PandaKidd wrote:I think I can see where Bud goes with his player development. Think about this, what hes done with Carroll, Scott, DS in 2 years. Hes made them consistent role players. Carroll i think he really gotten the most out of.
I think the "Spurs" thinking is let the young guy play in the D League and sophomore year call them up (or junior). Jenkins is really only in his 2nd year right because of the back injury last year.
Payne wont get minutes over Millsap or Horford or at this point Pero. I think it takes time to get accustomed to the system, and they are fine letting the players develop in the D League for now.
Muscala, he looked great for the 5 minutes he played yesterday but even he sniffs the bench all season. As much as we all complained about depth at the front court, if our 2 big guys stay healthy, our bench has been outstanding.
I agree with the sentiment that picking Nurkic is a bad analogy because he doesnt have a spot on this team either. #1 team in the east, theres not much room on the rotation.
Can't really say I agree with those first 2 paragraphs. First, I can't see adding Carroll into the discussion as far as player development - any coach would and should treat vets differently than a rookie. Just because his style fits with one type of player doesn't mean it fits all. Not sure I agree with either Scott or Schröder being labeled as "consistent" either. Still this isn't the major point here.
The second paragraph is the one that I think needs more investigation. First, I think SAS has proven that, assuming the player can help the big club win, then the player will play with the big club. Cases in point here would include Kawhi Leonard, DeJuan Blair, George Hill, Beno Udrih, Tony Parker, and even Tim Duncan. If the player can play - regardless of whether it's in a small or big role - then Popp will put them on the court even for a championship caliber club.
Second, there is a difference between a player playing overseas and playing in the D-League. Many reasons here, but suffice to say that there's a reason that a player would go overseas even if an NBA team wants to keep / sign him whereas that doesn't happen with the D-League. With this difference, we can see that IF there is any correlation between SAS and sending a higher (40 or better) pick to the D-League for extended action in their rookie season, it's that the pick will generally
not be a contributor with the big club in time. Marcus Williams and James Anderson would be the examples of picks that ended up disappointing; Cory Joseph is the other high pick who spent time in the D-League and in year 4, it's hard to say that he's much more than a deep rotation player for them and it's noteworthy that was beaten out by former PORT castoff Patty Mills for backup PG last year; the jury is out on Kyle Anderson, but his 1 game in the D-League was certainly awesome but I'm not sure I'll call that "extended action" either. Sure, many of these guys are later picks, but look again at the list in the above paragraph. SAS is always picking in this area and have had been a shining example of a team that can mine these picks for contributors while also finding castoffs such as Mills and getting good minutes from them. The biggest tangible difference between a George Hill or a Beno Udrih and a Cory Joseph or a James Anderson is that the former 2 players were able to contribute to the big club immediately and built from there whereas the latter two weren't ready for the big club and have consistently battled to just keep a roster spot ever since.
And SAS actually *has* a D League team...
PandaKidd wrote:So #1 seed in the east, what would you do? Bench who to call up Payne...........
Who else should we have drafted that we would bump off the starting 5 or bench..........
I am the first one to hammer on bad draft picks, but, as of now, whatever they have done has worked, and is working. Saying we wasted the Payne pick seems foolish given what we know RIGHT NOW, which is, he wont start over AH or PM, and he wont bump Mike Scott / Brand from the PF position
To answer your 1st ?, no one goes because a rookie can't hack it. If anyone goes, it's the rookie - either to the D-League (because there really isn't another option) or to another team in a trade.
As far as who to select, it's always a crapshoot. You never know who would fit your system and what you're looking for while being a complete miss in another system. For instance, even though SAS has made it clear that they're drafting for a contributor immediately, I'm sure there are other teams who are content to draft and develop projects and have a much higher success rate with sending players to the D-League for extended periods. For instance, Jordan Adams has out up some impressive numbers in limited minutes for MEM but would he have been as impressive with either more minutes here? Or in this system? Still, the one glaring example of a kid that would have probably broken into the rotation for us is former PeachtreeHoops favorite (Kudos to them) KJ McDaniels who would have most certainly taken Bazemore's spot as young defensive backup wing. Honestly, he could have competed with Thabo as 1st wing off the bench. Further, considering that we were so tight with roster spots that we dumped Lou, I could see us having drafted a Eurostash as a very smart move - ala Bogdanovich who is doing fairly well overseas. Nurkic and Capela were expected to stay overseas (although I don't remember why they came over...) and we probably could have convinced Caboclo as well if we wanted a high upside guy. Also, I'd be willing to bet there are some more rookies who have either been impressive in limited minutes or in practice whose game hasn't quite translated into on the court production yet who would have shown better than the kid who hasn't shown enough that we feel it is important that he gain a repertoire with the veterans for when he could take a larger role later in the year.
Honestly, I wouldn't think that Scott or Brand would have provided a large obstacle for Payne to overcome - it's just that Payne hasn't. Scott really isn't that good while Brand is more of a patchwork guy (he sits in the closet until one of the guys higher in the pecking order need a break). I agree that it's too early to think that Payne is a complete bust, but to imply that the team is so good that a rookie couldn't break into this rotation is radically overstating things. Our team is more about everyone on the roster adding a positive on court contribution over having a particularly impressive short rotation. Removing one player for someone marginally better shouldn't be too tumultuous of a change that we hesitate to pull the trigger on that.