Iko implies Smith was at the top of Houston's board...

Not only did he imply it - he just straight up said it.

 

How did you know it take him 5 min or accepting calls? Orlando got the first time. Still took them 5 min to make the announcement. I said it in another thread. It's on TV. They need to make the draft last longer for more commercial. If the first round only last 60 min. They are making whole lot less money.

 

Case closed. We got our #1

 

It really doesn't matter. I'm excited about the outcome.

 

Houston has struck gold with Rafael Stone.

You sit here and read all these opinions over the years. Wall, Simmons, Mobley, Wood, Harden, etc...

The simple fact is that Raf has flipped a total disaster into 5-star prospects like Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, and Alperen Sengun. Rockets fans have a right to be excited. And to be quite honest, I am impressed with Patrick and Tilman too. Take me to the stake boys.

 

You were right Paolo was the #1 pick and best player in the draft!

Both ORL and OKC worked out Jabari in person, ORL even had a dang press conference about it and ultimately they both passed on Jabari. Just makes you wonder.

 

The only thing that makes me wonder is how can a professional sports organization use the most valuable pick in the draft to select a player that never privately worked out for them. What were they basing their evaluation on? Social Media videos of Paolo or just the NCAA tourney? Don't get me wrong; I think Banchero will be fine in the NBA. It's just really really weird (or if you're a fan of the move, ballsy) to put your job on the line like this. Because if, God forbid, Banchero busts John Hammond will never find another GM job in the NBA ever again. Then again, the guy is 67 so maybe he said "**** it! Let's make some...Magic"

 

Games played are by far the most important evaluation tool. If one thinks Paolo is the top guy, not selecting him based on no workout would be riskier.

I'm still surprised Paolo didn't work out with Orlando, and was unhappy to make more money instead of go to Houston.

 

Real games matter, I agree, but why go to the extent of only working out Jabari and Chet if the guy you really wanted was Paolo? Even if you had Paolo and Jabari (or Chet) at the top of your draft board, why go through the theatrics of prioritizing Jabari weeks before the draft? All I'm saying is that the Magic could have done more/better homework on Banchero if they didn't seem so adamant on making Jabari/Chet a priority. They could have easily brought all three in for workouts around the same time.

 

Yeah but you have to understand that D-Rock has a hate boner for Stone. Doesn't really matter what he does really. He certainly hasn't been perfect but he has done pretty well for the hand he was dealt imo

 

For me its somewhat obvious that what they saw in person with Chet and Jabari didnt outweigh the internal scouting and big board process regarding Banchero. Same for Stone he took Jabari without batting an eye without working him out. I think guys who want to portray the situation as Orlando botching the pick by hoping Houston would overspend is just a convenient fan driven narrative now that the picks are settled. Orlando needed an engine. A hub. A guy who will make the team go. Paolo offered that way more than the other two guys for them. What they did to Jabari during the runup to the draft if they made promises and ultimately reneged at the 11th hour was shady AF, but business is never personal. I hope Jabari uses this as more motivation as a Rocket fan.

 

You can't make a trade negotiation and decision under the gun within five minutes. It takes days or weeks to work a normal trade in the NBA. The five minute wait was for dramatic effect. Plus it gives the talking heads time to confirm for the viewing audience that Jabari is the only rational pick.

Or maybe they wanted time to call Jabari first and tell him he was going to be the pick, out of respect. Sort of like you don't want to hear you were traded first on ESPN.

 

Oh for sure; Paolo comes in and is immediately their best player right now. That says a lot about Paolo but also says a lot about how many times the Magic has whiffed their picks (outside of Franz but I'm just a Franz homer). He brings more to the table on the offensive end and that's where Orlando needs the most help. Which is why it's still really weird AF that they didn't prioritize Paolo higher in the work out schedule or, at worst, put him on the same level as Chet/Jabari. Like it's 2022; no need for smoke and mirrors, especially if the guy you're trying to fleece is Stone. He might not be in the conversation as an elite GM yet but he's definitely not a Monte McNair or any other mediocre GM that you can try to outsmart.

 

Like I said, either the GM gets off on having a Jerry Krause type level of cloak and dagger BS - which apparently he does, or they just changed their minds in the last week and want to make it look like the former, somehow coax the 17th pick out of Houston.

Ultimately who cares, it didn't help them, didn't really hurt them either. That's the benefit of picking 1.

I do think that Orlando is more in need of a guy to run the offense through as a primary option than Houston, which obviously has a good one already in Green, and Paolo was that guy at the top of the draft, so it really does make sense.

 

Its a great fit for Orlando, but at the same time they identified Paolo as best player available at 1. Could they have seen some things in person with Jabari and Chet that turned them off? If Jabari was the best in draft why did OKC pass on him as well? Would OKC have picked Paolo at 1? I think they would have. Stone was just chilling. He was under no pressure and would have been just as fine with picking Chet as picking Jabari at 3.

 

Honestly, I think the Magic went with best fit over BPA. That's not a bad thing because different teams have different ways they want to build their roster. Some want to just draft the BPA, some want to draft for fit, some want to just say **** it (e.g. Sacramento in years past). With a roster of guards who can't really pass or shoot from deep, the Magic need Paolo and probably woke up from their stupor at the last minute. On the OKC front, I think Presti went with BPA in his mind and took Chet.

Edit: Hell, the top three turned out exactly how many thought it would if those three teams had the #1 pick. Houston would have taken Jabari 1st, OKC would have taken Chet, and Orlando ended up with Paolo.

 

Jabari Smith fits what Houston wants to do like a glove. Chet fits OKC.

Orlando was making the play for getting Paolo (or Smith if the Rockets selected Paolo) and a couple of FRPs from the Rockets (or OKC). A team willing to trade down from No. 1 usually can make it happen, and they likely didn't see their pretending to want Smith to fail. I admire that Orlando played the game hard. I'm just amazed that they weren't able to trade down (kudos to Stone and Presti), and got caught with their pants down when they had to make a pick.

 

Thats fair - everyone can view the outcome as they would like. Jabari and Chet require some development in order to reach their perceived "ceiling" .. while Banchero was a plug and play guy .. "shoot better and defend" were his main conerns which may make some GMs more comfortable when those aspects tend to be issues almost all rookies deal with. Banchero offers a team a ready made pro game with leadership and versatility.

I believe that Houston saying "Jabari was 1st" was in itself some tongue in cheek hindsight. All GMs are supposed to say that. I think most teams would have gone Banchero with 1 - Houston included, but thats just my opinion since I viewed Banchero as the best player in the draft from the beginning of the cycle so Im definitely biased.

 

Yea like I don't know what Orlando was smoking but trying to hoodwink Stone or Presti is a fool's errand. These guys--especially Presti--have been doing this for a while and you're not going to extract additional picks for the chance to move up 1 or 2 spots in a draft where the top tier has 3 prospects.

No one would have criticized Orlando if they had pegged Banchero as the best player in the draft and the one they want to take at the very beginning of this entire process. Now they just look, at best, trying to outsmart a couple of the brightest GMs in the league or, at worst, clueless on how to actually play the con.