Share your "Draft Manifesto" with us.

August Us Seazr · Post #1 » by **August Us Seazr** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:54 pm

Since to some degree we are all amateur general managers of the Bobcats, I thought it might be a workable idea to let each of us have a chance to present their entire "Draft Manifesto". This would be an opportunity for us to say what we might do at each point in the draft if we were MJ or Higgins.

At this point the board has selected Griffin hands down, but we had differing ideas on what we would do with the second pick. So, without resorting to a vote, tell us how you would use...

The First Pick (Most of us want Griff) [under 1% chance]
The Second Pick (Rubio to a smaller degree with some sentiment for Harden) [under 1% chance]
The Third Pick [under 1% chance]
Trading to Picks 4-11
Pick 12 [where we stand with no lottery miracle]
Pick 13 [Phoenix or Indiana get a Top 3 pick]
Pick 14 [Phoenix AND Indiana get a Top 3 pick]
Trading Down to Picks 15-30
What do you look to get in the second round?

Also comment on who on our roster you might trade to make this team seriously better. I'd also like you to explain why you make this trade. No ranting, and respect the opinions of others, PLEASE!

Post #2 » by **Paydro70** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:03 am

Well, to me our goal remains, as always, to select the player with the highest chance of becoming a star. In practice, this means the best player who does not seem to be a finished product. All else being equal, we need to select a shooting guard who can create his own shot.

1) Griffin - no brainer, best player in the draft.
2) Rubio - highest trade value, also best chance of stardom
3) Tyreke Evans - Highest star potential, in my opinion. I am not particularly inspired by Hill, Thabeet, Jennings, or Harden, the latter being the one with the best chance.
4-11) I don't see the point of trading here, but presumably we would be doing it in order to get whichever shooting guard we loved most... I like Evans, Derozan is defensible as well. Harden is of course the bigger name, but again, I think he's too much of a "safe" pick.
12-13-14) Choose whoever is left of Evans, Derozan, Harden, Terrance Williams, and Gerald Henderson. It seems impossible to me for them all to be taken by that point... if they did, it would mean a few players that appear to be lottery locks (Jennings, Curry, Clark) fell very hard.

Traded up/down to late first) Well, assuming we drafted our shooting guard with our first pick, we'd be moving up to either cover for Felton's departure, meaning maybe we'd be able to nab Teague or Maynor (or maybe Collison?), or to find another forward to cover for a potential Wallace trade (or just injury), in which case I guess I would like Sam Young or Chase Budinger. The former guy I am just a huge fan of, I see some JRich in him, and the latter is a guy who many thought was a lottery pick in previous years that I would be happy to roll the dice on, he certainly has the tools.

Assuming we don't do any crazy trading and draft a good SG, in the second round I would once again just be thinking BPA... the 2nd round is like a 1/3 chance of even sticking in the league. Generally speaking I would prefer to just grab whoever has inexplicably slid (i.e., the DeAndre Jordan of 2009), or some role player type to fill Dudley's old role, maybe Danny Green or DaJuan Summers.

Post #3 » by **fatlever** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:13 pm

i like paydros reasoning. solid.

Dexmor · Post #4 » by **Dexmor** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:56 pm

If we get first pick I take Griffen.
2nd pick I am taking Thabeet.
I can' take Rubio because I never seen him play. How can I judge him sight unseen?
I want as many sg's as possible to not take any chances.

Option A

I trade DJ for the 4th pick and I take Harden. Then I draft Jeff Teague at the 12th pick.
The reason I do this should be obvious. Felton is the better future pg and Harden can be a star and we have 2 star caliber pg's but no sg below age 30. I believe in this draft getting the 4th or 5th pick might be tradeable for DJ if we throw in something else to.
Jeff Teague acts as insuarance policy if Harden doesn't work out and would replace DJ and could backup both spots.

Option B

We take the best sg available Evans, TWill, or Henderson in that order. Then I trade for a 20's pick to draft Wayne Ellington or basically the best sg who falls into the 20's and if any of them fall to 2nd round then I just draft them, even if it is Chase. Maybe even on top of that draft a sg for every single one of our picks to be safe espially if any of them are combo guards or big enough to play backup sf.

This is if we make no moves
What I do if we get the 12th pick is a few options.
If Evans is there I take him but he probably won't be. If he is not I take TWilliams and if he is not there I take Gerald Henderson.

Bassman · Post #5 » by **Bassman** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:49 pm

fatlever wrote:i like paydros reasoning. solid.

I agree with Paydro and Fats. To the degree that I am interested in this draft.

Unfortunately it doesn't excite me very much. The players available that have the potential for stardom are very small. We are most likely to wind up 12th or worse, and I hope that delivers a servicable SG who can be a future impact player. But I just don't see us hitting an impact player unless we get lucky and ride to the top.

Even Griffin has flaws, but MAN would he be a great fit here!

Dexmor · Post #6 » by **Dexmor** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:02 pm

Griffen has flaws like all rookies do though. He is pretty solid.
Thabeet is the same way. He doesn't score yet but has only been playing for 4 years.
James Harden is gonna be a star. He is a typical top 5 player imo.

I think this draft is underrated.

Post #7 » by **BigSlam** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:04 pm

Dexmor wrote:I think this draft is underrated.

I thought it was too - up until a a couple of weeks ago when about a dozen potential lottery picks decided to go back to school. Now it's looking pretty thin.

Rich4114 · Post #8 » by **Rich4114** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 9:17 pm

Trading DJ before we have Felton locked in would not be a wise decision.

Dexmor · Post #9 » by **Dexmor** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:21 pm

It wouldn't be risky because as long as we pay him fair Felton will stay. Nobody is throwing him 60 million or anything.

Bigslam I think some things went on without me knowing, who is going back to school? Can you please tell me all of them?

Post #10 » by **BigSlam** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:25 am

Dex: So far Monroe, Brackins, Turner, Warren, Davis, Wall and Aldrich have all confirmed they will not be in the draft this year and there are a slew of players who haven't hired agents, are declaring for the 1st time and will reserve the right to still pull out of this draft.

Post #11 » by **Paydro70** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:50 am

The only really relevant guy who might drop out is Rubio, due to buyout issues and not eligibility. Most of the guys who are in that we would take in the lotto are probably staying.

Dexmor · Post #12 » by **Dexmor** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:51 pm

Well Bigslam out of those players only Warren and Monroe were possible top 14 am I off?
Monroe I was actually starting to warm up to a little. Willie Warren should not be going back to school. If your a guarantee first round you go.

Dexmor · Post #13 » by **Dexmor** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:56 pm

We are rebuilding with players who aren't really all that young. I have actually never seen a young team try and rebuild with no young players.
They need young players and they should take advantage of the economy and they need to be like the Blazers and try and get as many players as possible. They need young players and this is the perfect time to get it.

thruthefire · Post #14 » by **thruthefire** » Fri May 1, 2009 7:46 pm

We don't have young players?

Okafor - 26
Diaw - 27
Wallace - 26
Felton - 24
Augustin - 21

Yeah ... and last time I checked, we weren't rebuilding.

Post #15 » by **Walt Cronkite** » Fri May 1, 2009 8:08 pm

Dex, you have to keep in the back of your mind that this team was an expansion franchise 5 seasons ago and we've only been able to use the entirety of our cap space for two seasons. Therefore, I think "rebuilding" isn't a fair term to use, because at what point was this team "built"?

TTF- while those ages aren't "old", most nba guys reach their primes at 26-28 or so. If we had a top 20 league talent and were in "win now" mode, we'd be in a panic, but obviously that isn't the case. That said, of our contributers only Bell, Diaw and Wallace would really worry me about falling off as they age, Okafor seems to have already reached his peak, but ought to remain consistent at his level of play for, IDK another decade? I think Felton may be in the same boat.

Sorry, went "stream of consciousness" on you guys at the end there.

Post #16 » by **BigSlam** » Fri May 1, 2009 10:59 pm

Paydro70 wrote:The only really relevant guy who might drop out is Rubio, due to buyout issues and not eligibility. Most of the guys who are in that we would take in the lotto are probably staying.

Everyone of those guys are relevant because they would have added to the over all depth of this draft pushing better players further down into our area of the draft board.

Post #17 » by **Paydro70** » Sat May 2, 2009 2:46 am

What guys? I said nobody was going to drop out of the draft that had already declared except Rubio. Several guys who didn't declare would of course have been relevant (Davis, Monroe, etc.).

spectre_ · Post #18 » by **spectre_** » Sat May 2, 2009 10:38 am

Walt Cronkite wrote:Dex, you have to keep in the back of your mind that this team was an expansion franchise 5 seasons ago and we've only been able to use the entirety of our cap space for two seasons. Therefore, I think "rebuilding" isn't a fair term to use, because at what point was this team "built"?

TTF- while those ages aren't "old", most nba guys reach their primes at 26-28 or so. If we had a top 20 league talent and were in "win now" mode, we'd be in a panic, but obviously that isn't the case. That said, of our contributers only Bell, Diaw and Wallace would really worry me about falling off as they age, Okafor seems to have already reached his peak, but ought to remain consistent at his level of play for, IDK another decade? I think Felton may be in the same boat.

Sorry, went "stream of consciousness" on you guys at the end there.

Why would DIaw fall off? His game isn't based on athleticism but more on smarts. His main thing is keeping the weight off. Mek could easily get better if he'd focus on that vs. building his body as LB said. Felton is only 24...and I know it's debatable on here but LB says Felton improved this year. I see no reason why that couldn't continue, esp. considering his work ethic and the presense of Brown for a couple more years.

I think that even Crash under LB will start to play smarter vs. relying solely on his athleticism...so I don't think even he will fall off that badly.

Post #19 » by **BigSlam** » Sat May 2, 2009 11:00 am

Paydro70 wrote:What guys? I said nobody was going to drop out of the draft that had already declared except Rubio. Several guys who didn't declare would of course have been relevant (Davis, Monroe, etc.).

Sorry, bad sequencing. I listed the guys who have already pulled out for Dexmor then you posted the only relevant guy was Rubio. I read that is you saying past tense, not still to pull out.

Either way, there are still a lot of guys who need to hire agents. We need as many of them to stay in as possible so that at #12 we have a chance of drafting well rather than being forced to take someone who should have been a late 1st early 2nd round pick.

Post #20 » by **Paydro70** » Sat May 2, 2009 8:29 pm

Based on Chad Ford's listing: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009 ... page=InOut

The only guys I see who are even maybe relevant to the lottery that haven't hired agents are Evans and Teague. I mean I agree, the more people who stay the better, but as long as Evans is in I'm pretty sure we know who's going to be going lotto.