Don't blame mj for anymore bad draft picks

[therebirth]

Jordan is probably the only owner in the nba that is blamed for bad draft picks. The gm for the most part gets a free pass. Well it is obvious who is now responsible for picks, good or bad.
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The Bobcats contingent watching workouts Thursday included owner Michael Jordan. Silas was asked how hands-on Jordan is, in addressing draft decisions.

"Rod (Higgins, the general manager) and I will make the final decisions, I think, but he certainly has input," Silas said of Jordan. "If we come up with somebody he doesn’t necessarily care for, he lets us know. But the (final) decision will be ours."



Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/0 ... z1OAwYkAXW

[captaincrunk]

He picked Kwame as GM of the Wiz. Just saying.

[therebirth]

Did did word anymore escape you. I am not talking about his time with the wiz or even his first year with the cats. I am talking about as of now moving forward. He is the owner not gm. I think there should be a sticky thread called "MJ IS NOT THE GM".

[fatlever]

He picked Kwame as GM of the Wiz. Just saying.

75% of the gms in the league would have taken kwame #1 that year. you can't fault MJ for picking kwame. you can only fault MJ for not creating a better environment around kwame once he was drafted. kwame was immature and not ready for the league and mj was brutal and couldnt relate.

[fatlever]

just digging a little bit more on the 2001 draft. obviously this was before sites like draftexpress and nbadraft were around, but i still remember following this draft closely. going into that draft there were 5 players competing to be the top pick in the draft: kwame brown, eddy curry, tyson chandler, eddie griffin and shane battier. basically 3 high school kids being drafted purely on potential, griffin who only had one year at seton hall and of course battier who was mr all-america at duke.

teams loved battier but they knew he was limited and would probably never be a superstar. everyone loved griffin's potential and some considered him to be the #1 pick, but his off court troubles dropped him down. then you had chandler, curry and brown, the 3 raw high school kids which massive upside. of the 3 kwame seemed to be the most polished, mature and had the most upside with some comparing him to garnett in terms of potential. i seem to remember brown having some amazing workouts the few days leading up to the draft which solidified him as the top pick.

but really it was a weak draft at the top with no real clear cut #1 pick that year.

nobody was talking about gasol as the #1 pick. people were shocked when he went as high as he did. turns out he was by far the best pick in that draft.

i even remember hearing a few scouts suggest rodney white was the best player in the draft that year.

here is a mock draft by USA today a week prior to the draft
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/01draft/mock.htm

their top 10 was:
griffin, brown, battier, curry, chandler, white, richardson, johnson, woods, gasol

* i forgot about loren woods. think of deangelo jordan, a guy that everyone thought was a lottery pick all year then on draft day he mysteriously dropped like a rock.

a mock draft on usenet had the top 10 order as:
griffin, chandler, brown, curry, randolph, richardson, johnson, gasol, white, battier

sport illustrated (2 weeks prior to draft)
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basket ... ock_draft/
curry, griffin, battier, chandler, brown, white, richardson, johnson, woods, diop

http://www.hostultra.com/~lbrooks2/nba/2001mock.html
brown, curry, gasol, griffin, chandler, battier, white, richardson, johnson, murphy

Washington: Kwame Brown 6-11/250 (Glynn Academy High School, GA)
A week ago everyone was convinced that Griffin would be number one. It looks like Kwame is climbing up the ladder due to terrific workouts and an exception NBA body. He's also pegged to play either forward or center, and probably has more potential than Curry. I think that Griffin is the runner up.

[Kembastockton]

Thank you Fatleaver. I get so tired of hearing that same arguement over and over. Like Mike is the only Executive to pick a bust or something. I seem to remember that guys like Greg Oden, Micheal Olowokandi, and Pervis Ellison were former number one picks.