (or guys who've dropped) with late 20's picks, which are usually available for cash (or 2nds), and get expensive-buyout Euro talent with #31/32/33, so that you can keep them off your cap books while they're stashed and still maintain the flexibility to pay them enough to overcome a buyout.
A. McCollum comes with a great skill set. Our second round picks were probable first rounders and will both play minutes for us next year.
Agree with almost all of this. But we knew what we needed going into the draft, and not a lot has changed. Whether or not your particular flavor in the lotto was a combo guard who could play PG (like KCP, MCW, McCollum), a pure SG like Oladipo or McLemore or Shabazz, or a stretch PF (like Olynyk, Zeller), I got the feeling from almost everyone that the pure Center talents that were lotto-worthy (Len and Noel) were sufficiently injured to be cringe-worthy and too risky to pick. And I don't know that there were a lot of people excited to draft Adams or Dieng or Gobert at #10. So we're still sitting in the same place we were 2 months ago. We have a gaping hold at "Starting Defensive Big". We knew that our starting lineup aside from that was good-to-well-above-average, with some room still to improve. We knew that, aside from trading the pick, we were going to get some bench help somewhere with the draft. We knew that we would almost definitely need cap space to sign "Starting Defensive Big", whether as a FA or in a lopsided trade. Personally, I think we've about extinguished the "lopsided trade option", unless we're going to send out one of the Core Four or McCollum. I don't see PHX trading Gortat for just a trade exception.
I'll give us a B for getting value picks, picking BPA when it was our turn and trading future seconds for Crabbe. They would have had to trade up for better players to get an A. I really should lower their score for selling a pick. WTF is up with that? This bugged me last night and it bugs me still. Didn't we sell a pick last year too? Why? That's the same as losing an asset for nothing, and worse, giving your opponent an asset they otherwise would not have. If we didn't want Jerrett aka Channing Frye 2.0, pick someone else, TRADE for a future pick, combine him with another player in a trade, or stash a euro. I don't get it and I don't like it.
Instead of just wasting the 40th pick, I wish they would have brought in Iverson or Muscala. Throw them into the thunderdome with Lynyrd and Withey....3 men enter, 2 men leave. Other than that, I am happy with what they did.
I'd give POR a B McCollum is kind of a ho-hum pick, really wish KCP has fallen there...but he didn't, would have loved to see POR trade up to get McLemore, but that wasn't in the cards. I certainly liked the McCollum pick more than Adams, who I was not in favor of POR picking...I liked Muhammad (heck I like MIN draft Muhammad\Dieng)....but that ship was not coming in....It will be interesting to see if Lillard\McCollum are dynamic enough offensively to make up for any defensive deficiencies... I like the 2nd round picks....Crabbe is a shooter with good size, I think he could very likely beat out Barton....I really like the Withey pick as well, defensive oriented player (rim protector), played against top competition and performed well....I think he is better offensively than people are giving him credit for....I think he can beat out Leonard for the starting? or back-up center position.... Todorovic...meh...European player to stash and see if he develops.... Overall, not bad...improved the bench...I certainly like McCollum\Crabbe\Withey (at least for now) over last year's guys Smith\Babbitt\Pavlovic...ugh... Curious to see who Olshey targets in FA.....Can't imagine a guard.....and the centers out there are not overly appealing.....Maybe a PF type who could b\u and\or play alongside LA for stretches?
The more I read articles and listen to radio interviews about the draft the more people I hear say that we had one of the top drafts and usually that it has more to do with Allen Crabbe (and to a smaller extent Withey) being 1st round talent acquired in the 2nd round. Many expect Crabbe to be a very good shooter at the NBA level. I was happy about picking him but his potential Im hearing is already making me hopeful. Cant wait for summer league.
Well since you thought Lillard would be a bust; I can see why you call cj hohum. Sorry I couldn't resist
Well since you thought Lillard was a bust, I can see why you are Ho him on cj. Sorry couldn't resist!
Last year the "experts" were saying the same thing about Will Barton. Watching Barton play last season he looked like a 2nd round draft pick.
Maybe, however I feel like, well I know, Crabbe is a better shooter and I think that he will be more used for that specific role whereas Barton was more like, "go out there and wreak havoc and do your thing". So I think if used correctly Crabbe could be more effective. I still have hope for Barton but I like idea of Crabbe's role for our team.
[video=youtube;GaEoBIbJmvE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaEoBIbJmvE[/video] Hell muthafuckin ya!!! He's got Danny Green type grit to to his game.
I'm not saying they're the same player. I'm saying that like Crabbe, Barton was considered a 1st round talent player that fell to the 2nd round. After watching Barton play last year I can see why he slipped to the second round. He was not a 1st round talent player. Where he was selected was very accurate. Naturally I want Crabbe to be better than the position he was drafted in. That would be fucking awesome. I'm just not holding my breath that it will happen.
He was a borderline 1st rounder. Teams make mistakes. I watched a ton Crabbe. I'm fairly certain he'll be a solid contributor at the very least.
