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What if we drafted Chris Paul
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 3:53 am
by raferfenix
Now please, let this be not a Bogut bash thread! So little to talk about on this board, I'm curious just how depressed we all should be that we don't have Paul as no matter how good Bogut gets it's extremely unlikely he'll ever be as good as Paul.
How would Paul have been affected by things like this:
1. Crappy coaching?
2. Kohl's meddling?
3. Redd's chucking?
Or, would those things have changed with a Paul selection? How would our team be different?
I definitely don't think Mo at least would be the player he is right now or at least wouldn't be in Milwaukee if we had drafted Paul. What about other players though----would Gadzuric be as useless? Would Redd be as bad a chucker? Would Terry Porter or Terry Stotts or a top notch coach be here?
One things for sure...somehow I don't see our team bieng nealry as good as the Hornets right now, they really built around Paul right.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:00 am
by midranger
Paul is probably the 1b player in the world right now.
He'd rise above whatever crap he had to.
It is truly depressing that we had a chance to have this guy and whiffed.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:09 am
by WRau1
It sucks that we didn't get him but I guess it doesn't bother me due to Bogut pretty much being the obvious choice when we drafted.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:09 am
by Matches Malone
we had ford, bogut was a big man with promise, end of discussion.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:14 am
by dedned
StikWitEM wrote:we had ford, bogut was a big man with promise, end of discussion.
Thats why you draft BPA and not for need.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:18 am
by raferfenix
dedned wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Thats why you draft BPA and not for need.
go tell that to the hawks---at least we didn't take marvin williams!
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:26 am
by midranger
The Hawks were certainly the biggest goat in that draft, but we weren't far behind.
They could have drafted for need and gotten the BPA. Instead, they took a questionable talent who played a position they were stocked at.
Ridiculous.
What about Portland though? Martell Webster.
It's tough to blame them in retrospect because they got Oden (we still don't know any thing about him), but Paul/Roy would be the best backcourt in the world for the next 12 years.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:33 am
by rilamann
dedned wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Thats why you draft BPA and not for need.
Paul turned out to be the BPA and the best player out of that draft by a wide margin but no one knew that at the time of the 2005 draft.
If you looked up 50 2005 NBA mock drafts you not only wouldnt find 1 that had Chris Paul going #1 but you probably wouldnt find 1 that had Paul going #2.
Most fans,experts,mock drafts ect ect had Paul going #4 a few had him at #3 but maybe #1 had Paul going #1 or #2.
I don't remember who it was but I do remember someone suggesting Paul at #1 and that person was blasted.I don't even remember if it was a writer or someone on here but I do remember 1 lone person.
It sucks we didnt take Paul but like someone else mentioned it could be much much worse,we coulda took Marvin Williams.
Chris Paul is a MVP level talent obviously while Bogut is at least an star caliber player.
Marvin Willaims is like a 6th or 7th man on a good team.I havent seen him a ton but all he is from what I see is a mind range spot up shooter.
Im tempted to dig up one of those ''who should we take at #1'' threads from 2005.
If the Bucks had Chris Paul who knows where this team would be.
Hell Stotts might have a coach of the year award under his belt when you stop and think of the possibilites.
I know one thing for sure though if we had taken Paul...
The Hornets wouldnt be on the brink of the WCF.

Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:34 am
by redred9
noone had any idea Paul would turn out the way he has. Its like blaming people for not drafting Tony Parker or something.. who the hell knew?
The choice was:
a) Bogut
b) Marvin
now, imagine if we had drafted Marvin Williams.
And now be content.

Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:39 am
by ReasonablySober
I've said this before, but mocks had Paul going after #1 because Harris made it clear that he was taking either Bogut or Williams from the get-go.
I was on board with that, but it wasn't as if plenty didn't believe that CP was worthy of being #1 overall.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 4:53 am
by rilamann
I think I might pop in my tape of the 2005 lottery,I recorded the whole show including the first 20 minutes or so before the actual lottery when Jay Bilas was talking about the 2005 prospects.
I havent watched that part since 2005 but from what I remember he was saying it was Bogut or Marvin at #1 or #2 with Paul being a darkhorse with maybe a silm chance at best of going #1 or #2.
Just off memory from everything people where saying I remember it was pretty much Marvin or Bogut at #1 and #2 and Paul or Deron at #3 and #4.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:08 am
by th87
I never understood why Paul was never in the discussion.
Most of us in here even were talking about how amazing Paul would be. His quickness, vision, and smarts - he was supposed to be a better shooting, better defense, smarter, and better vision possessing TJ Ford.
So how is that not in the discussion of number 1?
I really hope Bogut's seeing this and getting angry/motivated.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:08 am
by Newz
We would obviously be in a much better position than we are in now, obviously. Chris Paul is an MVP level player and is playing like he is the best player in the league right now. I also don't think Michael Redd would have fallen into the 'I have to do it all' trap and I think we would already be a team that is a top six seed in the East every season.
But like everyone else said, how can you not take Bogut at the time? He was a seven footer with a lot of skills and the potential to be a very good player. Obviously it sucks that we didn't get an MVP level player when we got the first pick... But we did get a good player and a guy who should be a solid starter at center for the next 10 years or so.
Drafting Bogut over Paul is the least of our worries... Getting a guy who is a top 15 center isn't the worst thing in the world with the first selection. Having guys like Bobby Simmons and Dan Gadzuric being paid a ton of money are a lot bigger concerns, IMO.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:10 am
by Newz
th87 wrote:I really hope Bogut's seeing this and getting angry/motivated.
Bogut already said he isn't phased by "Hamburger eating computer nerds." or something along those lines... Didn't he?

Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:18 am
by th87
Though that may be true, I hope he is phased by watching CP3 dominate on TV.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:32 am
by gobbler
I think we'd be suffering through another year of Stotts doing well enough in the crappy East to earn a low-middle playoff seed, but getting blown out when the Paul-Ford-Mo-Redd-Gadz starting lineup proves woefully inadequate in the playoffs.
Actually, a realistic possibility would be Paul, Mo, Redd, CV, Gadz, which would be probably be better than what we just saw.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 5:53 am
by L&H_05
When your team is fortunate to nab the #1 pick, you simply can't mess this up, especially when there's a potential franchise guy starring at you in the face...
The consensus at the time was the top 2 players was Paul and Williams...
I remember Vitale screaming at the top of his lungs that the Bucks and especially the Hawks would regret the day they didn't take Chris Paul.. And he was right..
I like alot of you guys, but when I see all the talk on here and whining about how you can't bring in a franchise player to this market, I understand that, because my team was very similar... However, when you have your chance to do so, you have to take advantage of it... If your management chooses to pass that up, it's hard to feel sorry for your situation because it was there for the taking...You had your chance..
The Bucks franchise player should be Chris Paul right now... Your franchise player is arguably a top 5 player in this league right now...He's just in New Orleans unfortunately
Luckily though for you guys, at the very least you got a player who can average a double-double..So it's not a total wash... At least his initials doesn't stand for Andrea Bargnani...
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 6:08 am
by jokeboy86
The funny thing about that draft is prior to it, I had only heard of and seen Deron Williams, Paul, some of that NC starting 5, Villanueva, and Warrick. I hadn't heard of Bogut until it was announced that he won the player of the year award. I had no idea who Marvin Williams was. Of all the players I had seen Paul the most. I just remember out of nowhere the draft experts just started saying Bogut or Williams and most people listened to them.
The two main things that I think hurt Paul's stock were
1. Hodge incident
2.Height. Remember this is after people had seen how TJ Ford had struggled at times in the league. Paul is very very rare: an undersized true pg who can score.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 6:12 am
by El Duderino
midranger wrote:The Hawks were certainly the biggest goat in that draft, but we weren't far behind.
They could have drafted for need and gotten the BPA. Instead, they took a questionable talent who played a position they were stocked at.
Ridiculous.
What about Portland though? Martell Webster.
It's tough to blame them in retrospect because they got Oden (we still don't know any thing about him), but Paul/Roy would be the best backcourt in the world for the next 12 years.
Yep
Atlanta passing on Paul and D. Williams made no sense to me at the time given what they already had on their roster.
With that said, i can't sit back and blast Harris to much since i thought Deron Williams was the best PG in the draft at the time, above Paul and Felton. Deron obviously has still become an elite PG, but he's not as good as Paul.
Posted: Tue May 6, 2008 6:23 am
by AussieBuck
LukePliska wrote:We would obviously be in a much better position than we are in now, obviously. Chris Paul is an MVP level player and is playing like he is the best player in the league right now. I also don't think Michael Redd would have fallen into the 'I have to do it all' trap and I think we would already be a team that is a top six seed in the East every season.
But like everyone else said, how can you not take Bogut at the time? He was a seven footer with a lot of skills and the potential to be a very good player. Obviously it sucks that we didn't get an MVP level player when we got the first pick... But we did get a good player and a guy who should be a solid starter at center for the next 10 years or so.
Drafting Bogut over Paul is the least of our worries... Getting a guy who is a top 15 center isn't the worst thing in the world with the first selection. Having guys like Bobby Simmons and Dan Gadzuric being paid a ton of money are a lot bigger concerns, IMO.
I'd say Bogut over Paul was the worst thing that happened to the Bucks since they traded away Kareem. If only the Bucks had a time machine, nobody new Paul would be the best player in the league at the time.