...You never know what you're going to get. And indeed, if there's anything I learned from reading clutchfans, it's that the draft is a crapshoot. No scouting involved, no projection involved. After all, who the hell studies a crapshoot? Do you try to project which numbers are going to be the next lottery balls? Of course not. You wear your lucky socks and pat your dog 3 times because the last time you did that, you got 4 numbers. What's REALLY necessary in a draft, obviously, is LUCK. So let's study some lucky teams, and unlucky teams. Utah Jazz - Lucky The hated Jazz may not attract free agents, but they can certainly get lucky in the draft. After years of being in the playoffs with Stockton and Malone, the Jazz finally sunk into lotteryville in 2005. And DD snicker after they did the unthinkable. They traded up. They gave up an asset to do so too, giving Portland the #27 pick, which, quite frankly is 15 spots higher than where CBud was drafted. But alas, they got lucky. For some reason, Deron Williams turned out to be the real deal. Damn it!! If only the Rockets could've gotten Elgin Baylor close to their war room, maybe they'd have taken Raymond Felton instead. But no, the force was with the Jazz. And they took BPA of the entire freaking draft(assuming Bogut doesn't become Dream-like in his 30s), and bid farewell to lottery land quickly after one season. OKC - Lucky Okay, so Durant was a no-brainer. But Jeff Green, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook were not. Basketball gods says two of them would suck. And on average, they'd be no better than CBud or worse. But alas, the traitorous team overcame all karma and odds to get one likely future all-star in Westbrook, and two above average players at least in Harden and Green. This is, of course, simply blasphemy. And you have to wonder if Petrie has some great Fengshui offices and priests to clean out the bad karma. And if so, Morey needs to do the freaking same! Boston Celtics - Fair luck Boston had good and bad luck. They had good luck when they got Bird, but then the basketball gods decided they should be punished, and tooketh away Duncan from them. But in recent years, Boston again started to get good luck. How else do you explain Jefferson at #13, Rondo at #19? But notice something here. Morey was part of their "good luck era". Which was obviously the reason why Les hired the man. Les was smart, because Morey indeed brought some of that luck with him to the Rockets, which resulted in some lucky draft for Houston. Houston Rockets - Fair luck Like the Celtics, the Rockets had its highs and lows, to a lesser extent. But the basketball gods are fair. They give us Hakeem, but decided he was too overpowered. So as a result, the gods nerfed Sampson and later nerfed Yao when he started looking like he was dominating. But with T-Mac and Yao's injuries, said gods decided to throw the Rockets a bone, so they gave them some luck in the draft. Not Lebron-like luck, but Brooks/Landry/Budinger type. LA Clippers - Bad luck The Clippers must've really angered basketball gods. Because they never get any luck. Even when they're lucky, they get unlucky(see: Griffin, Blake). People used to blame Elgin Baylor. But it's not Baylor fault he cannot help but dance at basketball gods' whims. It's not his fault luck had him drafting the Kandiman. And it seems clutchfans is beginning to realize this. That the Clippers utter failures in drafts aren't really their own fault. No more so than a guy who keeps failing at craps, or can't even get 3 numbers from buying tons of lottery tickets. The Clippers cannot go against their destiny. They can only hope to survive it. Conclusion I used to think Morey's success came from his team of brilliant minds. But I think that's only his first step. His next step? How to obtain GODLY LUCK. I bet he's trying to combine SA's Duncan luck, Cleveland's Lebron Luck, Miami's Wade's luck, LA's Kobe luck, and combine all of them together to create the ultimate luck. And then the Rockets will never again draft Bryce Drew or Mirstad Turkjan. They'd forever draft only BPAs every time. That, my friends, is the next step of number crunching. LUCK CRUNCHING.
I don't know what chocolate you get but I stick to the tried-and-true where I know what every variety tastes like. As for the post, entertaining read. I don't believe in anything regarding "basketball gods" but do agree that luck is the number one factor in making draft choices. You can have the best evaluator of talent but that won't mean anything if the player is perennially injured or worse, goes down the Len Bias route.
I know what you are hinting at. At the NBA draft, your possible choices include a few white ones here and there, but are mostly brown, some lighter in shade than others.
And how did the great teams come about? Lakers? Trade for a good pick that allowed them to get a drafted Kobe. Celtics? Draft Pierce and trade everything you have for Allen and Garnett. Heat? Draft Wade. Magic? Draft Howard. Cavs? Draft Lebron.
I like the black chocolate ones myself. they are the most beneficial, much better than the dark ones, which are blended !!
