First! Seriously, it's a good idea. I'll be following his career more than most after reading endless posts about him in the GARM when we thought he'd fall there, watching videos of his play, and looking at his stats until my eyes started to bleed. I always thought Smith was the guy we needed and hoped we would be able to select the guy, but the chances looked slim to none. We just needed some Magic!
This is a tough one. I think the pairing, certainly offensively, would have been way better with Houston. Cole improved greatly last year, maybe Suggs does this year but in either case i don't view either as a dynamic potential all-nba guard... and think Paolo would be better maximized by one of those. JG was such a great pairing in particular because not only is he potentially one of those, he's one that doesn't need to dominate the ball exclusively AND is supreme quick twitch athlete vs. Paolo's more methodical pace. Cole has a bit of a dribble too much ball dominated aspect to his game.... Franz i REALLY REALLY like. Just has a fun way about that way he plays. Pretty consistent and solid all year. Can he really man SF position full time - it was his main position last year? Is he capable at defense? Can two 6'10 forwards work like that? I heard some folks try to say "the new, taller Tatum and Brown!!" Lol, i don't know about that. Interestingly to me, Franz almost has a shifty Klay-esque 2 guard way about his game offensively, but obviously can't do that defensively. Ultimately, even though Orlando was better at D and worse at O, i think they will have the same problem HOU would have had with Paolo. Can you win with two forwards that are meh defensively like that? Even if Carter turns out ok defensively, or Suggs turns out ok defensively? Similarly offensively, it SHOULD work, but again the same problem HOU might have had, only to a bigger degree - getting it to work requires some serious coaching. I heard some analysts get excited about Paolo-Franz PnRs, where either could be in either position... and i was like what? How is that exciting? No mismatch is created. You're switching forwards onto forwards. Honestly.... this is one of the things about Paolo I think. He works everywhere but also doesn't work everywhere. If he was picked by the Pistons I'd have the same comments... great pairing with Cade, BUT... how does the fit work around them. I kind of feel like Orlando should trade everyone not named Paolo and Franz and focus exclusively on fit around them. Same way folks were concerned about the Rockets - JG and Paolo great pairing potential, but would you ultimately have to move KPJ, Sengun, etc. to find better fits around those two (eg. pure rim protecting center, more of a ball distributor/spot up 3 PG, etc.)? Similarly in Detroit if paired with Cade I'd say the same thing... except for Duren who would make sense. Love Paolo as a player and his game though so will pay attention, and be most curious about how the fit ends up working.
Great - teh DeVos can recruit Shaq, and then he can recruit 10 of his friends to invest, and then everybody's got boxes full of nasty protein shake powder.
Never got the fascination with Panchero stans or this draft in general. I really wanted Chet. I thought everyone else was meh, especially Panchero and Smith. The top picks just seems like dime a dozen players. I would have been fine with Panchero, Smith, or Ivey that fell to us. All 3 seems pretty okay prospects but nothing special.
Paolo has size and scoring but no defense. Holmgren has offense and defense but no size. Only Jabari has size, offense and defense. The best prospect fell to us.
7'1 Chet has size (just not strength), Paolo's D isn't that bad, and Jabari certainly could be the most well-rounded but unless he picks up a handle he too can end up a limited offensive player. I think every team drafted BPA. The only question I have is for Ivey, I think he can make a case for one of the top 3 teams having made a mistake.
“We felt like we were in a good spot. We were really excited about where we were at, he was comfortable with where he was at.” aka we were ready to go to Houston.
