I loved the Jabari pick. And I do believe Rockets got lucky. Like you, I'd hope that Rockets would have drafted Chet if he fell to 3rd - medicals be damned because they did their due diligence by getting that Intel via indirect sources. But I have my doubts. And this is a concern because Wembanyana is best player in next draft and Stone seems to ignore his analytics team when it comes to the 7 foot unicorns. There always seems to be an excuse why these players are not his preference. Chet had zero history of injuries, yet Rockets were concerned about his medicals. To the point that a trade up was preferable. Wembayana actually has history of injuries. Minor but at least these are real rather than projected. And FYI - players are drafted all the time without medical records.
Dipping into this thread for the first time since this morning, and boy, does my head hurt. I'm glad most of you aren't lawyers or Logic professors.
Chet could retire tmrw, and Jabari could be perennial All-NBA and some would still say we ****ed up. People develop crushes on players when in reality the VAST majority of players even in the lotto never live up to their potebtial
This is the key point. OKC saw the medicals. They have been laser focused on picking Chet. If they didn't, something concerning might have triggered the change of mind. Some people say that the Rockets didn't have to care so much about the medicals because if there was something bad, he wouldn't be a top prospect. But then, if both Orlando and OKC (especially OKC who really liked him) skipped him, it would be understandably concerning. It turned out OKC didn't see anything wrong and everybody got what they should have got.
The reason that the Rockets were concerned had nothing to do with his injury history. It was because they couldn't get access to his medical records. Not getting access to medical records for a top 3 pick is very unusual. As I'm sure you understand, the ramifications of missing on a top 3 pick is very different than missing on a midround or lower pick.
Clearly, Rafael just didn’t say please. I don’t trust a GM who doesn’t know how to say please when asking for medical records of a top 3 pick with an incredibly unique body type.
Paolo was the best player in the draft and that’s why we tried to trade up to #1. Had nothing to do with Chet’s medical history. that doesn’t change the fact that Jabari is a great pick at #3. If he can improve his handles he will be a top player for many years in this league. we need to all remember that he’s one of the youngest players in the draft. Just turned 19 in May. Lots of time to improve and develop, but he has more athletic limitations than the top 2 picks.
So Rockets only just realized right before the draft that Chet was a top 3 pick and likely need to make decision if he falls to their pick? Like I said, it smacks of being unprepared. Why is everyone so defensive about this. Were Rockets prepared to take Chet or not? Obviously their last minute manuevers indicates they were not prepared. Those medical records they thought were so critical should have been given more of priority 5 minutes before ORL picked amirite?
This is not surprising. The Rockets lucked out with OKC picking Holmgren. What would Stone do if Chet was available at #3?
After reading a bunch of this thread, I'm left with ... 1) I strongly suspect the article is at least 50% BS 2) Orlando management was probably way less clever and more haphazard than a lot of folks are suggesting 3) Ditto Rockets management 4) If your job is to get your client the best deal, why would you withhold medical records and risk him falling further down the draft order
What makes you think that weren't prepared if he fell to them? Sounds like they tried to mitigate risk by moving up but that doesn't mean that they were unprepared if he fell. 5 minutes prior to the OKC pick you couldn't get Chet's medicals. They said they weren't going to give them unless they found out that he wasn't going #2. Do you really believe that you could get medical records and review them in 5 minutes,? Most GMs are always looking for an opportunity. Not sure why you'd onterpret that as being unprepared.
