Who "won" the draft?

[Fat]

76rs overall won the draft

-Embiid
-Saric
-Kj mcdaniels - I wanted the Knicks to pick him up but the 76rs got to him first
-Jerami Grant - Lots of potential here

[basketballRob]

orlando won the draft. they got aaron gordon, which was a schock in my opinion), but then they reedeem theirselves by drafting saric and then trading him for elf payton.

G - Elfrid Payton
G - Oladipo
F - Tobias Harris OR Aaron Gordon
F - Aaron Gordon OR Tobias Harris
C - Vucevic

really young team with lots of potential

When you pick Aaron Gordon at 4 you automatically lose. He wasn't a top 14 prospect IMO.

Utah won if I had to pick one team. They got 2 guys everyone thought would go top 5 or 7.

Exum must of killed when he worked out for Utah, so I agree they won. Exum was horrible in his workout for the Magic, according to a member of the Magic on the radio yesterday. He was probably just having a bad day when he was here.

[E-Balla]

orlando won the draft. they got aaron gordon, which was a schock in my opinion), but then they reedeem theirselves by drafting saric and then trading him for elf payton.

G - Elfrid Payton
G - Oladipo
F - Tobias Harris OR Aaron Gordon
F - Aaron Gordon OR Tobias Harris
C - Vucevic

really young team with lots of potential

When you pick Aaron Gordon at 4 you automatically lose. He wasn't a top 14 prospect IMO.

Utah won if I had to pick one team. They got 2 guys everyone thought would go top 5 or 7.

Exum must of killed when he worked out for Utah, so I agree they won. Exum was horrible in his workout for the Magic, according to a member of the Magic on the radio yesterday. He was probably just having a bad day when he was here.

I was going to comment about how letting one workout affect your pick to that degree is a bad thing but then I remembered that outside of international competition (where he's been great) we know nothing about him. I do remember Marcus Smart locking him down (he made up for it by doing great against Elfrid).

Either way they should've went with Smart or traded down if they didn't like him. This was a deep draft there was a lot of talent late (one of the best players was passed until 30) so there's no reason to take a project like Gordon who may never have the body for his position at 4. At best I can see Gordon being a poor man's Battier with leaping ability.

[basketballRob]

When you pick Aaron Gordon at 4 you automatically lose. He wasn't a top 14 prospect IMO.

Utah won if I had to pick one team. They got 2 guys everyone thought would go top 5 or 7.

Exum must of killed when he worked out for Utah, so I agree they won. Exum was horrible in his workout for the Magic, according to a member of the Magic on the radio yesterday. He was probably just having a bad day when he was here.

I was going to comment about how letting one workout affect your pick to that degree is a bad thing but then I remembered that outside of international competition (where he's been great) we know nothing about him. I do remember Marcus Smart locking him down (he made up for it by doing great against Elfrid).

Either way they should've went with Smart or traded down if they didn't like him. This was a deep draft there was a lot of talent late (one of the best players was passed until 30) so there's no reason to take a project like Gordon who may never have the body for his position at 4. At best I can see Gordon being a poor man's Battier with leaping ability.

Lol. Battier's not near the athlete Gordon is. Gordon compares athletically to a Larry Nance, Shawn Kemp, Antonio Mcdyess, Dominique Wilkins.

He wouldn't have made it past Utah.

[brackdan70]

Who won?
some guy named Bruno.

[Catchall]

I understand what Orlando did, as I like Payton as a prospect. I'm not high on Aaron Gordon, but we'll see. I think he's likely a role player.

Exum looks like a 6'6" Tony Parker to me. I think that's a fantastic pick for Utah. I think Trey Burke's days in Utah may be numbered. Hood is a sweet shooter who will space the floor for Burks and Exum. Good draft for Utah.

I think Wiggins will be a stud, so Cleveland's clearly a winner.

Bucks got a franchise guy.

Denver got two good rotation players in the first round.

I think Randle is All Star caliber, so kudos to LA.

[jazzfan1971]

I gotta go Cleveland. They got Wiggins.

I think that was the winning piece. The King of the chessboard. You get him you win. Of course it's not an even playing field when it comes to who will get the best player, but, still, Cleveland didn't screw it up IMHO.

Now, if you want to talk about who did the best given the draft position going into the draft, who made the most of the cards dealt to them, that's another story. I'd say there were a few teams that did well. I like waht Denver and Utah did based on where they were drafting.

[Ruzious]

I think Philly gets an incomplete for this draft. They essentially drafted two wild cards and are kicking the can another year down the road. I do think that Embiid was the best prospect in the draft and it makes me happy that they acquired him because I think it says a lot about Noel. Clearly, the front office is confident in their medical staff''s ability to get guys in shape, and this seems sensible since they didn't have any major injury concerns throughout the season. However, his health is a real issue and I can't give the pick a good grade until he has a clean bill of health and can contribute. The same goes for the Saric pick. Most people are higher on Saric than I am so I generally am not very excited when I hear the name, but beyond that he is a guy that will not be seen for two seasons.

I think we can praise Philly for their long range thinking but they didn't "win" the draft. I do like the KJ Mcdaniels pick, though he doesn't provide the shooting they desperately need. Jeremi Grant also made sense as a second rounder.

Ultimately, the vision is still murky on what Philly is doing. It's obvious that they are accruing as many young assets as possible, but when all the 76ers are doing is throwing picks at the wall hoping one sticks things become dangerous. Are they afraid of making a trade for an established player? Can they attract free agents? We will see how this experiment goes. The analytics geek in me loves the broad vision, but the realist in me is a bit skeptical. B+

If the goal of the draft is to get the best accumulated assets, Philly wins - hands down - for the second straight year. But they're going to be in the lottery next year and perhaps the year after that. At what point are they going to have a winning team - much less a championship contender? Hence, I concur with the incomplete.

[HeartBreakKid]

But they're going to be in the lottery next year and perhaps the year after that. At what point are they going to have a winning team - much less a championship contender? H

You could say that about nearly every bottom feeder team every year.

[Profound23]

Besides the Bucks I think Philly stole the draft.

Sure they drafted two guys who won't play next year. They are both high upside guys and they guarantee themselves a chance at a top 3 pick again next year.

Essentially in 2-3 years Philly could have Mudiay-MCW-Saric-Noel-Embiid

[jakenc]

Given their draft positions, I would say Denver, Utah, and Charlotte. Cleveland is also a winner just for getting Wiggins.

Denver obviously made an excellent trade that worked out marvelously for them. Even though i'm not a big Harris fan, he's great value at 19. I really hope Gallo gets healthy and you guys return to your oh so entertaining brand of basketball.

I envy Utah just because I love Exum. You guys better enjoy him, as I was hoping Charlotte might pull some trade with Utah off when I saw that the Magic took Gordon (terrible pick imo). Rodney Hood is also a great pickup at 23. Dude has a beautiful shot.

Charlotte won as well I think as we snagged Vonleh at 9. I'm clearly biased, but I believe it was the best value pick in the draft. Hairston also addresses our glaring need for three point shooting, and we cleared up 2M in cap space with that second round trade with Cleveland.

[jazzfan1971]

Philly? Really? Philly bought a lottery ticket, maybe it will pay off, but, there is a good chance they just drafted the next Oden. I can't see how you can grade them highly unless you are discounting their downside risk completely.

[kf96]

Pistons get great player in Dinwiddie despite only having 38th pick

[sixerswillrule]

If the goal of the draft is to get the best accumulated assets, Philly wins - hands down - for the second straight year. But they're going to be in the lottery next year and perhaps the year after that. At what point are they going to have a winning team - much less a championship contender? Hence, I concur with the incomplete.

Like HeartBreakKid said, you could ask the same question for most of the lottery teams.

To answer your question with another question, when would we have been a winning team and a contender had we drafted Exum (or Vonleh, or Randle, etc.) instead of Embiid? It seems like some people are hating on the Embiid pick because it shows that we're content with this cycle of losing and high lottery picks. No, it's the exact opposite of that. We're trying to break the cycle of quick-fixes and mediocrity that has plagued this team for over a decade. Embiid was absolutely the right pick because he has by far the highest ceiling of anyone that was available at #3 (and arguably higher than anyone in the draft). I'm fine with calling it an incomplete. I agree, there's risk involved and we don't know what will happen for sure. But please don't say stuff like "Do they ever plan on winning"? Winning is the plan. It just involves time and patience.

[yitur]

In the drafts you have to take risks. Sometimes you may end up with Oden. But at the time that was the most reasonable pick. Embiid was the perfect pick by Philly. We will find out if they did win the draft around 5 years or so though. Even if they draft this years Lebron/Durant they wouldn't be contending so don't hate just to hate.

[tayottt]

Like HeartBreakKid said, you could ask the same question for most of the lottery teams.

To answer your question with another question, when would we have been a winning team and a contender had we drafted Exum (or Vonleh, or Randle, etc.) instead of Embiid? It seems like some people are hating on the Embiid pick because it shows that we're content with this cycle of losing and high lottery picks. No, it's the exact opposite of that. We're trying to break the cycle of quick-fixes and mediocrity that has plagued this team for over a decade. Embiid was absolutely the right pick because he has by far the highest ceiling of anyone that was available at #3 (and arguably higher than anyone in the draft). I'm fine with calling it an incomplete. I agree, there's risk involved and we don't know what will happen for sure. But please don't say stuff like "Do they ever plan on winning"? Winning is the plan. It just involves time and patience.

I don't think you can ask the same question for most lottery teams. Most lottery teams present you with something that you can see. The Bucks were a playoff team that had one or two players regress, but now they have Jabari and a better coach coming in. The Jazz gambled on the abilities of Favors and Kanter to lead the charge and also took on some albatross salary to get draft picks to retool. Their draft picks seem to make it clear where they are heading. In the case of the Sixers they have traded almost every asset they have (save Thad Young) for draft picks and have used quite a few of those picks on players that have yet to play and may not play for some time. At once I'm impressed and kind of disgusted by Sam Hinkie. On the one hand I'm impressed a GM is taking the analytics movement to it's logical conclusion and is acquiring the best kind of assets you can get. On the other hand, it irks me that he has no pressure on him to win at all. I feel he almost has too much job security, and his strategy with the team has only served to kick the can forward. He gets to save face with the ownership while the product on the floor suffers and fans have to be sold on "hope" (which is a drug many fans love). A cynic such as myself might say that the easiest way for a GM to survive 4+years is to sell an ownership group on a retool that will last 4+ years and try to draft in such a way that your failures will take the longest amount of time to manifest themselves. That being said, I still think Embiid has the highest upside in the draft and I also believe Noel was the best guy in last year's draft.

I think I'm in the minority of basketball fans who likes what teams like the Rockets, Hawks and Nuggets do. I like the teams that remain fairly competitive while accruing assets and keeping the cap flexibility to acquire established/star players who are FAs or being traded.

[p0peye]

There's a bigger chance Philly's recent draft additions come out as 2xGreg Oden and 1xFran Vazquez.

[Snotbubbles]

Philly? Really? Philly bought a lottery ticket, maybe it will pay off, but, there is a good chance they just drafted the next Oden. I can't see how you can grade them highly unless you are discounting their downside risk completely.

Every draft pick is a lottery ticket.

Why is there a good chance he becomes the next Oden? Oden had microfracture knee surgery. I'm not drawing the connection here. You could have at least said Yao Ming or Big Z and have a similar injury comparison.

[nicnac215]

Magic got the best pg and pf in the draft. They are a winning team in the draft.

[sixerswillrule]

Like HeartBreakKid said, you could ask the same question for most of the lottery teams.

To answer your question with another question, when would we have been a winning team and a contender had we drafted Exum (or Vonleh, or Randle, etc.) instead of Embiid? It seems like some people are hating on the Embiid pick because it shows that we're content with this cycle of losing and high lottery picks. No, it's the exact opposite of that. We're trying to break the cycle of quick-fixes and mediocrity that has plagued this team for over a decade. Embiid was absolutely the right pick because he has by far the highest ceiling of anyone that was available at #3 (and arguably higher than anyone in the draft). I'm fine with calling it an incomplete. I agree, there's risk involved and we don't know what will happen for sure. But please don't say stuff like "Do they ever plan on winning"? Winning is the plan. It just involves time and patience.

I don't think you can ask the same question for most lottery teams. Most lottery teams present you with something that you can see. The Bucks were a playoff team that had one or two players regress, but now they have Jabari and a better coach coming in. The Jazz gambled on the abilities of Favors and Kanter to lead the charge and also took on some albatross salary to get draft picks to retool. Their draft picks seem to make it clear where they are heading. In the case of the Sixers they have traded almost every asset they have (save Thad Young) for draft picks and have used quite a few of those picks on players that have yet to play and may not play for some time. At once I'm impressed and kind of disgusted by Sam Hinkie. On the one hand I'm impressed a GM is taking the analytics movement to it's logical conclusion and is acquiring the best kind of assets you can get. On the other hand, it irks me that he has no pressure on him to win at all. I feel he almost has too much job security, and his strategy with the team has only served to kick the can forward. He gets to save face with the ownership while the product on the floor suffers and fans have to be sold on "hope" (which is a drug many fans love). A cynic such as myself might say that the easiest way for a GM to survive 4+years is to sell an ownership group on a retool that will last 4+ years and try to draft in such a way that your failures will take the longest amount of time to manifest themselves. That being said, I still think Embiid has the highest upside in the draft and I also believe Noel was the best guy in last year's draft.

I think I'm in the minority of basketball fans who likes what teams like the Rockets, Hawks and Nuggets do. I like the teams that remain fairly competitive while accruing assets and keeping the cap flexibility to acquire established/star players who are FAs or being traded.

If you approve of the Embiid and Noel selections, I'm not sure where you believe we made mistakes.

You say that we traded all our assets, but what were they? Only Jrue Holiday? That's one asset, and the return we got for him was Noel, Saric, and a future 1st (our own, returned to us). That return looks to be, in the words of Larry David, pretty, pretty, pretty good. We had Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes but they can't be called assets based on what we were able to get back. Yeah, these guys we got are a bit delayed in when they will see the court. And yes, there are still some unknowns involved in how it will all play out. Time will tell. But high rewards usually involve high risks.
The goal is to be the best we can be in the long run, not to be somewhat better sooner. That's what got us into this mess in the first place.