Can someone answer this? I forgot what the conditions were on these picks and I can't find it anywhere. nothing here either http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed
Like I said, OKC got lucky in that they were able to draft a legit MVP type player in Durant. The reason they were in a position to draft him at all was because they traded Ray Allen after two bad seasons in 05-06 and 06-07 (04-05 season they actually won their division and made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs). If they keep Ray Allen they stay a bad to mediocre team that drafts in the 7-15 range and occasionally can squeak into the playoffs if they pick up a decent free agent that year/draft a solid contributor. After they traded Ray Allen it took them TWO years to get back to the playoffs and give the eventual champs (Lakers) all they could handle. If they would have kept Ray Allen.... they probably look alot like the current roster that the Rockets have... I'm not saying at all that the Thunder weren't lucky in being able to draft Durant. They were. But they were also very smart in drafting Westbrook (who many people thought couldn't be a legit pt guard) and Harden. Now they have two superstars on their team and a solid supporting cast around them. My whole point with pointing to OKC as a model is that they built through the draft. OKC was never going to attract a marquee free agent to come and save the franchise. I think they management recognized that, traded Ray Allen and realized that they were gonna have to take their lumps for a few years to have a shot at having a championship team. Luckily for them it only took them two years. I think Houston is in a very similar position. Holding on to Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, etc to stay mediocre and have a 10-20 range draft pick every year while simulatenously praying that a free agent will finally decide that Houston is the city they want to go to is becoming painful to watch. Free agents aren't coming. If we trade for a superstar we have to gut the roster to do it... and the only superstars that become available are the ones in the last year of their contract (i.e. Dwight Howard who unsurprisingly did not list Houston as one of his preferred destinations). The only other way to get a superstar is the draft. Maybe I am being too gloom and doom about the current roster. I hope desperately that I am wrong but I feel strongly that this current roster (and whatever small/medium sized tweaks that Morey makes to it) is set up to squeak into the playoffs for the next several years.
Both of those picks were traded (along with Brad Miller) for Jonny Flynn, the draft rights to Donatas Motiejunas and Minnesota's 2012 second round pick.
I would dare say that in that scenario, Jones III and Jones (or Henson) would project as starters at PF and SF over anyone we have now or in the pipeline. If Monteijunas proves to not be a stiff, you'd have a frontline rotation as big as anybody in the league. That would be nice for a change.
