The "I Was Dead Wrong About"... Thread.

[Zonkerbl]

ccj, you were dead right about Faried. By the way.

[Ruzious]

I even had a thought that Batum could suddenly be a lot easier to sign now.

Why's that? I figured it became a lot harder after Portly spectacularly ripped off NJ - sending Wallace there for a likely lotto pick. Now, the Blazers need Batum back and have some money to spend.

[Cramer]

I told everyone a bunch of times why I didn't like the deal. [/b]

Define a bunch.

[queridiculo]

Wes Johnson? Yeah, that guy isn't anywhere near the player I thought he would be.

[tontoz]

[quote="closg00"][/quote]


www.giyf.com

[nate33]

For all those bellyaching about how we blew it when we failed to draft Dejuan Blair, take a look at this thread on the General Board
Some excerpts:

he's the size of a shooting guard on a team highly criticized for its lack of size. plus Boris Diaw is about 248482548025 times better.

Part of the reason we're doing so well is because he's been put into his correct role, the 5th big, and his starter minutes were given to a much better player than him in Diaw. Blair is probably the worst defensive player in the NBA. His rebounding has fallen off a cliff. And who knows how much longer he's got on those knees. He's regressed each year after his rookie season

Diaw > Blair

It's that simple.

I'm not sure what people expect from Blair. He's terrible defensively and needs to play center and be near the basket to do anything on offense. The Spurs have more skilled big men who can space the floor and finish inside more effectively, so he has no real role on the team anymore. Blair needs to develop his jump shot and improve on defense if he wants to be a good rotation player.

Blair is worth a spot on an NBA rotation, so that alone makes him a worthwhile pick in the 2nd round. But it looks like far too many have overrated his impact. Blair isn't that good, and he looks to be getting worse with time.

[Nivek]

A few points in response to the post about Blair.

a) He's not the size of a SG. His standing reach is 8-10.5, which is average for a PF. He's also strong, which matters. His standing vertical in draft camps was 2 inches below average, but his max vertical was average for a PF. His agility times at the draft camps were right at average for a PF.

b) Blair may be bad defensively, or it may be that he's just not as good defensively as Duncan. I don't watch enough Spurs hoops to judge, and I damn sure know better than to trust the "analysis" of fans.

c) Blair needs to lose some weight, in my opinion. He's a solid rotation guy for a team like the Spurs. For the Wizards, he'd be a star.

d) The real issue for the Wizards and picking Blair was that they could have taken him in the 2nd round, and they sold the pick instead. The 2nd round is tailor made to pick a guy like Blair -- uber-productive in college, but with questions about his knees and his weight. If he turns into Mike Sweetney, no biggie -- a 2nd round pick is only 50-50 to make the league at all, and you've only invested non-guaranteed minimum salary money anyway. If he's productive and successful -- great, you just got a bonus.

Blair has been better than most of the guys the Wizards have used on the front line these past 3 seasons. They missed on him, period.

[willbcocks]

So here's what we missed: 3 years of being a star (I doubt it, but he'd be a starter) on a terrible Wizards team. Then he gets paid a full MLE contract, which is what second rounders get after 3 years, and we've got a good backup big with no cartilage in his knees committed to long-term money.

There's not a whole lot of benefit to drafting good role players early in the rebuilding process. Compare all of that to, say, just signing a veteran like J Singleton 3 years ago, and I'd prefer the latter. If I were a GM, I would spend second round picks on Euros stashed overseas during the beginning of a rebuilding effort.

[Nivek]

We're getting into alternate reality territory now, so I'm not going too far down the rabbit hole except to say: The Wizards got cash for their 2nd round pick. That season -- the one in which they traded for Foye and Miller, they DESPERATELY needed rebounding, physicality and production from the front court. They MIGHT have gotten that from Blair. They damn sure would have gotten better from Blair than what they got from the young guys they ran out there. Things might have been very different if they'd taken a chance on Blair instead of selling the pick for cash because the front office (arrogantly) believed they didn't need more young players.

There's not a whole lot of benefit to drafting good role players early in the rebuilding process.

I'm trying hard to make sense of this post. The whole point of a rebuilding process is to acquire good players. I guess maybe you're saying that getting a player like Blair might hurt the tank. But if that's the case, why try to field any good players at all? Why not just pick up a bunch of schlubs you know suck and keep them on the roster until you've been in the lottery 3-4 times in a row?

And, when it comes to Blair, the whole issue of tanking/rebuilding is beside the point because the Wizards weren't rebuilding. They traded the 5th pick for a couple veterans on expiring contracts. They were reloading to make a playoff run, not embarking on a rebuild. Blair filled an exact need the team had -- rebounding and front court physicality.

[willbcocks]

That's right, I forgot they weren't rebuilding yet. Nevermind, that would have been a perfect time to draft Blair. At least I'm in the right thread. I stand by my point that I don't like drafting role players at the beginning of a rebuild, even if it doesn't apply to Blair. It may apply to Booker--I would rather have stashed a Euro, even though I really like the guy, because he doesn't fit the rebuild timeline.