Special_Puppy wrote:sp6r=underrated wrote:Synciere wrote:
I was going to say there have been many documented cases of teams drafting players that weren’t reported to have met during the process. Ace Bailey is hardly the first player to try this lol..
As you said earlier in this thread, there is nothing wrong with a player trying to ensure he lands with certain teams or avoid landing with a specific team. It is fine. I would if I was in their spot.
Players should exercise agency. The truth is only a minority of players will make it as superstars no matter where they land just as only a minority of players will be busts no matter where they land.
For the majority of players, team environment matters. If you land on the wrong team your development will be impeded and you will never achieve your full potential. If you land on the right team your development curve will be accelerated. And all of this matters financially.
Accordingly players would be foolish not to exercise agency in this process.
It’s very difficult to evaluate ahead of time how good a team will be for a players development. You can tell yourself a story that the the best teams for a players development are the teams that give their rookies infinite runway (such as the Wizards ). Problem is that those teams will also be the ones that have the most incompetent supporting casts which might be bad for a players development all in itself. You could also tell yourself that being on horrendous teams that let their young players do whatever they want doesn’t lead to the best habits in terms of impact on winning. Then again, you can also tell yourself that a rookie being on a team that’s too good is a bad thing as you are competing with winning impact players for playing time. However it’s plausible that putting pressure on rookies to be a positive impact player right out of the gate might be the best thing for a players long term development. Tatum was reportedly worried that by being drafted by a team as good as the Celtics he would struggle for playing time. However you could argue that it lead to Tatum forming good habits right out of the gate and being a better more well rounded player in the long run
I'm sure some players will screw themselves by maneuvering to the wrong team just as normal office workers will pick the wrong company to work for but that doesn't mean they should have a laissez-faire attitude.
