jayu70 wrote:EazyRoc wrote:Atlanta Hawk Fan wrote:
AD absolutely plays winning basketball. You put him on a teams with the talent that OKC has had and he'd have a ring today. He is not good enough to carry a team on his own and NO has been an absolute dumpster fire in building a team around him. They have had 2 D-League (or slightly better) level players in the starting lineup for most of his time there and he isn't so transcendent that he can overcome that. You'll see when he leaves NO and start winning big and consistently.
I get what you’re saying and the moment I posted I looked at his teams. Outside a having a few quality wings, most teams he’s been on have been..Eh. Pelicans GM staff is pretty damn bad.
It was hyperbole largely, but I’m planting a seed. Now every time I watch him, I’ll be looking closely to see how he’s impacting the game.
NOP was impatient building the team around AD. Instead of letting it grow organically with their own picks and value FA signing they went for quick fixes to go for a quick rebuild and chances to make playoffs in a tough West.
When they drafted Davis, they also whiffed badly and selected Austin Rivers at #10 overall over Draymond Green, Khris Middleton, Jae Crowder, Jeremy Lamb, etc. Rivers never did anything for the Pelicans and was given away for a bag of potatoes so his dad could overpay him in LA.
This apparently traumatized the front office or bolstered them with such confidence that they thought they were done building with rookie contract players (it is unclear what was in their head). In either case, they bizarrely gave away all their first round picks for injured players on expensive contracts the summer after drafting Davis meaning he was usually playing both with no new blood from the draft but also with injury fill-ins for their trade targets as well as free agent Eric Gordon who missed a ton of games while sucking up sweet, sweet cap space.
In short, their quick fixes frequently ended up as albatrosses instead of assets. Examples:
* Immediately after drafting Davis, New Orleans traded the #6 overall pick in 2013 and their 2014 first round pick for Jrue Holiday who promptly missed 88 games the next two seasons. They gambled on a resign of him for over $120M which is working out about as well as they could have hoped with him being reasonably productive and healthy.
* The same month, New Orleans traded away Robin Lopez on a rookie contract for Tyreke Evans on an expensive resign. Guess who missed 88 games in his second and third years of that contract and never made an impact? (It's Tyreke Evans for those playing at home).
* Now that New Orleans had traded away their young defensive center, what do you do to fill that role? Why trade your 2015 first round pick for Omer Asik and sign him to a nice $60M contract. Guess who was injured over the next couple seasons and peaked at 7.3 point per game? Who has two thumbs, a big bank account? (It's Omer Asik.)
Since Davis was drafted, the NOP have literally not had a first round pick on the roster for even one season. Buddy Hield has the longest tenure at 57 games (the guy now averaging 20 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for less than $4M/year).
It is mind boggling how little NOP has done to build a sustainable talent base behind Davis. The only lottery picks on that roster besides Davis are guys other teams didn't want to resign (Jahlil, Wesley Johnson, Randle, Elfrid Payton, etc.).
And they always have weak sisters of the poor playing big minutes on the wing:
2018-19 E'Twaun Moore (starter), Darius Miller (7 starts)
2017-18 E'Twaun Moore (80 starts), Dante Cunningham (22 starts), Darius Miller (3 starts), DeAndre Liggins (3 starts)
2016-17 Starts from rookie Buddy Hield (39% fg%), E'Twaun Moore, Dante Cunningham, Hollis Thompson, Wayne Seldon
2015-16 Dante Cunningham (46 starts), Alonzo Gee (36 starts), Toney Douglas (18 starts), Luke Babbit (13 starts), Bryce Dejean-Jones (11 starts), James Ennis (5 starts), Jordan Hamilton (4 starts)
etc.
Incompetency at its finest.
yes you did
