Payton - ROY?

[p0peye]

After passing Exum and Smart with no. 4, it was clear that Henny projects Elf as the real prize in 2014 draft for Magic. A man knows talent.

[shadrock]

#elfgod

[tooler]

The 11th game is a curse!

[shadrock]

And just for fun...

Man, if Vic can average 22-23ppg in this league, that would be amazing... He could be a bigtime scorer me things...

[tooler]

Yay for FTAs!

[ImChillin01]

Its battle between him and Noel for ROY in East alone.

[KingRobb02]

After passing Exum and Smart with no. 4, it was clear that Henny projects Elf as the real prize in 2014 draft for Magic. A man knows talent.

Not really. I think that just means he thought Gordon had the highest upside. Bad teams should never draft for "need".

[eyriq]

After passing Exum and Smart with no. 4, it was clear that Henny projects Elf as the real prize in 2014 draft for Magic. A man knows talent.

Not really. I think that just means he thought Gordon had the highest upside. Bad teams should never draft for "need".

I don't think it is that clear cut. BPA is fine to say but leaving that little flexibility on a measure that isn't 100% reliable is bad practice. I think the safer bet is to cluster players into tiers based on quality and then select based on fit from the tier your pick falls in. Smart/Exum/Gordon were considered in the same "tier" by most draft experts last year, so I think it is more than fair to attribute our selction of Gordon and then hard pursuit of Payton as a strat.

[OrlandoNed]

After passing Exum and Smart with no. 4, it was clear that Henny projects Elf as the real prize in 2014 draft for Magic. A man knows talent.

Not really. I think that just means he thought Gordon had the highest upside. Bad teams should never draft for "need".

I don't think it is that clear cut. BPA is fine to say but leaving that little flexibility on a measure that isn't 100% reliable is bad practice. I think the safer bet is to cluster players into tiers based on quality and then select based on fit from the tier your pick falls in. Smart/Exum/Gordon where considered in the same "tier" by most draft experts last year, so I think it is more than fair to attribute our selction of Gordon and then hard pursuit of Payton as a strat.

I'm pretty sure Henny had his eye on Payton the whole time and probably considered him better than or equal to Smart and Exum. I think his whole strategy that night was to take the player with highest ceiling available (Gordon) and then take Payton (who filled the PG need) who was projected near the 12th pick. Draft night went just as planned for him, aside from the Sixers sniffing out his plan and getting back a couple crappy seconds.

[KingRobb02]

Not really. I think that just means he thought Gordon had the highest upside. Bad teams should never draft for "need".

I don't think it is that clear cut. BPA is fine to say but leaving that little flexibility on a measure that isn't 100% reliable is bad practice. I think the safer bet is to cluster players into tiers based on quality and then select based on fit from the tier your pick falls in. Smart/Exum/Gordon where considered in the same "tier" by most draft experts last year, so I think it is more than fair to attribute our selction of Gordon and then hard pursuit of Payton as a strat.

I'm pretty sure Henny had his eye on Payton the whole time and probably considered him better than or equal to Smart and Exum. I think his whole strategy that night was to take the player with highest ceiling available (Gordon) and then take Payton (who filled the PG need) who was projected near the 12th pick. Draft night went just as planned for him, aside from the Sixers sniffing out his plan and getting back a couple crappy seconds.

The simplest explanation is that, we saw Payton as undervalued and we weren't impressed by the Smart/Exum duo. We took Gordon as the best player available and knew we could get Payton. I just don't think we went into that draft saying "we need a PG or else." We are still an awful team. Every position was a position of need.

[p0peye]

Player with highest projected ceiling at no.4 was Exum. Even now, it is hard to predict who will be best 5 years down the road between him, Smart or Gordon. However, drafting Gordon and Elfrid was the best pair available at our draft spots and this was what Henny was after. Difference between Exum/Smart and Elfrid is a lot smaller than between Gordon and any other available player.

[KingRobb02]

Player with highest projected ceiling at no.4 was Exum. Even now, it is hard to predict who will be best 5 years down the road between him, Smart or Gordon. However, drafting Gordon and Elfrid was the best pair available at our draft spots and this was what Henny was after. Difference between Exum/Smart and Elfrid is a lot smaller than between Gordon and any other available player.

That's according to some. Every front office has different rating criteria. I'm sure that we didn't go into that draft and pass on a guy we thought would be a star in order to get Payton later. It's not like if we thought Exum would be a star a Payton/Exum combo was off the table. Until the NBA outlaws trades, you just take the guy you think is best.

[p0peye]

Player with highest projected ceiling at no.4 was Exum. Even now, it is hard to predict who will be best 5 years down the road between him, Smart or Gordon. However, drafting Gordon and Elfrid was the best pair available at our draft spots and this was what Henny was after. Difference between Exum/Smart and Elfrid is a lot smaller than between Gordon and any other available player.

That's according to some. Every front office has different rating criteria. I'm sure that we didn't go into that draft and pass on a guy we thought would be a star in order to get Payton later. It's not like if we thought Exum would be a star a Payton/Exum combo was off the table. Until the NBA outlaws trades, you just take the guy you think is best.

I'm saying noone knows for sure who will be best out of those 3, even after one season in the league. This is 2nd tier of talents and they all might be stars (define a star?). Or none. That is the situation we were in when missed out on 1st tier of projected talents available in top 3 slots.

Elfrid's play from the start showed that he will be close. Henny probably saw that during NCAA/workouts before any of us fans did and Elf was projected to be available at no.12. Furthermore, Elf's recent play shows he belongs to that second tier of players, with potential to maybe come out on top of them all, perhaps being worthy of no.4 pick in redraft. If Henny saw that in him, everything makes perfect sense - we ended up with two 2nd tier talents instead of one.

[tooler]

Undervalued is a good way to put it, Robb. I think it applies to Aaron too. Neither may have the highest "upside" per se, but each one has serious issues with what the experts say is one of the easiest things to teach: shooting.

Not that they will surely improve but it's a nice bet (with two chances!) when we were bumped out of the top 3.

[JBSouthpaw]

Undervalued is a good way to put it, Robb. I think it applies to Aaron too. Neither may have the highest "upside" per se, but each one has serious issues with what the experts say is one of the easiest things to teach: shooting.

Not that they will surely improve but it's a nice bet (with two chances!) when we were bumped out of the top 3.

I will add, at this point AG will be more likely to re-sign than Exum. To me he is screaming for a larger market.

[Blue_and_Whte]

Undervalued is a good way to put it, Robb. I think it applies to Aaron too. Neither may have the highest "upside" per se, but each one has serious issues with what the experts say is one of the easiest things to teach: shooting.

Not that they will surely improve but it's a nice bet (with two chances!) when we were bumped out of the top 3.

I feel like AG has already improved as a set shooter and from the FT line. His main issue is that he thinks too much when he gets the ball. He needs to just attack his defender who are, in some instances, a slow PF.

[RYgoBOOM]

LOL at Rondo's FT %....

Just think guys, it could be worse!