This draft reminds me a lot of the 2001 draft. It's very deep and top heavy with big men (PF's and C's) with overlooked guards projected to go late. That's the year when Parker, Arenas and Tinsley all got overlooked.
That Moochie and Bowen were drafted at all while Mike James and Wesley weren't gives an indication of the unpredictability of the draft. In this day and age any first round pick could prove to be productive, so I don't think you can disregard it. With teams so willing to take a flyer on high schoolers and foreign players(both legitimate talents and unknown commodities), there will be a player who can contribute at #24. Here's hoping the Rockets land him.
You can't just say "When have WE had a good late 1st/2nd round pick pan out," you have to look at the history of the draft to see how many good players were chosen with the later picks. The fact is, history shows that there will be players available at that pick. Whether or not CD chooses to draft them is another story, but there will be someone (probably multiple players) ready to step in and contribute immediately. Here are some players drafted 24th or lower in the past 8 years: 2004 - Delonte West Tony Allen Anderson Varejao Chris Duhon 2003 - Josh Howard Willie Green Keith Bogans Maurice Williams Kyle Korver Zaza Pachulia 2002 - Nenad Krstic Dan Gadzuric Carlos Boozer Flip Murray Darius Songaila Rasual Butler 2001 - Raul Lopez Gerald Wallace Samuel Dalembert Jamaal Tinsley Tony Parker Trenton Hassell Gilbert Arenas Brian Scalabrine Mehmet Okur Earl Watson Bobby Simmons Jarron Collins 2000 - Mark Madsen Brian Cardinal Michael Redd (Note: This was an awful draft all around) 1999 - Andrei Kirilenko Scott Padgett Gordan Giricek Todd MacCulloch Manu Ginobili 1998 - Al Harrington Nazy Mohammed Rashard Lewis Cat Mobley Rafer Alston 1997 - Marc Jackson Stephen Jackson Alvin Williams Mark Blount 1996 - Derek Fisher Jerome Williams Othella Harrington Jeff McInnins Malik Rose The point is, someone good will be available. Maybe not an all-star, and NO ONE's expecting a superstar, but there should be a few solid players available at that pick. Hopefully CD will make the right choice.
There will be players taken after 23 that will contribute to some team in the NBA. My confidence that CD will be choosing one of them is very low. During the last ten years we have drafted 19 players and 4 turned out good: Yao, Dickerson, Mobley, Kenny Thomas. There are obviously teams who have been worse but I bet there aren't many.
cassell is outside of 10 years already? I feel very old i also think you can't blame management/CD for griffin going postal. We all loved the thought of getting him & were so happy they made that trade.
I dream of trading up somehow for Marvin Williams or Gerald Green. I really think those guys are gonna be stars, although I've only seen Williams play. I've read great stuff on Green, too. Pipe dream, though.
Chris Taft out of Pitt is a guy that is sliding from the Top 10 who I don't think will fall to #24 but might fall far enough to where the Rox can trade up and get. I think he more than anyone is the perfect fit for us in this draft.
one thing that some of you naysyaers are overlooking......this will be the first draft where VG has a influence on who we get. It has always been a team decision in the past as to who we get....it isnt all on CD...RT had a big influence on who we drafted. So...in this case, we really have no past history to judge by...this draft is pretty deep by all accounts...and we have a unknown commodity in the team making the decision...why dont we lay off and give them the benefit of the doubt...it isnt like we need some superstar with this pick...just a decent player...we have our stars, now we need a young guy that can play to help them out.
I think he is a bust waiting to happen. You have to have talent and desire to make it in this league. You have to have major talent, skills, and desire to be a star in this league, and you have to have major talent, skills, desire, and basketball intelligence to be a superstar in this league. Taft has talent. That's all. The desire is not there and the intelligence is non-existent. Skill set is mediocre. I think he is a bust.
