Kyrie Irving Doesn't Have 'Definitive Answer' On Extension

[CHAMPi0N]

Translation: F U Cleveland! lol

Things just got too creepy when the Cavs fans kept trying to hug him during home games...

[CHAMPi0N]

TT>>>>JV. Sorry Raptors fans, but I preach.

lol to what church

Thompson is good but Valanciunas is a skilled 5. TT still has no offensive game and disappears for stretches throughout the season. Admittedly, at the draft, TT seemed like the better player, but after seeing both play, JV is better and has way more upside.

[Blast Tyrant]

What do you see as wrong with the Tristan Thompson pick? Just because he was taken 4th doesn't mean they had a better option.

Based on where most scouts were projecting the 2011 draft class, who would you suggest they should have taken in his stead? Maybe Valanciunas (picked 5th)?

#6 Jan Vesely?
#7 Bismack Biombo?
#8 Brandon Knight ?
#9 Kemba Walker in the same draft as Irving #1?
#10 Jimmer Fredette?

You have to go all the way to #11 to find a guy in Klay Thompson who MAYBE could've warranted the 5th pick based on league wide scouting

The good players in that draft were all surprises, not lottery locks:
#15 Kawhi Leonard
#22 Kenny Faried
#30 Jimmy Butler
#38 Chandler Parsons
#60 Isaiah Thomas

Valanciunas was the obvious pick. All the mocks had him going their prior to the draft. Thompson was WAY out of left field.

More Raptors homerism stating that Valancinas is the best thing since sliced bread.

If Tristan Thompson is "sliced bread" sure...

[puja21]

Valanciunas was the obvious pick. All the mocks had him going their prior to the draft. Thompson was WAY out of left field.

"WAY out of left field is" way exaggerated:

http://nbadraft.net/2011mock_draft

2011 was like this year, in that every mock draft was different. This site I just linked had Kanter over Valanciunas and Jan Vasely over Thompson in 2011. It's hard to even blast the Bennett pick without hindsight, if you (like most analysts) considered every 2013 lottery pick to be a project/gamble or incomplete in some way. Recall, tons of mocks had Otto Porter going #1.... is that any better than Bennett?

Plus, European players are obviously more unproven and generally have a longer development timeline. Remember in Darko's predraft interview he argued he had proven himself by playing against "men!" and then followed it up by answering "Pat Burke of the Orlando Magic" when asked who was the toughest player you ever faced... Bosh was playing better competition than that in the ACC alone battling Sean May, Josh Howard, Shav Randolph, Shelden Williams, etc... In addition to Vasely being a disaster that year, consider the high water mark: even Dirk was terrible his first year. Throw in the very recent high-profile disasters of foreign lottery picks:
2002 #5 Tskitishvili
2003 #2 Darko over Bosh/Wade/Melo
2004 #8 Rafael Araujo over Iggy
2005 #1 Bogut injuries over DWill and CP3
2006 #1 Bargnani over LMA
2007 #6 Yi Jianlian

If Valanciunas had ANY injury history -- not that I remember anything -- you could also see Cleveland worrying about that, given the historic problems with centers (Walton, Bowie, Daugherty, Yao, Bogut, Oden).

And while he had a great 2014, it's not like Valanciunas is even markedly better than Thompson. He has a slightly better defensive rating, but of course missed an entire year in Europe to develop, whereas Thompson was racking up higher win shares.

I just don't see that pick as bad at the time or even in hindsight.

[jlokine]

"making strides in the right direction"?

really? anthony bennett is a right direction? tristan thompson at 4 is the right direction? they better draft properly at the draft or else he's a goner..

What do you see as wrong with the Tristan Thompson pick? Just because he was taken 4th doesn't mean they had a better option.

Based on where most scouts were projecting the 2011 draft class, who would you suggest they should have taken in his stead? Maybe Valanciunas (picked 5th)?

#6 Jan Vesely?
#7 Bismack Biombo?
#8 Brandon Knight ?
#9 Kemba Walker in the same draft as Irving #1?
#10 Jimmer Fredette?

You have to go all the way to #11 to find a guy in Klay Thompson who MAYBE could've warranted the 5th pick based on league wide scouting

The good players in that draft were all surprises, not lottery locks:
#15 Kawhi Leonard
#22 Kenny Faried
#30 Jimmy Butler
#38 Chandler Parsons
#60 Isaiah Thomas

then trade down to get thompson, he wasnt slotted to be drafted in the top 5 anyway.. and yes, JV is still a better player based on their need.. they just didnt want to wait for him to come over from europe

[puja21]

then trade down to get thompson, he wasnt slotted to be drafted in the top 5 anyway.. and yes, JV is still a better player based on their need.. they just didnt want to wait for him to come over from europe

because trading down is always an option and doesn't require a willing team to make a fair offer