Our team is very ethnic: an Asian-American, African-American, two Eastern-European Slovic guys, and one Floridian. Totally international, almost Spur-like.
All kidding aside, Carl, I think you're right about the lottery pick elimination. It seems like the FO values early second round picks (at least for guys on rookie contracts) a lot more than guys who were picked in the late lottery/1st round. 1st round contracts are guaranteed for a minimum of two years and don't come cheap, especially when you factor in their built-in raises. For example: this year Patterson, as the 14th pick from the 2010 draft, makes about 2.1M, and next year will make about 3.1M. After that, if the Kings feel like holding on to him, they'll have to shell out 4.3M for his QO. Carlos Delfino is going to cost 3M for this year, and 3M for next year assuming he is retained. Their individual contributions to the team are debatable, but at this point it's pretty clear that Morey and Co. value the flexible Delfino/Dalembert team option sort of contracts more than rolling the dice with 1st round/lottery picks that they feel may never develop. Given their aptitude for making smart second round picks who can be signed to extremely team-friendly max-length contracts (e.g. Parsons, Budinger), it makes sense that the Rockets would continue acquiring early 2nd rounders instead of trying to keep up with the pay raises associated with 1st round/lottery picks.
Just a public service announcement so none of my fellow Clutchfans gets knifed by a particularly patriotic Turk : Turks are not Slavic, not even a little bit.
It's a black guy with a beard and a mohawk, shouldn't it be obvious that the A-Team only ever had 1 black guy?
