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Every year players are drafted that surprise you with how well they produce, and others surprise you with how little they produce. Players like Wes Matthews go undrafted and then get huge contracts when they show they can play.

Take Laundry Fields for NY, why is he doing so well in NY, is it because its a D'Antoni offense, or did all the other GM's miss? Why is the #2 pick in the draft almost invisible? Is it the system, the coach, what? John Stockton sat for what, two years before getting his shot, same with S. Nash?????

Basically, where you get drafted plays a major roll in how well many players careers develop. No, I am not talking about players like Lebron, T Duncan and other sure fire studs, I am talking about the average draft pick. Would G. Arenas ever become the player he became if he had been drafted into Jerry Sloans offense? Can you really see a free spirit like Gilbert meshing with Sloan, let alone his trigger happy ways earning him anything but a seat on the bench.

I love Aaron Afflalo, and would give up a lot to get him this off season. He shoots 50%, and 42% from 3. But to my point I saw someone post the other day that we screwed up by taking Almond over Afflalo, and based on where they are both at in their careers I agree. But think about what Almond faced when he came in:

The team was coming off a trip to the WCF, and wanted to compete. A rookie in that situation had no chance. At SG he faced an uphill battle: Ronnie Brewer was a lottery pick the year before and was showing great progress. CJ Miles had just been offered a solid contract and the Jazz matched, thus requiring the need to finally play this young untapped potential in his now 4th year. When they struggled a bit during the season, did Almond get a chance? NO. The Jazz had it with giving CJ and Brewer more rope to hang themselves and so they made a move and got KYLE KORVER, which was the smart move. Those decisions right there sealed his career. He never left the D League, then the Jazz got cheap and never even reupped his 3rd year of his contract, despite him scoring in record numbers in the DLeague. At SF we had AK and Harpring, so where was Almond ever going to get any kind of run? Simple answer....He wasn't.

Raul Lopez got chance after chance to show he could play, but he was a bad pick ahead of Tony Parker who was clearly better, but the Jazz didn't want a player to come over that year...they wanted to stash a player and not have to pay them...Parker wanted over that year so we passed. Who else? Snyder got a run, but didn't deserve even as much as he got. Stevenson got a great amount of run too. Pavlovic, could have turned into something in the jazz system but they didn't protect him. But as I look at all of our wing picks over the last decade no one faced a tougher uphill battle than Morris. He came at just the wrong time when we were trying to compete and develop young wings that weren't him. He never had a shot.

Afflalo on the other hand, fell into a team that didn't have the back log that Utah had at the wings, and was able to be tutored by a veteran SG and PG in Hamilton and Billups. Then, the Pistons made a mistake... they too didn't see his potential and decided to spend $55M on B. Gordon which meant the experiement with Afflalo ended, and they subsequently included him in a stupid trade for Iverson. Now in Denver, Billups became his biggest fan, and pushed him... and the rest is history.

I am not saying had we hung onto Almond he would have turned into Afflalo, I am making a greater point about the fact that the team, coach, and circumstance with other entranched players and contracts has a huge influence on whether a guy ever has a chance to make it in this league. Almond could have landed on GSW and become the next Morrow, Afflalo, Laundry Field etc, but on a Jerry Sloan type team, only a defensive minded guy like Matthews was ever going to make an early impression in his rookie season. Think of it, who has played and made any strides in their rookie years under Sloan? AK, Millsap, S Anderson, and Wes....all heady defensive players.
I do believe that Almond could be a good player still playing in the league had he been drafted into a better situation, even a better time on the Jazz.

Beyond, Almond and Afflalo who I want to take a hard run at in the off-season, it is interesting to think of what could have happened with Almond if we gave him a fair shot instead of Brewer who was traded 2 years later, and the painful experience we are now enduring with CJ chucking up bad shot after bad shot and barely scraping 40%.

It is always interesting to me to think of what could have been with Almond and any player drafted on any team in the right or wrong circumstance for them.

There is a reason no other team in the league wants Almond either. It is no one's fault but his own. While I agree that playing in the right situation is critical for any player, the fault is entirely Morris Almond's. He had plenty of chances.

I think we all wanted to believe Almond could be our guy at the 2 for years to come, but as as a young player you have to make the most of whatever time you get, whether it was fair or not Almond did not make his case and he was gonzo after just 2 seasons. We spent how long scouting the guy and we loved him but when his time came he stunk it up. There are reasons certain guys fall to 25th pic, we didn't think outside the box why we were the only team that liked Almond even though he was putting up huge games in college. Another draft mistake.

There is one major flaw in your logic. Morris Almond has failed on more than one team with different styles of play, while both Wesley Mathews and Gilbert Arenas have succeeded on more than one team with different styles of play.

The challenge for players in the NBA seems to be the same challenge that we face in the corporate world, which is a proper balance between individual contribution and being part of a team. This is true for two reasons:

1) Successfully working with a group of people makes you much more powerful and effective, and
2) If you are continually trying to steal others thunder, and/or always gossiping and complaining about them, then it is your co-workers who grow to hate you more quickly than the manager does.

I believe that a big contributor for Deron's departure, is that anyone outside of his inner circle grew to hate him, and when Deron started calling his own plays and ignoring Sloan's instructions with games on the line, that was simply the straw that broke the camels back.

That combined with Deron's violent and immaure reactions when Kevin OConnor messed with Deron's inner circle (i.e., Ronnie Brewer), because it was such a threat to Deron (in his minds eye) because it was destabilizing to Deron's internal empire, became Utah's reason for sending him elsewhere.

Deron can recover pretty easily with a few adjustments:

1) Stop letting teamates perceived idiosyncrasies bug him so much, to the point that he starts trying to undermine them (i.e., Kirilenko, Hayward),
2) Show proper respect and listen to and understand the instructions of those above him (i.e., Sloan, OConnor),
3) Stop making off handed threats when things don't go his way (i.e., Brewer), because Deron is so good those threats are taken very seriously by the organization.

My geuss is that Deron will struggle with these issues for the rest of his career, but it would be refreshing if he sees his personal flaws and makes the proper adjustments.

finnegan... +10.

Sometimes you have to have a little bit of luck. I'm sure Afflalo was second to Almond on that Jazz' draftboard... just the wrong choice... it happens...
Ther there are the really bad choices... like Koufos over Ibaka.... it shouldn't happen....

Morris Almond couldn't make the Knicks last year under D'Antoni. That pretty much sums him up for me.

well said finnegan! As for Affalo we can make up for that mistake he might be up for grabs next year.

I love how some people can turn any thread into one about Deron. It's truly a talent.

If you want to talk about guys that weren't given a chance by the Jazz then you're better off mentioning Humphries than guys like Almond and Pavlovic. Those two guys have had plenty of chances to prove they belong in this league and neither has.

HappyProle wrote:I love how some people can turn any thread into one about Deron. It's truly a talent....

OK... you might have kind of a semi-valid point there!
Yet... even players (i.e. CJMiles) cannot stop worshipping the guy... LOL at that kind of man crush CJ!

Ok Morris, log off the computer....

Seriously though, I'm always amazed at how people don't recognize the many factors that influence how a player turns out. If someone doesn't turn out well, it isn't because Sloan coached him or he had to play behind vets in the Jazz system. It is because he wasn't good enough to win a spot on a NBA team. In the long run, those who can play in the NBA play in the NBA (Billups is the poster child). Almond never accomplished anything at a level higher than the NBA-DL where he was a great scorer. He was drafted because expectations were that he could build on those skills and help a team. He never lived up to it and if there was only one factor (like the Jazz system or coach) then he would have taken off when given his opportunity to make the Knicks who were rebuilding. We all know how that ended.

Afflalo is a gym rat who puts in hour after hour of work to try improve his game. Even during games this year, when he makes a mistake, you can usually see him get mad himself for the error and after the game, no matter where it is played, he will find his way back to the gym to try and correct the flaw. Maybe Morris Almond has the same work ethic that Afflalo has and he just hasn't found a team that fits his skill set, but I doubt it.

Afflalo wasn't part of the Iverson trade, he found his way to Denver the following year for basically nothing when the Pistons were trying to clear cap space to sign Charlie V and Ben Gordon. I think Denver will find a way to keep him, but he is definitely going to get a nice raise with his next contract.