Disagree. There were plenty of better college players on the board when we took those euros. If Buchanan was good at his job, he would have been able to convince the GM to take those players, The problem is, he's not good at his job. He convinced management to take Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph over DeJuan Blair. Buchanan has been a scout with the Blazers for over seven years. The last college player the Blazers drafted that justified his draft position (compared to who was still on the board) was Brandon Roy. The last one to justify his draft position, that's still in the league was LaMarcus Aldridge, that same year. We also passed on Paul Millsap three times (at 27 - Sergio, 30 - Freeland and 31 - James White, traded to Indy for the 45th pick and a 4th chance to pass on Millsap) in that same draft. Since then, we've had the number 1 pick in the 2007 draft and the number 11 pick (in the trade from Indianapolis) in 2008. We picked Greg Oden and Jerryd Bayless with those picks. How'd that work out for us? In 2009 we passed on DeJuan Blair at 22 (Claver), 31 (Pendergraph) and 33 (Cunningham). In 2010, we moved up to 16 to take Luke Fucking Babbit. Of the next 12 picks in that draft, only two have played fewer NBA minutes than Luke Babbitt, and one of those two was Elliot Williams, our own 22nd pick. In 2011 we took Nolan Smith at 21 over Kenneth Faried, Marshon Brooks, Norris Cole, Chandler Parsons, Jon Leuer, Isaiah Thomas and several other players who have played more minutes and actually have a positive WS/48. Yeah, picking in the low to mid-20s is a crap shoot, but the odds are you'll at least occasionally get a keeper. And it's not like the Blazers have always been picking in the mid to low 20s. Since 2006, they've had the 1st (2007), 11th (2008), 22nd (2009), 16th and 22nd (2010) and 21st (2011) picks. With the possible exception of Elliot Williams (the jury is still out, he's only played 66 minutes of NBA ball) we've wiffed on every one of those picks. Sorry, I'm not willing to give our director of college scouting a free pass for being that wrong that often. Every year, there are multiple "meaningful" players selected in the 20s. In the past five drafts, we've wiffed at 1, 11, 16, 21, 22, with one infield single (Elliot Williams) also at 22. Forget homeruns, we're 1 for 6 with zero runs scored and zero RBIs with out top picks in the last 5 drafts. Again, I'm not ready to give our director of college scouting a free pass on that miserable track record, let alone promote him to GM. BNM
All this seems to point the finger at Buchanan like he had the final say on all this stuff. A scouts job is to look at players and evaluate them then its up to the coach's/GM to pick the players they want. I really doubt Buchanan had a lot of say on who we picked in anything save last years draft and we were thin at 2 positions PG/C and we drafted a PG considered by many the best one on the board at that time. I'm not defending him I just think we don't have enough info to say that it was Buchanan who convinced KP and Nate to pass on Blair/Millsap and so many others.
If Nate keeps playing Failton, his trade value will just continue to drop. He's already down to a late second round pick.
I'm not trying to blame Buchanan for all of the draft failures, but when you're in charge of college scouting and your team consistently wiffs on college players, when other, better college players are available, he has to at least share in the blame. He may have not been the making those decisions, but he is the one whose job has been to supply those making the decisions with the data to make the decisions. So, either he's been supplying them with faulty data, or they are ignoring the input he's been providing. Neither scenario speaks well for his prospects as our future GM. I know he's supposedly a good guy, works hard, plays nice with others, etc., but when I look at his track record, I don't see anything he's done that has translated to success on the court, and that's not something I want in a GM. BNM
I still think you're giving the guy too much credit. I doubt he had little if anything to do with 80% of those draft picks. His scouting job probably consisted of writing up reviews of players and sending them to the coach, GM, President, and maybe paul allen. Some owners are very hands on and will run the draft completely their own way. Wouldn't be surprised if paul allen had a hand in many of the pics you listed above. I think it's mostly his fault. I don't think Chad Buchanan is the problem, he's just an easy target. The Jury's still out on Nolan and Elliot. If nate actually played young players we might know more. But I have a feeling Nolan won't get much playing time up to the trade deadline to try to showcase fatass. Nolan seems like he hast the athleticism, intelligence, and determination to be a good player.
