LloydFree wrote:I agree role players are important, but teams in the lottery aren't at the stage of completing their teams with role players. They need good starters. Most important, is that role players need to play on teams with good starters so they can be effective, because they can't be effective on their own. You don't waste your lottery picks on guys you project as non-starters or 3 pt specialists. You can get a role player to give you what McDermott is going to give you, every year for a portion of your MLE. I see guys here panting with excitement, hoping their team throws away their lottery pick on a player they can pick up every year for almost nothing.
McDermott doesn't even have a position in the NBA. Its shocking that so many don't see that.
I agree that for most lottery teams it is better to role the dice on a potential starter (meaning, a top 3 offensive option in this case, since many roleplayers start) than pick McDermott at this time. My point was more that a McDermott's floor is a contributing, effective player with a definite place on a good team than to say that is his only possible future.
I also disagree that it is easy to get a quality roleplayer; there aren't a ton of them and most of them are already clustered on the good teams. They may have a relatively small impact on a team's cap space, but that doesn't mean they are freely available for any team to take. There are plenty of low quality roleplayers in the league, just like there are plenty of chuckers, but the great ones are rare and usually don't go to teams that are contenders.
And of course, I think there is a chance McDermott can be a 1st or 2nd option scorer instead of a just being a shooter. His off-ball scoring is exceptional at this point, but he does have a decent post game and can use a variety of moves to create space on the perimeter. Position doesn't matter too much on offense, but on defense it would probably come down to whether or the team's SF or PF is less of an offensive threat.
