While being the consensus #1 pick, had the Blazers medical staff done a better job, they would have caught the red flags, like one leg shorter than the other. He walked with a strange gait. I'm surprised that didn't alert them. So had they caught that, they might have chose to go with Durant instead. That's what i'm saying.
I bet they are enjoying Ja Morant. Anyone seen that clip of Ja tipping a waitress a fat tip? She’s like “oh, you play basketball? You gonna go to the NBA?”
You are correct. Game 2 of the Conference Semifinals was the last game Walton ever played for the Blazers. The Blazers medical staff screwed up big time in my opinion.
That's right. Traded down for 2 picks, like a lot of folks suggested this year. Bad idea IMO. I wanted Deron Williams in that draft. I was very disappointed.
Yep. They traded Moses to the Braves for (what turned into) Rick Robey. Robey was traded with Johnny Davis who got them the pick from the Pacers.
Big difference between 3 and 7, historically. The third pick should get you an all-star caliber player, unless your scouting department simply sucks, while the seventh pick trends more toward, "hopefully a solid starter." In a lot of drafts, like say, this year's, there's not much consensus between players in the 6-15 range. That's where it can be beneficial to trade down. I would have preferred Duren (or Sochan) plus whatever we got from trading down, versus the unknown of Sharpe.
Agreed. The draft really is a crapshoot. Here's a little analysis I did a few years back. I defined a starter as someone that starts over half of their career games - In that 20-year span, the #3 pick was more successful than the #2 pick. And the #8 picked sucked. #9 and #10 did considerably better. 57.1% chance of getting an all-star with the #3 pick. 14.3% chance of getting an all-star with the #7 pick. 85.7% chance of getting a starter with the #3 pick. 71.4% chance of getting a starter with the #7 pick. As far as general draft trends, there seems to be a significant drop off between the #5 pick and #6. Then the next tier is a big drop off between the #10 pick and #11 pick. Trading down to pick up multiple assets is often a good strategy. With so much variability in the draft, getting a couple of swings at it certainly improves your chances of finding that gem.
Somehow the "draft is a crapshoot" discussion made me want to look into the Kings drafting... Their last all-star draft pick was Cousins in 2010. After that, the 2010s were ROUGH: 2011: They had #7 but traded and got #10. Draft Jimmer Fredette Notable picks around that position: #9 Kemba, #11 Klay #15 Kawhi 2012: Drafted T-Rob at #5 (Lillard went #6) 2013: Drafted McLemore at #7. pretty terrible draft overall. Giannis went #15 (probably not a consideration for 7 at that time), CJ went #10 2014 : Drafted Stauskas at #8 (why do we end up with every failed Kings pick ?) Not many big name they could have picked around that time except Lavine at #13 2015: Cauley-Stein at #6 Not much after that again except #13 Devin Booker 2016: Drafted headcase Marquese Chriss at #8 (Sabonis went #11) traded for #13 to get Papagiannis traded for #28 to get Skal, just between Dejunte Murray (#29) and Paskal Siakam (#27) 2017: drafted Fox at #5 traded #10 to Portland to draft Harry Giles (#20) and Justin Jackson (#15) notable players drafed: #13 Mitchell, #14 Bam, #19 John Collins, #22 Jarrett Allen #23 OG They also originally had #3 (became Tatum) but they traded a pick-swap right to the sixers in 2015 for.... Nothing. To clear cap space and be a bigger player in free agency (lmao). So they basically lost out on Tatum for nothing. 2018: The big stinker, drafted Bagley III at #2 (Luka #3, Trae #5) notable: traded #37 to Portland (became Trent Jr.) 2019: No lotto pick because they traded it in 2019 in the same deal that got them nothing. (they literally traded a protected 1st and two 1st swap wtf)
