boogiesdad wrote:Still hard to believe that we passed on Tyreke for a C.
I suppose I understand why people in Memphis have adopted Tyreke Evans as the poster child for what could have been for the Grizzlies in this past draft, but I think it's severely misguided. For a few reasons.
1. Memphians are only enamored with the thought of Tyreke Evans because we saw him play here with the Tigers last year. He was a household name to us BEFORE the draft. There are numerous players in that draft that would have been better selections in terms of building a team and assembling players with actual talent than Thabeet. Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, James Harden will all have better NBA careers than Hasheem Thabeet. So in that sense we would have been justified taking either of these guys #2. It's just that WE know Tyreke and of course Tyreke is having a great year.
2. I think it's naive to think that every GM goes into the draft looking to take the best player available only. Yes in theory that is what you would want your team to do, but that doesn't take into account real life circumstances. Players attitudes about your organization. Players attitudes about the game. Players attitude period. The organizations attitudes towards a player. The politicial game that is the NBA. I don't think anyone around wouldn't have said the Sacramento Kings could have used a player with the potential of Tyreke Evans to help revive that market over the next 3 years. The NBA is a very political league. They want to ensure that their teams in every market has players. Players that fans want to see and help owners increase their revenue streams. With Blake Griffin gone, what other player would have done that for Sac other than Reke? Rubio maybe but he specifically said he wouldn't come over unless he was in the top 3 and the Kings chose 4th.
Regarding the Grizzlies and the selection of Thabeet when you look back at the selections made, from the standpoint of how our organization is operating he was the logical choice for our owner (no matter how ridiculous it was). Most teams would have used that pick as leverage (taking Ricky Rubio or Tyreke Evans for instance and trading their rights to get players from another team to improve YOUR team) but you know what that would mean? More salary coming back to Memphis tied to a player most likely not on a rookie contract. And that wasn't happening. So if you aren't willing to use the leverage that you have to improve your team, what will you do? Take the player that fits into your organizations current method of operation (which everyone knows and the owner has already declared is a 3-year plan). In the past 3 drafts, the Grizzlies high profile draft picks/acquisitions have all been projects. Mike Conley because of his youth and lesser talent level, O.J. Mayo because he's an undersized SG that wants to develop into a PG, and now Hasheem Thabeet because he seemingly just found out what a basketball was 7 or so years ago. Right now the Memphis Grizzlies are functioning as a destination for young players to spend time and try and develop and if they pan out, they could eventually be moved to teams with bigger goals..ala Lowry to Houston. AKA a farm club. As long as we can maintain picks and get cash from it, we might oblige. Unless our current MO changes, I wouldn't be surprised to see Marc Gasol become the next player that gets moved to a higher caliber club due to us having a player that we need to develop at C in Thabeet.
For me it's not about us not drafting Tyreke specifically. It's about us drafting anyone but Hasheem Thabeet. It's about our method of operating which is piss poor and corrosive to building a legitimate basketball club. In terms of talent we would have been better off taking DeMar DeRozan #2 who is more talented than Thabeet and in time might be one of, if not the best, player out of this draft class.
Good luck with that.