If the Hawks select ZR and if they want Clingan to replace Capela, then the Rockets should offer his rights and the 44th pick for Jalen Johnson and call it a day. I know this is unlikely to happen.
If I were Stone, I’d be looking to move this pick in a package for a star or a major upgrade to the starting lineup. Sheppard and Clingan are good prospects, but neither is elite.
One elite skill doesn’t doesn’t make either of them elite prospects. Clingan has to develop an outside shot in today’s NBA to justify being picked this high, and Sheppard is an undersized shooting guard with defensive questions. If this wasn’t a weak draft class, neither would be considered with a top-three pick.
Was Stone making drafting decisions before Harden left town? It seems like he has just been stuck in talent acquisition/BPA mode in the entirety of this rebuild - trying to take as many swings as possible at upside to establish value and give himself some roster flexibility down the road...that being said, I agree the roster reflected that lack of team context before this past offseason. You could argue Amen, Tari, Cam are all ultimately different versions of the same wing player(although you could argue Cam could slide into Jalen's sg spot if Jalen were to be traded) He is likely going to need to start THIS offseason the far more difficult task of actually building something cohesive moving forward and that means figuring out how to turn that value into other players or assets that are more valuable than the sum of their parts. It seems like at least one of Jalen/Alpi/Tari/Jabari will likely need to be dealt over the next year assuming we are still evaluating Amen and Cam's long term potential value. Similarly, we probably need to be finding ways to spread out future draft picks across a longer time horizon via trade because we hardly have playing time/future cap capacity for the young guys we have. Bringing in more guys who you can't develop will just devalue those picks.
I don't necessarily agree with the paranoid take that those guys are out to get Sengun so that Amen can get more of the spotlight but 100% agree that the connected group or Rocket influences do live in this bubble of engagement farming more so than legitimate basketball takes. I would be more upset about it, but they are altogether not to be taken seriously as professional trolls desperately trying to illicit any kind of reaction that looks like engagement or helps their SEO.
Jackson doubled down on this before the draft. Whatever intel or hunch he had was bad. It happens I guess. @The Cat was right.
Clingan is going to get absued in the NBA. No lateral quickness and no offensive game, at least Edey can score. Teams are going to switch him onto the perimeter and watch him get blown by guards with NBA athleticism. He's also going to a team with shitty perimeter defense and will be put into a lot of bad positions.
FO playing these dudes on an almost sinister level Clingan at #3? It sounds so ridiculous I would never have posted that so confidently unless I had personally hacked Stone’s cell phone and business computer and seen that nonsense with my own 2 eyes
I was going to joke that Jackson looks like the type to have he/him in his profile…then I checked and he does lol
Yeah, I don't trust the opinion of many of the local social media fans acting as reporters, they seem to get it wrong a lot.
