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Larry Brown was asked whether the Bobcats would have chosen San Antonio Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair, had he lasted three more spots to the Bobcats' No. 40 overall pick:

"Absolutely. Michael (Jordan) loved him. We all did, but there was an issue about his knee. To take a gamble with an early first-round pick, we all weighed, (knowing power forward) was a need of ours. They thought the risk might be too great (in the lottery), but with the second round, yeah. We had him rated really high. He was rated in the top 15.''

The mystery that is the Bobcats management draft philosophy continues.

We apparently would not select a player we thought was "in the top 15" at #12 because the "the risk might be too great" but we would take Ajinca and #20 and potentially lose another first round pick that could be a lottery pick to do so. Ajinca was projected to be a Mikki Moore type player. Maybe the MJ/Brown brain trust had Ajinca as a top 3 player in the 2008 draft so it seemed acceptable to pick him at #20 and lose a future first rounder.

If anyone can make sense of this insanity please do so.

from the guys in our range i think i wanted twill, blair, hendo, tylyer - in that order. i would have been happy with any of them at 12.

i do think that to judge blair we should wait 2-3 years to see how that knee holds up. in 3 years hendo might be our starting sg and blair might be in a suit. i think its a fair concern. however, that same thinking cost us granger... so....

After everything we had just gone through with McMay I don't blame them from shying away from an over weight, undersized PF prospect.

BTW: Lexy was also projected to be an LMA type player. Still have to give him a year or two to mature to see what we have before we can crucify him IMO. Like Fats said, same with Blair, He might be busted up before too long.

And all this 20/20 hindsight drafting gets really exhausting.

besides we arent the ones who should be kicking ourselves. its the teams that drafted in that 20 to 35 range that should be ripped. no reason to pass on blair in that range regardless of knee concerns.

[edit - meant to say ARENT]

Blair has no ACL's. Of course no team would select him with a lottery pick. The Spurs wouldn't even select him with a lottery pick.

Larry Brown was asked whether the Bobcats would have chosen San Antonio Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair, had he lasted three more spots to the Bobcats' No. 40 overall pick:

"Absolutely. Michael (Jordan) loved him. We all did, but there was an issue about his knee. To take a gamble with an early first-round pick, we all weighed, (knowing power forward) was a need of ours. They thought the risk might be too great (in the lottery), but with the second round, yeah. We had him rated really high. He was rated in the top 15.''
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I stopped reading here

amcoolio wrote:Blair has no ACL's. Of course no team would select him with a lottery pick. The Spurs wouldn't even select him with a lottery pick.

Neither did Baron Davis but we drafted him at #3 when we were the Hornets and that worked out nicely.

This team has no common sense when it comes to the draft which is why we only get good players via trade. Either their scouting his bottom of the league quality or the executives are (or both).

We're talking common sense stuff that fans can figure out. EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE was pissed at the May over Granger pick. EVERYONE thought it was stupid to not trade #5 and #13 for #3 which would've guaranteed Chris Paul. EVERYONE thought the Alexis pick was pointless. When I say everyone, I guess I mean the overwhelming majority. Like they said when the Jets missed on all of those hall of famers over the years "Maybe the Jets know something we don't?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZxNeFLuY98

I think if the Bobcats had not gone through the failed experiment of Sean May, that they may have taken a shot at him in the 1st round. But I think that Sean May stuff left a bad taste in everyones mouth for somewhat hefty PF's who may have questionable knees.

But to be fair to him, guy is playing like a beast. If he stays healthy, he'll be solid for years.

I'm confused...are people suggesting we should have taken him at 12? Everyone knew he was going to slip so that argument falls apart unless you want to pitch that we should've traded up in the 2nd round. You are not going to find a bigger Blair fan than I but Henderson at 12 made more sense at the time. Sure, looking back now we take Blair or Tyler. At the time, perhaps we could have traded up and picked Blair up but we didn't have much to offer. I would've loved to have him but I'm thrilled to have UPS as the next option.

They should of gotten GIbson or Tyler.

I was a huge fan of Blair... rebounding is perhaps the single best-translating stat to the NBA (other than FT% of course...) and Blair was a truly unbelievable talent at that, if nothing else. That said, it is complete hindsight to even suggest we take him at #12.

Personally I was most interested in Daye and Earl Clark rather than Henderson, but it's not as if Hendo has played badly. He just hasn't played at all, I guess so that we can continue to watch Stephen Graham be a horrendous failure at life.

Anyway, to me, if a guy you rate in the top 15 is still on the board by, say, #30, you make something happen to trade up and get him. It's not as though those picks are super-valued around the league.

Paydro70 wrote:
Anyway, to me, if a guy you rate in the top 15 is still on the board by, say, #30, you make something happen to trade up and get him. It's not as though those picks are super-valued around the league.

They probably tried and maybe had something in works - considering they worked players projected in late first a lot. They could have aimed for Derrick Brown or someone similar and were pleasnatly surprised he lasted to their second round pick. i think they searched their options and price was too high to get there. Sometimes things which would be no-brainers cannot be done because of other parties, not (just) incompetence.

Didn't they say that if both Henderson and Williams were taken we were going to trade back? Most likely we were looking at Chicago who had 2 1st rounders...16 & 26. We almost certainly would have taken Johnson (yet another player MJ "loved") and that would have allowed us to take Blair at 26th.