Around the League Discussion - 2018-2019 (Playoffs)

Negrodamus · Post #61 » by **Negrodamus** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:35 pm

Right, but the purpose isn't to fill your team with good players. He needed to take a chance to possibly win it all. He got an MVP level type player that could help make that jump. It's still a possibility.

OG Anunoby, Delon Wright, VanVleet, Siakam, and Poeltl is pretty ridiculous haul in the time Ujiri has been there. Only one was a top 10 pick... hell only one was a top 20 pick. On top of that, he leveraged a trade for one of the best players in the league for Derozan, Poeltl and a late first. I'm not saying he's without fault, but he has done a great job.

Kobblehead · Post #62 » by **Kobblehead** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:50 pm

Negrodamus wrote:OG Anunoby, Delon Wright, VanVleet, Siakam, and Poeltl is pretty ridiculous haul in the time Ujiri has been there. Only one was a top 10 pick...

VanVleet was an excellent find and Siakam was a great draft hit. Those other guys are the definitions of JAGs though. There's little to no actual production from any of those guys.

And Poeltl was an outright miss as a 9th pick. He's a 10-15th roster spot guy. Charlotte has a handful of dudes like him that they drafted in the Top 10 and they're considered misses so why are we pretending that Jakob was a hit?

Negrodamus · Post #63 » by **Negrodamus** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:59 pm

Kobblehead wrote:
Negrodamus wrote:OG Anunoby, Delon Wright, VanVleet, Siakam, and Poeltl is pretty ridiculous haul in the time Ujiri has been there. Only one was a top 10 pick...

VanVleet was an excellent find and Siakam was a great draft hit. Those other guys are the definitions of JAGs though. There's little to no actual production from any of those guys.

And Poeltl was an outright miss as a 9th pick. He's a 10-15th roster spot guy. Charlotte has a handful of dudes like him that they drafted in the Top 10 and they're considered misses so why are we pretending that Jakob was a hit?

Wright finished out his year 12, 5, and 5 on the Griz now that he's getting actual opportunities.

Poeltl is 3 years in on his second team coming off the bench.

I think it's unfair to label these guys "JAGs".

Kobblehead · Post #64 » by **Kobblehead** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:04 pm

None of them have a track record of being productive rotation players, so if it's too early or unfair to call them JAGs, why can we consider them part of a ridiculous haul? As of now, that drafted group is completely unexceptional other than Siakam.

LloydFree · Post #65 » by **LloydFree** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:52 pm

Negrodamus wrote:Right, but the purpose isn't to fill your team with good players. He needed to take a chance to possibly win it all. He got an MVP level type player that could help make that jump. It's still a possibility.

OG Anunoby, Delon Wright, VanVleet, Siakam, and Poeltl is pretty ridiculous haul in the time Ujiri has been there. Only one was a top 10 pick... hell only one was a top 20 pick. On top of that, he leveraged a trade for one of the best players in the league for Derozan, Poeltl and a late first. I'm not saying he's without fault, but he has done a great job.

Ujiri has been outstanding in the draft in his time with Toronto and was just as good in Denver. Only Lindsay, Buford and Presti are in his class. I exclude Jerry West because he has been on a different level from the rest of the league for 40 years.

Kobblehead · Post #66 » by **Kobblehead** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:45 pm

Zero fingerprints on this current Denver team. Tim Connelly had to build from scratch with no building blocks leftover from the Ujiri era.

Then he goes to Toronto and has success with the building blocks and coaching staff that Colangelo built.

Ujiri could get fired tomorrow and by the time July 2nd rolls around, the only piece in place would be Pascal Siakam. The rest of the roster will be filled by the JAGs he drafted and a bunch of 30 year has-beens on expiring contracts.

I'd hope Toronto would be lucky enough to find the next Tim Connelly to build something in the barebones wake of Ujiri. Overrated GM.

VDT · Post #67 » by **VDT** » Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:52 pm

You are looking at it the wrong way. Toronto has had the most success in their short history and this year they have a very good chance to reach the finals. That is better than most teams can show in the last couple decades. Even if Kwahi leaves next year Masai's tenure is still (well) above average.

Kobblehead · Post #68 » by **Kobblehead** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:03 am

VDT wrote:You are looking at it the wrong way. Toronto has had the most success in their short history and this year they have a very good chance to reach the finals. That is better than most teams can show in the last couple decades. Even if Kwahi leaves next year Masai's tenure is still (well) above average.

His manoeuvring of existing pieces to shape them into something workable is really good. But hasn't built anything in either or his stops. And this Kawhi thing is a house of cards that will end with him being left with nothing.

VDT · Post #69 » by **VDT** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:09 am

Kobblehead wrote:
VDT wrote:You are looking at it the wrong way. Toronto has had the most success in their short history and this year they have a very good chance to reach the finals. That is better than most teams can show in the last couple decades. Even if Kwahi leaves next year Masai's tenure is still (well) above average.

His manoeuvring of existing pieces to shape them into something workable is really good. But hasn't build anything in either or his stops. And this Kawhi thing is a house of cards that will end with him being left with nothing.

Well he has built a team that could win the title this year. Last year the team was the first seed and the previous years the team had also high seeds. In a league of 30 teams that is well above average.

Kobblehead · Post #70 » by **Kobblehead** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:16 am

He fired his shot. We'll see if it hits a target. If they don't win a championship and Kawhi bolts, he will have put them in a compromising position.

USWAY · Post #71 » by **USWAY** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:58 am

Staples center is electric. It's nice seeing Bogut back with GS. Reminds you of the pre Durant days before everyone disliked them lol

the_process · Post #72 » by **the_process** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:07 am

Kobblehead wrote:He fired his shot. We'll see if it hits a target. If they don't win a championship and Kawhi bolts, he will have put them in a compromising position.

To be fair, I don't think Masai sees this as a compromising position. Rather this is a win-win for him.

Masai knew the Raps were never winning anything with DeRozan. He takes his shot at a ring, and if he comes up short, he gets free reign and extra time to rebuild because "it's not his fault Kawhi left".

PLO · Post #73 » by **PLO** » Sat Apr 20, 2019 1:18 pm

Read on Twitter

Post #74 » by **Sixerscan** » Sat Apr 20, 2019 1:31 pm

Magic are pretty clearly the 5th best team in the east at this point. Playing very well against a strong Raptors team. I don't really agree with them trying so hard to make the playoffs, but at the very least they succeeded in the short term of getting the most out of their team.

Kobblehead · Post #75 » by **Kobblehead** » Sat Apr 20, 2019 11:39 pm

Sixerscan wrote:Magic are pretty clearly the 5th best team in the east at this point. Playing very well against a strong Raptors team. I don't really agree with them trying so hard to make the playoffs, but at the very least they succeeded in the short term of getting the most out of their team.

Just wait until Markelle takes them over the top next year.

76ciology · Post #76 » by **76ciology** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:32 am

LloydFree wrote:Yeah, Siakam isn't luck. That's a GM that understands talent and potential. Mediocre GM's select Luwawu Cabarot and Furkan Korkmaz and leave Siakam's on the board for the Ujiri's, Lindsey's and Presti's.

People were actually giving us high praise with drafting of Furkan and TLC.

Siakam is luck. Same thing when nobody drafted Giannis when MCW and Noel were available.

76ciology · Post #77 » by **76ciology** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:35 am

99% of Ujiri’s career is building a mediocre team such as what Ed Stefanski did.

...then he got lucky with Kawhi.

What he did was mostly finding role players to surround the core guys that his predecessor added.

LloydFree · Post #78 » by **LloydFree** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 1:13 pm

76ciology wrote:
LloydFree wrote:Yeah, Siakam isn't luck. That's a GM that understands talent and potential. Mediocre GM's select Luwawu Cabarot and Furkan Korkmaz and leave Siakam's on the board for the Ujiri's, Lindsey's and Presti's.

People were actually giving us high praise with drafting of Furkan and TLC.

Siakam is luck. Same thing when nobody drafted Giannis when MCW and Noel were available.

People (freelance hacks) gave us high praise because they read the same free content draft site that fans read, in order to do their analysis. They read that Luwawu Cabarot and Korkmaz were better than Siakam and Brogdon, just like you and me. They got praise from guys that are pretending to know something, in order to get clicks. Ujiri isn't interested in selecting players based on fan polls.

mademan · Post #79 » by **mademan** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 2:19 pm

On 2 seperate teams in the past decade, Masai has built 2 perennial 50 win teams, one of them being a legit contender and the other going the distance with the eventual champs in LA. How he can be seen as anything less than a top tier GM is ridiculous to me

Though i agree, a lot of GM'ing is luck/right place-right time

LloydFree · Post #80 » by **LloydFree** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 6:35 pm

mademan wrote:On 2 seperate teams in the past decade, Masai has built 2 perennial 50 win teams, one of them being a legit contender and the other going the distance with the eventual champs in LA. How he can be seen as anything less than a top tier GM is ridiculous to me

Though i agree, a lot of GM'ing is luck/right place-right time

This nonsense is mostly coming from a few Colangelo apologists who praised him for selecting a bunch of bums they were high on pre-draft.