Rendei wrote:
The predraft rankings from two years ago mean about as much as my opinions on who the Bucks should draft.
They still matter...talk like that is why people wanted to get rid of Harrison Barnes his second year. It's not like Noel has nothing to show for it, he had good rookie season. You don't go from the best prospect of your draft class to not mattering at all with in that short of a time span.
I like Noel, but nobody outside of Philadelphia would take him over Gobert right now as an interior defender from the same draft class. And you go on to label him as the best talent in the class later in the post like it's a given just because he was projected to go #1 before his injury (news flash, Gobert was also hurt back then). My guess is most neutral fans would take Giannis over Noel as well, but I'm admittedly biased in that regard. He looks better than Anthony Bennett though, so there's that.
I don't get your point. I said that he was the best prospect at the time that he was taken, it makes no sense to give Philly **** for taking him. I didn't say that as of 2015, he is going to be the best player in his draft class. Noel was a blue chip piece, that does not mean that there are no other blue chips in his draft class. In other words, no one is going to say that LAC was dumb for taking Blake Griffin just because Stephen Curry ended up being better.
To expect him to be bad when he was the best talent in his draft class makes zero sense, and as of now he seems like he is going to be a good player. That is not the same thing as saying that players who were taken significantly later than him cannot end up better. Judging Philly because they took Noel and not Gobert or Giannis is using an absurd amount of hindsight.
Relying on draft picks can work out great. It can also work out terrible. The one thing I'm sure I don't like is going all in on development without much quality veteran leadership to assist it. The Sixers need some vets who've won some rings to show the young guys what it takes. Meanwhile the Wolves probably got the perfect guy in Garnett.
They have cap space, what makes you think they will not get veterans? Veterans are not hard to get.
I don't get the first two sentences, you can use that for any strategy. Free agency can work out terrible. Trades can work out terrible. A lot of things have went wrong for the Bucks and they didn't do what Philly did.
Kyrie seems like a good example. That kid was unbelievable his rookie year, and was so personally motivated that he couldn't possibly fail unless the injury bug doomed him. Yet he was in a bad situation, and actually seemed to get worse after that if anything. Then Lebron and friends came to town, and that all seems like ancient history now.
I'm not sure how this is relevant, and Kyrie Irving never got worse after his rookie year, neither did the Cavs. James pretty much came back to Cleveland because of the blue chips that Cleveland had acquired. If Cleveland did not have Wiggins then James probably would not come - and that's with Cleveland wasting a pick on Bennett.
The Cavs are not in the finals because they are veterans now, they're in the finals because they have Lebron James on the team. Though I am not trying to argue that veterans are not important, but I just don't see how citing the Cavs is really relevant to what we're discussing.