theonlyeastcoastrapsfan wrote:I've been really happy with Scottie's pre-season. There will be times that there's a miss, but I must say I really now admire that Masai has the courage and confidence to ignore consensus and put his neck out. I tend to feel like Raps really liked Kawhi in his draft year, and Masai would have had the courage to take him, at 5 despite what the ranks were saying. And it would have been overall the right call, at the end of the day. They also hit on guys no one really see's. Like take Siakam we had a 9th pick and a 27th. we had guys we brought in to look at for 9 still on the board when they took Pascal at 27. They know something there that people were missing, and I bet they knew Pascal all along that Pascal was the real prize - in that case, they recognized the disparity in how they valued Pascal vs the field and were able to navigate it. It's an approach that will get you a few Bruno's but it's better than just following mock and on-line consensus. Anyone could do that. We have a front office that can see value on their own and the courage to act on it. Most teams don't.
I think the Raps put more of an emphasis on character than other teams to do.
By this I mean identifying players with strong work ethic, ability to take criticism and improve from it, ability to get along with others, being humble (dont want egomanics), passion, internal confidence, etc. These things relate to emotional intelligence (EQ) and go a long way in determining whether or not somebody can maximize their natural talent.
If you fill an entire lockerroom exclusively with players of this type, it leads to an environment of growth, strong team chemistry and "winning".