Inevitable wrote:cdel00 wrote:I see more of pistons type team
Lowry vs billups
DD vs Ripp
Gay vs Prince
Amir vs Sheed
Val vs Big Ben
So basically we are clinging onto hope we become that anomaly that doesn't have 1 or more superstars to win a championship.
As opposed to what? All the teams over the past 13 years who tanked, were the worst team in the league, just so happened to land the first overall pick, beating the 75% odds that they wouldn't, who've each won a title that way?
There hasn't been a single champion the past 13 years who was the worst team in the league, won the draft, and then won the title with that first overall player. The closest thing to that was the Spurs but they weren't even the worst team in the league the year theylanded Duncan. They were third worst, reminding yet again the amount of luck in all this. The Celtics could have had him, or the 76ers, or Nuggets or the Nets. People look back and laugh at KVH now but he was thought to be a stud when he was taken 2nd overall. People saw him as a perennial all star the same way people right now talk about the other picks in this draft. It's always this way before a draft and everybody always looks at the Derrick Williams, Michael Beasleys, Adam Morrisons, Marvin Williams, and Emeka Okafors afterward and acts like it was all so obvious they wouldn't be franchise changers. All the other first overall picks were poached by warm weather climates or legacy franchises that had won the title before 1993. There's a ton of luck (and bad luck) in all of this.
Want to know the recipe to a title win the past 20 years?
* Playing in a warm weather climate
* Playing in a franchise that won a title at least once before 20 years ago if you aren't in a warm weather climate
* Luring other team's stars to your city (many of whom were first overall picks) because of either of the above reasons at the draft (Kobe) or through trades or free agency
* Being lucky enough to draft Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan despite not being the worst team in the league the year they were available
We don't live in a warm weather climate. We aren't a legacy franchise. We either rely primarily on luck or we try to win the way the way the Pistons/Pacers did through elite D, a well balanced attack, and good chemistry, and toughness. Either path has poor odds but we might be further along the path to being the Pacers right now than we are are being the worst team in the league and being lucky enough to land Wiggins. That's probably why Masai is taking a wait and see approach.
There will always be other drafts ahead of us even if we don't land a top 3 in this one. Okafor's cousin is supposedly the best big man prospect in generations. If that's the case he could end up being more valuable to winning basketball than Wiggins anyway. You land a guy like him and you could trade him or Jonas, depending on what's out there.
This draft isn't our last chance at Wiggins (he'll be UFA during his prime) and it isn't our last chance at landing a young stud in the draft. There will be other drafts. But we might have a team that stands a chance of at least matching the best Raptors win total in franchise history that could perhaps see the second round and if you have that kind of team (and we'll know by 20 games in if we do or don't) then you have to push on. We simply don't have enough good years in our history to toss something like that away in the hopes of starting over and maybe, perhaps, if we're lucky, ending up better than that.
That's why Masai wants to see what he has first. If it's crap he blows it up and perhaps we miss out on Wiggins but still get a top 7 pick in a good draft. If it's good maybe he adds to it. That's his call. Not ours. I'm just suggesting it's a possibility. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm not calling him up telling him to do this. He'll do what he wants. I'm just mentioning this might be a possibility. This is a discussion board and we are all just bouncing around things that might happen to the Raptors. Nothing more.
