<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Deep draft-we R still talking about ~50 players w/legit chance 2make impact in NBA-highest since I joined HOU-reminds me of deep 2005 draft</p>— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/744005405710290944">June 18, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I told you guys. This draft cannot be considered as weak. There are too many young players coming out. I guarantee we will be talking about this draft in the next 2-3 years.
I pretty much don't believe anything this guy says anymore. But obviously it's a very good draft, just look at the players. I'm sure we'll get someone good out of the 2nd round. But It makes me so angry that we haven't really been able to get excited about the draft under Morey's tenure because they never really prioritize building trough the draft. I get that no one wants to perennially suck to rebuild but the last draft we were real players in was the Royce white draft: and we traded one, one self destructed, and one never achieved his potential. I'm starved for draft excitement, really wish we had a pick this year and find Morey's public spin to be even harder to listen to; I'm not happy.
In all fairness, drafting a guy in Jeremy Lamb whose talent was enticing enough for the Thunder to be willing to trade James Harden to us is pretty freaking exciting to me. I didn't want Royce White at 16. I wanted Tyler Zeller (and I heard some of the Rockets' coaches and scouts did, too). But I at least understood the need for a team without a star (at that time) to swing for the fences on a high ceiling-low floor player. Unfortunately, White hit that floor. Hard. Also, while Terrence Jones had the natural talent to be a top-7 pick, he didn't go in that range. He fell to 18th overall. At THAT draft spot, Jones has accomplished about what you'd expect. He just wasn't the STEAL we had all hoped for.
I knew someone would come with the Jeremy Lamb Harden comment, but also consider that he was really just one piece of that deal. Martin and the two first round picks we're big factors, no? I'm not trying to hate just to hate. I'm saying I love the draft (always have) and it just hasn't been as exciting in the Morey era because it feels like we put a disproportionate emphasis on trade and free agency and haven't really used the draft to build a core. I understand we've been competitive and that makes it hard to pick high, but im also sure there have been opportunities to be more aggressive doubling down on the draft.
Great post and I agree with your points. Having said that, we.haven't had any high picks He's done well with 2nd round picks. No reason to double down when the picks aren't to generate an top tier player. Picking Morris o er Leonard and Royce White are both unforgivable. Hopefully we can buy a 1st round pick this year.
I agree with Morey here. Lots of talent here. There should be at least one rotation ready player when we draft. And I think the posters in the draft forum have done a great job of picking them out. I'll take any one of these guys that fall: Uthoff, Maker, Bolomboy, Felder, Brogdon, Payton II, Levert, Zagorac, Qi, Johnson, Zipser, and Cornelie.
Is it wrong that a big part of me wishes we would blow up the team on Thursday night, Harden included, doing a deal with Boston for their 3 picks and perhaps a young rising stud? I just feel like it's time to do something different.
If you like to watch losing basketball with prospects who might not make it in the nba then that is a pretty good strategy. Basically, did you like watching those years when we kept barely missing the playoffs but had a lot of plucky players?
You're not the only one. I wouldn't necessarily blow the team up, I would just trade Harden in a package deal for those three 1st rounders.