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Nerlens Noel in the month of March:

12 ppg, 12 rpg, 2 APG, 2 BPG, 3 SPG

And that's without even mentioning that most guys take a year until they start to look like themselves again after an ACL tear and the team isn't even fielding NBA quality talent around him right now.

Thanks Ernie

Like I said in the other thread....

Can't blame Ernie for not picking Noel. He was only the consensus #1 pick up until draft day.
To have a number 1 pick fall into your lap like that... it's like being used to only bringing mediocre looking women home from the bar. All of a sudden Kate Upton asks if you want to come in for coffee... Of course you aren't going to be able to get it up...

And that's the double bottom line

Dark Faze wrote:Nerlens Noel in the month of March:

12 ppg, 12 rpg, 2 APG, 2 BPG, 3 SPG

And that's without even mentioning that most guys take a year until they start to look like themselves again after an ACL tear and the team isn't even fielding NBA quality talent around him right now.

Thanks Ernie

8 game sample size, they are 2-6 in that stretch, and opposing center's have put up some hefty numbers themselves in those games. With how depleted that team is, someone is going to put up some decent numbers. Not dissing the kid, but your hate for EG leaves you with zero objectivity. I don't like EG, but I still at this point don't have a problem with the Porter pick.

He's close to averaging a double double off an ACL tear in his rookie season, the sample size is completely fine

I don't consider a pick "botched" because some other player picked later blew up . . . . ok, except in the case of Kenny Green over Karl Malone since every one of us in the Cap Center that draft night was already celebrating Malone falling to us.

A pick is botched when that person doesn't play up to reasonable expectations for that pick considering the strength of the draft. Thus is Porter turned out to be Tayshaun Prince or better, I won't rip Ernie for missing on an injury issue pick that could have been the next Andre Drummond (or for missing the first Andre Drummond if Beal actually turns out to be a decent #3 pick).

I don't consider it a bad pick, Noel was risky, still is. Porter is coming along fine, if anything Wittman is holding him back. Noel could still be a bad pick. Think about it. sure the kid is playing good now, but how will his body hold up 3 or 4 years from now.... its yet to be seen if he can stay healthy.

Not sure what you guys are talking about. I would say over 50% of the board expected Noel to be the pick, when he fell to us. The Porter crowd was definitely a minority.

I think over half the board wanted Noel to be the pick when he fell, but I don't think over half THOUGHT he would be the pick fwiw.

It's a blown pick based on the fact they preferred Porter over Noel due to reasons other than selecting the best basketball player, namely Porter being healthy, available and able to contribute immediately... HA!

When you pass over the consensus #1 pick for someone else, you'd better be right. Otherwise its a blown pick. So far, its a blown pick.

And the craziest thing is how quick the team has been to extend and give minutes to other forwards. How do you make a move to draft Porter and then say okay time to extend Webster? And then the year after that we offered Ariza a four year deal that we are lucky he declined.

It just seems like there's no real plan or logic in mind with Ernie.

Checkers does not use logic...

This is another great EG thread. I'm glad he's GM for life. Endless thread comedy.

gambitx777 wrote:I don't consider it a bad pick, Noel was risky, still is. Porter is coming along fine, if anything Wittman is holding him back. Noel could still be a bad pick. Think about it. sure the kid is playing good now, but how will his body hold up 3 or 4 years from now.... its yet to be seen if he can stay healthy.

Porter has missed a slew of games from injuries himself. He is not providing above average production in any statistical category while Noel is among the league leaders for opponent field goal % at the rim (7th best right behind front runner for DPOTY Tim Duncan). There is absolutely no room for debate here. Noel was the better pick on draft day, is out performing porter now, and has potential to be a game changing defender.

I would rather have Gobert than Noel- but that's easy with retrospective history.

BTW, Gobert's last 5 games - 10.4ppg, 17.6 rpg, 2.6 bpg - and I believe that Utah has the best record since the all star break.

To me, not picking Noel was a major mistake (and, just to be clear, I like Porter). I don't like playing the "what if" game, but picking Porter over Noel led to a second move - not upping the offer to pay Ariza - that really hurts now that the cap is blowing sky high.

If EG has just (1) drafted Noel, and (2) paid Ariza $9m/year, and done everything else the same, we would be going into 2016 free agency with a core of Wall/Beal/Ariza/Noel/Gortat. If the cap is $90 million, those 5 (plus $2.5 million for Martell) should have a cap number around $59 million.

Wall - $18 million (20% of cap)
Beal - $11.6 million (assuming no extension)
Ariza - $ 9 million
Noel - $5.9 million
Gortat - $12 million
Webster - $2.5 million

We could then sign KD for $22.5 million (25 % of cap), and still have almost $9 million for another player and/or 2015/2106 draft picks. Plus the room exception.

I was against re-signing Ariza because I thought it would interfere with getting KD. But the NBA TV deal was signed in October, just three months after we let Ariza go. Shouldn't the front office have known where the negotiations, and thus the cap, was heading? Leonsis is on the NBA's board of governors.

Anyway, sorry to rehash. It's just been bugging me lately.

Kd is signing a 30% max.

I don't know why people continue to give Porter a pass. He's the guy a lot of people wanted because he was "NBA Ready" and would "contribute immediately." Quite the opposite it's been.

The worst thing about it is that I and most other people aren't using hindsight when we're saying it was a mistake. I wasn't a huge Noel fan coming out, but definitely would have picked him over Porter on upside alone

I'm watching Jordan Clarkson right now for the Lakers.

Makes me mad.

We can never have nice drafted players.

GhostsOfGil wrote:Porter has missed a slew of games from injuries himself. He is not providing above average production in any statistical category while Noel is among the league leaders for opponent field goal % at the rim (7th best right behind front runner for DPOTY Tim Duncan). There is absolutely no room for debate here. Noel was the better pick on draft day, is out performing porter now, and has potential to be a game changing defender.

It's easy to say oh look at noel we blew the pick. but we won't know who was the better pick for another 3 years or so, maybe more.
Porter was the better pick on draft night. Noel was a skinny kid, possibly frail kid, with no meat on his bones and an injury that he might not come back from. Porter was the smarter pick. Porter has missed no where near as many games due to injury.
I blame Wittman for porters slow development. I would say the majority of Porters missed games were do to Wittman just sitting him for no reason. It's very likely that Noel would suffer the same set backs do to wittman being an idiot.

stevemcqueen1 wrote:Kd is signing a 30% max.

As for this. KD is probably one of the highest paid players in terms of off the court revenue. He can take less to win, and he might. When the cap goes up there will be teams and players who will say hey, 18-22 mill is a nice piece of change and we can build better teams this way. I don't see KD saying "give me my 30% and **** every thing else, winning a ring is your problem give me my money" He wants a ring.

stevemcqueen1 wrote:Kd is signing a 30% max.

That's right, thanks. I didn't think he was eligible for the 30% max until 2017, but that's the 35% max.