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The Gasol, Conley and Zebo trio carried them for years, since then they've hit homeruns in the draft all over the place. JJJ, Morant, Clarke late 1st rounder(he's a stud on both ends) Dillon Brooks in the 2nd round was gold


What other teams draft really well?

Denver

A bit risky, due to drafting guys that are perceived injury prone, but so far it looks very good.

Nope, they have been below average at drafting. Hasheem Thabeet was a terrible pick.

They could have used that 2nd overall pick to take them them to a championship caliber team, and they blew it.

Nothing else matters, they blew it during the one moment they needed a good draft.

My obligatory post on how scouts and people who do the drafting know that drafting is at least 80% educated guessing, and that looking like you're 'good' at it is mostly just being lucky. Some teams have found out ways to gain small temporary advantages over other teams, and some teams have sort of rash people making bad decisions for them, but most scouting staffs and people who draft are competent and see the same basic stuff. Then they take their best guesses when their time comes and they see who's left on the board. There's no kind of magic intuition or hack that lets you see into the future or lets one GM project a player better than any others. And there are no secret formulas (e.g. overemphasize character or wingspan, underemphasize efficiency or pure athleticism) that a team can use to see which red flags or markers of upside are real and which are fake.

Teams that can offer draft picks defined roles within a good professional culture tend to have better draft outcomes. Otherwise outcomes are pretty random, and folks who are paying attention almost always know specifically why the pick ended up succeeding or failing over time (i.e. they can tell you what failed to work for the prospect or what they weren't able to develop, or vice versa.)

NotMyKawhi wrote:The Gasol, Conley and Zebo trio carried them for years, since then they've hit homeruns in the draft all over the place. JJJ, Morant, Clarke late 1st rounder(he's a stud on both ends) Dillon Brooks in the 2nd round was gold


What other teams draft really well?

If we extend the sample to to include thabeet and Mayo, they certainly don't draft well. If we focus only on the post-Gasol/ZBO era, you are talking about literally those three picks; a very small sample size. Factor in that Ja was the clearly obvious choice there, and you are talking about JJJ and Clarke, at 4 and 21 respectively.

Clark looks to be a steal for a 21 pick, but time will tell. Very solid pick there. JJJ is a very solid high potential player who has shown a lot...I like him a lot. Solid pick at 4. but if we factor in Trae and Luka (by making the deal dallas made) being available there, it gets less exciting.

So essentially we are talking about one obvious pick at 2, one steal seemingly at 21, and a solid pick but not the BPA at 4. They are on a nice little drafting run though...

NotMyKawhi wrote:The Gasol, Conley and Zebo trio carried them for years, since then they've hit homeruns in the draft all over the place. JJJ, Morant, Clarke late 1st rounder(he's a stud on both ends) Dillon Brooks in the 2nd round was gold


What other teams draft really well?

mem has been a top5
por is always up there too

If the Grizzlies drafted well they would not have picked JJJ, Thabeet, Juice Mayo

They whiffed badly with Thabeet. Mayo looked good initially but turned into a journeyman.

They've had other washout guys who didn't even finish 4 years on their rookie contract like Jordan Adams, Wade Baldwin (waived after 1 season) and Xavier Henry.

islanders11040 wrote:Knicks

That Knicks record of not giving a contract extension to a 1st round pick since 1998 (Charlie Ward!) is utterly mind blowing.

NotMyKawhi wrote:The Gasol, Conley and Zebo trio carried them for years, since then they've hit homeruns in the draft all over the place. JJJ, Morant, Clarke late 1st rounder(he's a stud on both ends) Dillon Brooks in the 2nd round was gold


What other teams draft really well?

if undrafted pickups count than the Raptors. Siakam, Terence Davis(undrafted) FVV(undrafted), Matt Thomas(undrafted), Chris Boucher (undrafted)

Brandon Clarke falling to 23 was dumb

Shock Defeat wrote:If the Grizzlies drafted well they would not have picked JJJ, Thabeet, Juice Mayo

Would still take Jaren at 4.

TheHartBreakKid wrote:

NotMyKawhi wrote:The Gasol, Conley and Zebo trio carried them for years, since then they've hit homeruns in the draft all over the place. JJJ, Morant, Clarke late 1st rounder(he's a stud on both ends) Dillon Brooks in the 2nd round was gold


What other teams draft really well?

If we extend the sample to to include thabeet and Mayo, they certainly don't draft well. If we focus only on the post-Gasol/ZBO era, you are talking about literally those three picks; a very small sample size. Factor in that Ja was the clearly obvious choice there, and you are talking about JJJ and Clarke, at 4 and 21 respectively.

Clark looks to be a steal for a 21 pick, but time will tell. Very solid pick there. JJJ is a very solid high potential player who has shown a lot...I like him a lot. Solid pick at 4. but if we factor in Trae and Luka (by making the deal dallas made) being available there, it gets less exciting.

So essentially we are talking about one obvious pick at 2, one steal seemingly at 21, and a solid pick but not the BPA at 4. They are on a nice little drafting run though...

Yeah, exactly this. And I'm a griz fan. You get some credit for getting the obvious picks right, and not overthinking it. But so far it's just a nice little mini-run from the new management. Prior to that they'd been bottom five for years. Not just the Thabeet stuff, but all the mid-to-late first rounders they blew during the grit and grind era, when they desperately needed some help for the back end of their rotation. Picks like Tony Wroten, Jarrell Martin and Wade Baldwin - to one of whom turned into even a rotation guy. Trading a first to get Dayonta Davis and Ivan Raab in the 2nd. Even analytics-backed picks like Jordan Adams and Jamaal Franklin, who I loved at the time. Xavier Henry in the late lotto.

They manage even an average return on those picks and they would have had a decent shot at a championship in the years when Gasol, Conley, ZBo and Allen were still in their primes. And they probably could have extended their window another few years.

Shock Defeat wrote:If the Grizzlies drafted well they would not have picked JJJ, Thabeet, Juice Mayo

Pointing to JJJ at #4 as a bust seems... premature, at best. There's an obvious case for Trey instead, but not really anyone else. And even that's not a slam dunk. Let's see JJJ with another couple of years under his belt, and Trey on a team with something to play for first...

I like the fact that Memphis moved away from washed up conley, Gasol and traded them for full value while they had something left in the tank. A lot of GMs dont know when to rebuild and stick to their old franchise stars until they rot.

The Grizz spent a long time drafting very poorly. Even after the Thabeet pick (which can't even be justified by the usual "we were desperate for a center" excuse), they went a long time without even getting a credible rotation player. It really hurt their ability to stay competitive.

They've done better recently which is nice.

Only here to toot my own horn. Had Ja and Clarke 1 and 3 on my big board prior to the draft.

dc wrote:

islanders11040 wrote:Knicks

That Knicks record of not giving a contract extension to a 1st round pick since 1998 (Charlie Ward!) is utterly mind blowing.

The Knicks had 3 picks in the top 20 something in 1996 ( one of the best drafts of all time) and they whiffed on all 3

Jaren Jackson looked great in the 2018 draft, he was my favourite big, ahead of both Ayton and Bagley. I'm glad he landed on Memphis. Everyone from the Top 5 that year has lived up to the hype, I'd say, if anything, JJJ almost fell into their lap there -- Both Bagley and Ayton and had a lot of hype.

It worked out well because they landed Ja in 2019.

Brandon Clarke is the impressive pick in my opinion.