DM better make some research now and look for the one in the draft who will replace Yao..nice pick on patpat
I will start off by saying this: Always draft best player available. Period. Now, there can be similarly-ranked players within a "tier" of draft prospects. If that's the case, THEN you can rank those players within that tier based on need. But NEVER draft a player from a lower "tier" simply because that player fulfills a need. If you want to do that, just trade down. There's a fairly decent article on this approach (which is apparently followed by many NBA front offices): http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog...spn.go.com/nba/blog?name=nba_draft&id=5301543 (It's an Insider article by Chad Ford, but you get the picture in the initial portion of the article before it becomes "Insider Only".) While I do not necessarily advocate selection one position over another, I think that this point (which has also been made by others in this thread) is valid. Daryl Morey essentially "drafted" Hasheem Thabeet at the trade deadline as the Rockets' center prospect. Obviously, he sees SOMETHING in Thabeet, or else he wouldn't have sacrificed a playoff run by trading Battier for a future first round pick that may not be conveyed for several more years (if we beat out Memphis for the 8-spot, the pick will come no earlier than 2014 and maybe not even then). No center available to the Rockets in the 12-14 range will be much better than Thabeet, let alone a re-signed Yao and/or Hayes. And while I am not holding my breath waiting for Hasheem to turn into the second coming of Dikembe Mutombo, Thabeet is still an intriguing young prospect at the center position. As I have mentioned before, I think part of the reason that Thabeet has been so bad is that he was not properly developed by Memphis's staff over the last year+ (they apparently focused primarily on the more advanced Marc Gasol and left Hasheem behind without proper guidance). I think the Rockets have one of the best staffs in the league as far as developing big men. I expect Thabeet to get better. How much so is up for debate. The question right now is not whether T-Will is a SF. It's whether T-Will is an NBA player. Assuming that he is an NBA player, he's definitely capable of playing SF. While only 6-6, he's got the bulk and athleticism to play with bigger SFs. Hell, this team plays Chase Budinger (6-7, 218 lbs.) and Courtney Lee (6-5, 200 lbs.) at small forward. Terrence Williams (6-6, 220 lbs.) has better SF size than either of those two players. From everything I have read, the two CLEAR top draft prospects in 1984 were Akeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan. Basically, they were the "Oden and Durant" of that year (pre-draft, not post-Oden injury). The Blazers were criticized at the time for drafting based on need (Bowie) rather than BPA (Jordan). Other examples of teams drafting need over BPA would be teams taking centers with the #1 pick in 1998 (Michael Olowakandi over Mike Bibby) and MAYBE in 2005 (Andrew Bogut over Chris Paul). At least with Bogut, he was ranked fairly close to Paul, so that decision by Milwaukee shouldn't be too roundly criticized.
Absolutely. I started to write something like this regarding LongTimeFans scenario of having the 13th pick when your 12th ranked player is still available but your 14th (a Center) is too. But got distracted at work. Yeah, I seriously doubt GMs (especially Morey) actually do a 1-20 list, and stick to it. Surely they group players into tiers, except at the very top. At low to mid teens, there are probably 2-4 players each pick that they are willing to take. If one from a better tier is still available, he becomes your pick. Otherwise, pick for need within a tier.
Thanks. That's what I thought too. I just wasn't sure if that's me looking at it with the colored glasses of hindsight. I guess Bowie could still be a pretty good player if not for th injuries. But that was one of most blatant debacles of need over BPA. If Oden was ranked higher (like Olajuwon) than Bowie was, then Portland may be forgiven for picking another big man over a Jordan-like prospect. Just off topic, I have always wondered if Houston would have picked Olajuwan over Jordan had Akeem not been a "hometown" hero from UoH. If he and Jordan were on the same tier, picking another center when you already had Ralph Sampson didn't seem to make a lot of sense.
F*** these foreign players, nine times out of ten these a**holes always want to stay in their euro league for like extra years after being drafted, so why waste a pick on garbage. You have to get the best player available, because we can always trade for a big. But its very hard to trade for an allstar.
I don't recall Jordan being on the same tier as Akeem. Can't miss Center vs can't miss guard. I'm pretty sure Akeem was the consensus #1 pick. The argument was BPA (Akeem) vs need (Jordan). Remember the joke that came a few years after the draft: There is only one person in the world who can shut down Jordan ... Dean Smith. Smith never really let him run loose. There were still some questions on draft day. Akeem and Phi Slamma Jamma ran loose. Everyone knew Akeem was already an amazing defensive force, and was developing fast on offense.
Remember that this was the 80s, where big men get like a HUGE upgrade simply for being big. And rules favor big men in general. Jordan was absolutely the prospect that Akeem was, and had pedigree that would say he was better. But he was a shooting guard. That in of itself will get him taken down a notch in any era. But more so back then than today.
Actually, if the Rockets make the playoffs next season, they will likely only have one pick. The Nets will get their (lottery-protected) first rounder (Terrence Williams trade). The Pistons will get their (top-40 protected) second rounder (Chase Budinger trade). Since it is unlikely that the Knicks will get a top-5 pick, the Knicks' first rounder is the most likely of the three picks to actually belong to the Rockets in June 2012 (barring future trades).
Does Thabeet 'want it'? Don't we all hope so. But as to Rox developing him with this staff, that suggests that the staff will be back. Is that a given? Frankly, the tea leaves I read say that RA does not want to return. I'm rooting for Turner to ascend and to retain the staff in place. As for the 5? Could there be Yao Ming, Chuck, Hill, Miller and Thabeet on the roster trying to divvy up 48 in some positive way?
