Plus Sengun, Tari, and Cam (matter of time for him, might not happen here) After watching Reed (who just needs experience and the ball in his hands) and Jabari, of late... Jalen's to the point now where he's actually worth #5 or so in that draft. And, Amen...Amen, Amen..On his way to being a top 5 player in the League. Fantastic job. Now comes the tricky part. I'm glad we're letting these guys perculate this year.
Every pick that "hit" was allowed to play some level of minutes and develop. The picks that "missed" rarely played and/or were moved too quickly. There are genuine flops but I do think that most players could be really good if allowed to be.
Depends on one's definition of a "hit." Jalen can be considered a hit, but the Cavs, Raptors, and Magic aren't switching their picks in that draft for Jalen at this point. Jabari is... ok? I mean compare him to other recent #3 picks, LaMelo, Luka, Jason Tatum, RJ Barrett, Evan Mobley, Reed Sheppard, Scoot Henderson... not exactly standing out here. Amen is definitely a consensus hit. And Reed has gotten zero playing time so not sure how to be too optimistic here.
No, but you have heard people wanting more from a number 2 pick.... He is still not a superstar, but he may not need to be with the rest of the team fitting so nicely. He isn't a DUDE, but he is a dude helper. DD
Honestly, it's insulting to the others to put Cam up there. The fact that he can only get garbage minutes at the end of year 2 when we really need as much scoring as possible is terrible, none of the other guys mentioned were in that position after their rookie year. His splits are 43/33/65 on less than 8 shots. With bad defense and 0.9 assists to 0.8 TO's. Sengun, Jalen, Amen, Tari, Jabari are all head and shoulders better than him. Reed is a rookie. I don't get what the excuse is for Whitmore. Shouldn't be in this conversation.
If you were to re-do a draft of the players 25 and under, I'd guess we have 3 of the top 15,... top 20 at worst. The top two (Anthony Edwards/Wemby) were not even an option. I'd give us an A for our drafts. Outside of that top 25, you have guys like Tari and Bari who def belong on championship teams. Reed was drafted in one of the weakest drafts and we knew that going into it. He still has potential, but he won't be a top 3 player on the Rockets, but can be part of our future winning team. Cam will get traded to a bottom team and average 16-22PPG but not make the playoffs as the leading scorer or even second best scorer on the team. Josh, Garuba, TyTy, KMJ were all late picks so that's OK. Can't hit them all.
ehh mobley is going to be on an all-nba team, in the running for DPOY, and was an all star, he failed to trade up to get cade(which I get for detroit wanting to keep that pick), and jabari has been...well he's had his moments here and there
It’s such a lame and banal comment that he makes 10 times a week across every thread, never with any data or justification. Just based on qualitative feel from someone who has repeatedly demonstrated he has no reliable feel.
We don't talk about how Tilman wanted Quintin Grimes ( I did also) and Stone gave us Josh Christopher