Just for fun I dug up the cameron johnson draft thread

[RaisingArizona]

RaisingArizona wrote:
Someone unlocked the FA thread so I can repost my MISS ME YET MCD Meme

Wow!

[bwgood77]

RaisingArizona wrote:
Someone unlocked the FA thread so I can repost my MISS ME YET MCD Meme


Sunskerr replied:
“it's not even a joke. McD was a better GM than james jones is.”

Wow!

In my defense I still think Jones hasn't made it clear he's that great of a GM. It might be the case that we never find out for a long, long time as the 3 players McD drafted are the 3 most important players on the team. I do think Jones would have drafted Luka though, based on how he's constructed the team around perimeter play (like Cam Jo, hiring Monty, etc.).

pros- CP3, CamJo, Rubio, Landale (diamond in the rough), Crowder, Monty Williams
cons- no Haliburton, traded Jalen Smith for free, traded Warren for free (well, he hasn't played in two years lol), traded Melton for free

I think McD's moves were just the Bledsoe acquisition, and then our core 3 guys. Everything else seems to have been an appalling failure like missing on Bender/Chriss/Jackson (3!! lotto picks), which imo set us back massively and we are still feeling those misses today because of how slim our bench looks.

McD had better highs but his lows were more often than Jones. Missing on Bender/Chriss/Jackson consecutively is unforgivable...Our team's depth would look so much better had he hit on just one of those picks, but he didn't. It took me a while to understand that, as well as realizing the value of the draft and finding cheap talent (either in the draft or undrafted), which is why I get really annoyed about Jones giving away Jalen Smith. But Jones has more + moves than - ones, or rather his moves are usually additions or neutral ones than negatives.

It is weird to think of the Josh Jackson pick. So looking at the board now and with hindsight being 20/20, Isaac is obviously a great player, but you wouldn't have wanted to draft him, so Fox would be the pick. How much better would that have been for us. Looking at us now, not good. We would probably be in a worse situation but of course it's a better pick. But mostly busts in that draft...DSJr, Ntilikina, etc.

I guess when it comes down to it, Markkanen or Mitchell but no one had them high. Had we passed at the time on Jackson for one of those there would have been an uproar.

Not that an uproar matters...but Markkanen did flame out in Chicago and was ok in Cleveland and is now just really getting in groove. It would have been a good Jones pick but he probably would have traded him after a year.

Mitchell would have been interesting. I wonder how Mitchell and Book would look together now. Mitchell is looking great with Garland and LeVert.

Bender over Murray or Hield....you could say Sabonis but he went quite a bit lower.

Murray was probably the right pick so then we have Murray and Book (of course at the time we still had Bledsoe I think). Hield maybe but we had Book so it didn't make a ton of sense. You can always say Murray, then Sabonis instead of Chriss (or simply keep 13 and take LeVert) while taking Dejounte Murray at 27 and keeping Bogdanovic.

Those are a bit different though since we took largely consensus guys over guys we only say now we could have taken in hindsight who went much later (except Murray and Fox).

Jalen Smith seemed like even more of a reach than Cam. Cam was projected late teens/20s while Jalen late first/second. Especially with Haliburton there who was like top 5 consensus. And the bad thing is, if they wanted to reach, it seemed like they almost had the right idea working out Bane twice.

[WeekapaugGroove]

RaisingArizona wrote:
Someone unlocked the FA thread so I can repost my MISS ME YET MCD Meme


Sunskerr replied:
“it's not even a joke. McD was a better GM than james jones is.”

Wow!

In my defense I still think Jones hasn't made it clear he's that great of a GM. It might be the case that we never find out for a long, long time as the 3 players McD drafted are the 3 most important players on the team. I do think Jones would have drafted Luka though, based on how he's constructed the team around perimeter play (like Cam Jo, hiring Monty, etc.).

pros- CP3, CamJo, Rubio, Landale (diamond in the rough), Crowder, Monty Williams
cons- no Haliburton, traded Jalen Smith for free, traded Warren for free (well, he hasn't played in two years lol), traded Melton for free

I think McD's moves were just the Bledsoe acquisition, and then our core 3 guys. Everything else seems to have been an appalling failure like missing on Bender/Chriss/Jackson (3!! lotto picks), which imo set us back massively and we are still feeling those misses today because of how slim our bench looks.

McD had better highs but his lows were more often than Jones. Missing on Bender/Chriss/Jackson consecutively is unforgivable...Our team's depth would look so much better had he hit on just one of those picks, but he didn't. It took me a while to understand that, as well as realizing the value of the draft and finding cheap talent (either in the draft or undrafted), which is why I get really annoyed about Jones giving away Jalen Smith. But Jones has more + moves than - ones, or rather his moves are usually additions or neutral ones than negatives.

It is weird to think of the Josh Jackson pick. So looking at the board now and with hindsight being 20/20, Isaac is obviously a great player, but you wouldn't have wanted to draft him, so Fox would be the pick. How much better would that have been for us. Looking at us now, not good. We would probably be in a worse situation but of course it's a better pick. But mostly busts in that draft...DSJr, Ntilikina, etc.

I guess when it comes down to it, Markkanen or Mitchell but no one had them high. Had we passed at the time on Jackson for one of those there would have been an uproar.

Not that an uproar matters...but Markkanen did flame out in Chicago and was ok in Cleveland and is now just really getting in groove. It would have been a good Jones pick but he probably would have traded him after a year.

Mitchell would have been interesting. I wonder how Mitchell and Book would look together now. Mitchell is looking great with Garland and LeVert.

Bender over Murray or Hield....you could say Sabonis but he went quite a bit lower.

Murray was probably the right pick so then we have Murray and Book (of course at the time we still had Bledsoe I think). Hield maybe but we had Book so it didn't make a ton of sense. You can always say Murray, then Sabonis instead of Chriss (or simply keep 13 and take LeVert) while taking Dejounte Murray at 27 and keeping Bogdanovic.

Those are a bit different though since we took largely consensus guys over guys we only say now we could have taken in hindsight who went much later (except Murray and Fox).

Jalen Smith seemed like even more of a reach than Cam. Cam was projected late teens/20s while Jalen late first/second. Especially with Haliburton there who was like top 5 consensus. And the bad thing is, if they wanted to reach, it seemed like they almost had the right idea working out Bane twice.

The Jackson pick should have been Fox. Simple reason was they knew Bledsoe wanted an extension that summer and they knew they weren't going to give it to him. Bledsoe should have been traded and Fox the new PG.

Personally I wanted Isaac. I didn't care that he was redundant with Bender and Chriss.

The following year PJ Washington was my guy, Clarke's Trex arms and weird shot mechanics spooked me. One thing about that Cam pick is people just didn't love that draft class in general, there wasn't much consensus opinion after the top couple picks. **** some mocks had Herro in the late 20s.

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[LV-Suns]

I still wish it had been Clarke, and I stand by my take then that Cam is just a younger TJ Warren.

You would still take Clarke over Cam?

[WeekapaugGroove]

I still wish it had been Clarke, and I stand by my take then that Cam is just a younger TJ Warren.

You would still take Clarke over Cam?

And skill wise Cam and TJ are very very different players.

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[bwgood77]

I still wish it had been Clarke, and I stand by my take then that Cam is just a younger TJ Warren.

You would still take Clarke over Cam?

And skill wise Cam and TJ are very very different players.

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I think he just meant an injury prone forward. Of course TJ is a lot more versatile scorer and didn't shoot the 3 much at all and wasn't very good at it most of his time.

Though his last year in Phx he shot 42.8% from 3 on solid volume which is actually a higher % than Cam last year. But then when he went to Indy he dropped to 40.3%. Of course he also was more of a lead guy and I think made 1st team All NBA bubble and scored 50 in a game.

But Cam is obviously naturally the better shooter and probably a slightly better defender than TJ became in Indy. Cam passes slightly more.

[lilfishi22]

Always thought TJ was a baller. He's a bit like Mikal with his cutting, savvy putbacks underneath the baskets and became a good 3PT shooter. But mystery injuries and the fact that he hasn't played in two years is just alarming. When he was healthy, the guy was undeniably productive. He even played some decent defense towards the end of his Suns career. But yeah he's basically only played half of all the possible games in his 7 year career and while I was not happy with us having to give up assets to trade him, it's for the best

[bwgood77]

Always thought TJ was a baller. He's a bit like Mikal with his cutting, savvy putbacks underneath the baskets and became a good 3PT shooter. But mystery injuries and the fact that he hasn't played in two years is just alarming. When he was healthy, the guy was undeniably productive. He even played some decent defense towards the end of his Suns career. But yeah he's basically only played half of all the possible games in his 7 year career and while I was not happy with us having to give up assets to trade him, it's for the best

I don't think Mikal is that great of comparison at all. Mikal is mostly a dunker and 3 pt shooter with a little midrange.

TJ could score from all over inside the arc...and later added the 3. One of the more effortless scorers I've watched.

[WeekapaugGroove]

TJ is a true throw back player. Game out of the 80s and like players in the 80s when they get hurt they are **** forever.

Damn it I swore I would never mention him on this board again but I just couldn't help myself

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[lilfishi22]

Always thought TJ was a baller. He's a bit like Mikal with his cutting, savvy putbacks underneath the baskets and became a good 3PT shooter. But mystery injuries and the fact that he hasn't played in two years is just alarming. When he was healthy, the guy was undeniably productive. He even played some decent defense towards the end of his Suns career. But yeah he's basically only played half of all the possible games in his 7 year career and while I was not happy with us having to give up assets to trade him, it's for the best

I don't think Mikal is that great of comparison at all. Mikal is mostly a dunker and 3 pt shooter with a little midrange.

TJ could score from all over inside the arc...and later added the 3. One of the more effortless scorers I've watched.

Only as far as the scoring near the basket, cuts and 3PT shooting. Of course TJ was better all over the midrange and is much more of a naturally gifted scorer than Bridges.

[sunskerr]

TJ could create his own shot, which Mikal cant do. But Mikal is overall a better player. But TJ would've been really nice to have off the bench, but I guess it doesn't really matter since he hasn't even played in 10 years. Oh well.

[RaisingArizona]

Jinx thread

[bwgood77]

One of the main rumored reasons he was projected to go late teens/20s was because team doctors didn't trust his long term health with all his problems in college.

[dremill24]

^^ wasnt that a hip thing?

[bwgood77]

^^ wasnt that a hip thing?

Yeah. Worried about hip and whether it could stay healthy so obviously it's something different. I don't know if body overcompensating from one area to help another would have anything to do with it, but obviously he seems to be injury prone overall, at least the last two years, which sucks.

[Desertfox]

I still wish it had been Clarke, and I stand by my take then that Cam is just a younger TJ Warren.

You would still take Clarke over Cam?

You wouldn't? Unfortunately Cam IS TJ Warren...

[sunsfan1o1]

Most of the reactions are warranted still to this day. CamJo spends a lot of time recovering from injury and finding his rhythm then he does having big games. Smh.