Dat2U wrote:I wanted draft & stash candidate Bogoljub Markovic. I really like the offensive upside but he'll need to get stronger and show more defensively for teams to buy in to his development.
He was #1 for me too, and then 1 of the Australian dudes and another guy I forgot.
I just don't see the value in this at all. Trust Hollinger I guess? And the FSU argument is a decent one, the team was indeed a mess (for FSU fans, the covid shut down destroyed the best Basketball Team they ever built, even better than the Cassell/Sura days, and that program has fallen off slowly but surely since). I hear the arguments that he will be a ferocious <expletive> potentially in practice, but lets be straight here, the 43rd pick is an asset, and I am not using top 40 or 50 picks on guys to throw at real prospects in practice in order to get said kiddo's ---- together, I hire coaches to do that, and I can sign vets like Smart to do that. What does a player that couldn't carry Tre Johnson's jock really do for him? He's not gonna intimidate him in the way a champion might, or a legit stud vet might etc.
I would rather the pick be used on something tangible with potential long term upside. The defense provides possibilities and covid and deciding to go back to school last year for some reason are why he's such an old prospect, but I am NEVER drafting guys that old and with that CV for a team that's 2-3 years away from even winning 42 games....I don't get it at all.
Bummer draft for me across the board with 1 exception: Unless Tre goes God Mode, as some seem to expect (at least in time), this draft was great for the tank for the Dybantsa/Peterson/Boozer/Ament+ class. We got two guys who can hit jumpers for sure, but probably aren't going to move the needle a ton (at least Riley anyway) for at least the first 50+ games next year, so the tank for a top 3-4 pick in '26 looks quite good. Now if the Suns had just been as stupid as the Pelicans I'd feel better but I think they made some smart picks, we can only hope they totally implode this year, so our pick swap can sweep in an extra 7-10% across the board at the 1 through 4 slots, if that happened (if they finished, 5th, 6th, 7th or I think 8th worst, maybe 9th too), our chances of landing a top 4 pick would jump to between about 75-82% or more so long as we are bottom 3. Much better odds than this past year (I think it was what, 53%?
So for me anyway, my chief takeaways are:
We drafted one of only two players I absolutely would have hated to draft at 6, but at least I can envision it being possible that he could be great. It's unlikely, but the floor is there, and the ceiling is definitely technically possible.
The second pick was generally ranked 12th in this '24 recruiting class, so if his end of season run is who he is, he might have been worth a 10-15 pick potentially w/a slightly different season, time will tell....and where he's at means we'll get a loss less help from him than we would have gotten from some other guys at 18.
The tank is alive and well....
