(2012 Draft) pre-knowledge: who to draft if Beal is #2?

[Knighthonor]

In 2012 draft, if Beal went Number 2, who would you draft, based on only what we knew about the players back then?

Beal seem like a kind of steal, since the Cats fell for the MKG hype back then.

That's why I asked this What If question.

[Benjammin]

Off the top of my head Drummond. You can make a strong argument today Andre has more trade value than Beal. I hope Bradley can build on his playoffs.

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[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Barnes....

[hands11]

Well we do have threads where this stuff was discussed.

To set the stage. This was the team in 2011/12 the previous year.

May 30th, 2012 was when we found out we draft 3rd

June 20th Wizards agreed to trade Lewis for Okafor and Trevor A
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/80774 ... lewis-pick

Draft held June 28th, 2012
Play the lottery machine here
http://espn.go.com/nba/lottery2012/mockdraft

Wizards Team from 2011/2012
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/nam ... on-wizards

† Midseason Trades: Nick Young (62 games LAC); Nene Hilario (39 games DEN); JaVale McGee (61 games DEN); Ronny Turiaf (17 games MIA); Brian Cook (32 games LAC)

Here is what they looked like down the stretch.
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=320421014

The team won just 20 games that year. Lots of turn over. Walls 2nd year.
Strike shorted year. No camp.
Flip was still the coach.

Nene was added late and returned for last 5 games and looked like a beast.
The team had finally gotten ride of NY and McGee and they started to fill in vets like Mo Evan, J Singleton, Mason, Cook and the professionalism of the team seemed to be turning.

The roster ended up being like this and they started Kev, Ves and Singleton down the stretch.

Wall/Mack
Crawford/Mason/Evans/Almonds
Chris Singleton/James Singleton/C Martin
Ves/Booker/R Lewis/Dray ?
Kevin S/Nene/Hamady

Dray played 26 games and played his last game on Fri 3/16 after being injured, out of shape and endlessly booed
Booker was injured again 50 games PLANTAR FASCITIS
Lewis played 28 games and had a huge contract 21,136,631, was injured and played last on Wed 2/22

This was Vesely's Rookie Year and he played well down the stretch as a starter. Started 20 games of 66
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... jan-vesely

So given all that, I was locked in on Beal as the next piece. Loved his Ray Allen/Wade mix projection and his maturity to be a core piece with Wall.

After that, I was looking at other core personality production players I felt could help be part of the leadership core with Wall. I think I was most likely looking at Thomas Robinson. Lewis was on his way out. Booker was always injured. I was probably looking at a young front court of Ves/Robinson/Kevin S with Nene as the vet anchor to teach them. The team had only Wall and Nene as core leaders and needed another and Robinson seemed like that kind of a person. Hard worker. Tough storyline with his sister he was adopting. Leader of this college team. Tough rebounder.

But I really really really wanted Beal. I didn't want MKG at all if it was between him and Beal, so I was doing back flips when the Bobcats passed on Beal. And I didn't want Barnes as he seemed like to soft minded a personality. We had C Singleton and I hoped James Singleton would return. That was fine another year at SF over other needs. James would lead the way there.

I also figured they wouldn't amnesty Lewis so they would bring in vets but I wasn't sure on Dray. I thought they might bring him back one more year and raise his value then try to trade him.

Well they made a move on June 20th, 2012 so we looked like this going into the draft

Wall/Mack
Crawford/Mason/Evans/Almonds
Trevor A/Chris Singleton
Nene/Ves/Booker
Okafor/Kevin S/Hamady

James Singleton/C Martin ? Dray ?

July 17th, 2012 they Amnesty Dray
August 29, 2012 Webby signed 1 year 1.6M

[nate33]

Obviously, in hindsight we would take Drummond.

Based on what we knew at the time, the board consensus was pretty much between Barnes and MKG. I did NOT want MKG because I didn't think he could coexist with Wall. I would have taken Barnes.

[stevemcqueen1]

Drummond. He'd be a better fit for us than Lillard.

[stevemcqueen1]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

[nate33]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

No way. If that class was redrafted it would be:

1. Davis
2. Drummond
3. Lillard
4. Beal

I suppose there's an argument to take Beal ahead of Lillard based on age. But either way, Drummond goes 2nd. He's still a project as far as his basketball IQ goes, but the man is a freak athlete who gets a ton of boards, blocks a ton of shots and doesn't get hurt. And he just turned 20!

[montestewart]

Obviously, in hindsight we would take Drummond.

Based on what we knew at the time, the board consensus was pretty much between Barnes and MKG. I did NOT want MKG because I didn't think he could coexist with Wall. I would have taken Barnes.

One of the complaints at the time of that draft was that the pre-draft lineup was:
Okafor/Seraphin
Nene/Vesely
Ariza/Singleton
?/
Wall/
a roster that strongly suggested (dictated?) that the team's primary need was a SG/shooter. Without regard to whether MKG, Robinson, Barnes, Lillard, etc were good or bad prospects (I greatly underestimated Drummond), there was only one obvious player that I saw who strongly addressed an immediate need. Despite my reservations about Drummond, he had some champions on this board, and I probably would have veered in that direction, looking for a long shot home run. Otherwise, probably MKG, with the hope that a future SG and stretch 4 would help him mesh with Wall (I remember those complaints as well).

[stevemcqueen1]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

No way. If that class was redrafted it would be:

1. Davis
2. Drummond
3. Lillard
4. Beal

I suppose there's an argument to take Beal ahead of Lillard based on age. But either way, Drummond goes 2nd. He's still a project as far as his basketball IQ goes, but the man is a freak athlete who gets a ton of boards, blocks a ton of shots and doesn't get hurt. And he just turned 20!

I think Lillard definitely goes second. Lillard's an All NBA player in his second year. He's a stud and the second star for a strong WC team.

Drummond is a freak athlete but he's still a hustle player right now and he's really far from making an All NBA team or being a key guy on a playoff team.

I'm not sure Drummond goes ahead of Beal either. Beal looks like the future best SG in the game and a future star.

Drummond's size and athleticism is a huge factor on the glass and in the paint. But is it clear he's going to have the offensive ability to become a star like Lillard or Beal? I don't know yet.

[hands11]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

I still have hopes for T Rob working out in the league though.

He has gotten a really rough introduction.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/i ... s-robinson

I think this next year he might start to pick it up. I like him as the back up to LA in POR.

I like the Portland roster. Kaman to back up Lopez was a good move.

[hands11]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

No way. If that class was redrafted it would be:

1. Davis
2. Drummond
3. Lillard
4. Beal

I suppose there's an argument to take Beal ahead of Lillard based on age. But either way, Drummond goes 2nd. He's still a project as far as his basketball IQ goes, but the man is a freak athlete who gets a ton of boards, blocks a ton of shots and doesn't get hurt. And he just turned 20!

No way. We would not have taken Lillard over Beal with Wall as our PG

Its the CATs that blow the draft. Drummond or Lillard would have been way better for them. We did just fine and if we were to draft over, we would take Beal again.

[nate33]

No way. If that class was redrafted it would be:

1. Davis
2. Drummond
3. Lillard
4. Beal

I suppose there's an argument to take Beal ahead of Lillard based on age. But either way, Drummond goes 2nd. He's still a project as far as his basketball IQ goes, but the man is a freak athlete who gets a ton of boards, blocks a ton of shots and doesn't get hurt. And he just turned 20!

I think Lillard definitely goes second. Lillard's an All NBA player in his second year. He's a stud and the second star for a strong WC team.

Drummond is a freak athlete but he's still a hustle player right now and he's really far from making an All NBA team or being a key guy on a playoff team.

I'm not sure Drummond goes ahead of Beal either. Beal looks like the future best SG in the game and a future star.

Drummond's size and athleticism is a huge factor on the glass and in the paint. But is it clear he's going to have the offensive ability to become a star like Lillard or Beal? I don't know yet.

I agree that there are doubts about Drummond's ultimate upside on offense. I don't think it matters though. He projects to be a dominant defender and rebounder who has good enough hands to be the roll-man on the pick and roll or the weakside rebounder (so he has a role on offense and the defense must account for him). He had an ORtg of 121 in his second season and averaged 15 points per 36 minutes. Also, since he can handle all the rebounding for you, you can put a glorified SF at the PF position and spread your offense that way.

Bigs like that are too hard to find. When you have the chance to get one, you do it and never look back. You can find shooters and point guards via free agency or a later draft pick. This isn't a Sam Bowie over Jordan situation, or an Oden over Durant. Lillard just isn't in that echelon. He's good but replaceable.

[nate33]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I'd have taken TRob. That would have sucked.

A redraft of that class would probably go:

1.) Davis
2.) Lillard
3.) Beal/Drummond

No way. If that class was redrafted it would be:

1. Davis
2. Drummond
3. Lillard
4. Beal

I suppose there's an argument to take Beal ahead of Lillard based on age. But either way, Drummond goes 2nd. He's still a project as far as his basketball IQ goes, but the man is a freak athlete who gets a ton of boards, blocks a ton of shots and doesn't get hurt. And he just turned 20!

No way. We would not have taken Lillard over Beal with Wall as our PG

Its the CATs that blow the draft. Drummond or Lillard would have been way better for them. We did just fine and if we were to draft over, we would take Beal again.

Good point. I was ranking the players in a generic order, without specific team needs in mind. A team with no players on their roster would take Lillard over Beal at #3. But you are right that if the draft was redone with those specific teams having their existing lineups, the Wizards would probably still take Beal even with 20/20 hindsight because of the way their team is constructed.

[Rafael122]

It would probably be Drummond, but he would absolutely kill us down the stretch in games b/c of his free throw shooting, to the point where he probably won't even be on the court.

[hands11]

LOL.

I found this interesting little exchange just days before the draft...

jangles86 wrote:If the 6&11 picks for our three is true. I hope Portland are after MKG. That could mean Beal could drop past Cavs (Barnes) Kings (Drummond) and to pick 6.

Pick 11 we could roll the dice with Perry Jones, John Henson, Or even look at Jared Sullinger or Myers Leonard.

A Beal, Perry Jones draft would look great on paper.

Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:32 pm by hands11

I wouldn't walk away upset. As a second pick, Perry is a decent swing for the fence move.

But there are several good options if we found ourselves with the 11th pick. Kendal Marshall would be sweet as a back up to Wall. Maybe they could land Dion.

This is going to be a very interesting draft.

---

So in this scenario, we got Beal at #6 and we can get PJ as a swing for the fence pick. But it looks like I like Kendall backing up Wall or Dion backing up Beal.

And to think we then had Kendall and still didn't want him backing up Wall. To bad that happened in all crunch time as the season was getting started and the roster was full. I wonder if we would have looked at him longer.

[stevemcqueen1]

Beal's floor was Cleveland at 4.

[TheKingOfVa360]

I would have taken Drummond only because MKG couldn't shoot

[AFM]

*still can't

[DCZards]

Got to go with Drummond for the reasons that Nate points out. His combo of size, strength and athleticism are hard to come by---and even harder to pass up if you have a chance to draft him. I said before the 2012 draft that Drummond might turn out to be the best player in it. I was wrong...the best player from that draft is A. Davis. But Drummond is going to be damn good.

I really like Lillard's game. He's a lot better than I thought he would be...but then again I knew very little about him as a college player. But I love Bradley B. and look forward to watching him continue to improve and to watching him and Wall make sweet music together.