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Dion Waiters

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The guy has the tools to do a really good player. I thought after his first couple games, ok maybe his 2nd and 3rd game with OKC, that he was starting to get it and the change in scenery was going to do him some good like the trade has seemed to have done for JR. Instead, hes just reverted back to the mean.

He shows flashes. He can be a good defender, has a decent handle, and can drive. Instead, the ball seems to stop when he gets it, he makes dumb decisions, and he loves the least efficient shot in basketball though he might have 3 point range in there somewhere.

There was no way Minny was going to take him and AB for Love. I thought they might do Dion and TT, but I'm glad we kept TT. I think the higher ups were thinking that maybe Dion would progress and be able to contribute as he had a couple years in the L. We've seen improvement in both Kyrie and Tristan this year but Dion just didnt fit in.
 
Dion is like the kid at the dinner table who ate his dessert first (the fun, playground type ball) and refuses to finish his veggies (playing the right way).
 
Chris Grant was actually right about the 2012 draft. It was hyped as being very strong, but he reportedly didn't like it much, outside Anthony Davis of course. In retrospect, that draft was weak, and the clear pick at #4 was Andre Drummond, who will go down as the second best player in that draft.

Grant thoroughly researched Dion making all those trips up to Syracuse to watch their practices. He staked his career on that pick (as well as the Bennett pick). And still he missed on it.

Unfortunately, for all those years of rebuilding under his watch, he didn't manage to find many decent players. Kyrie, Tristan, Zeller, and that's pretty much it. Not much to show for all those picks and all the opportunities to identify cheap free agents and undrafted players.
 
Qaws wishes Dion could display the offensive touch Kyrie displayed tonight.
 
There's a worthwhile Dion joke that involves qaws, brushing teeth, and a baby carrot somewhere in there.
 
Chris Grant was actually right about the 2012 draft. It was hyped as being very strong, but he reportedly didn't like it much, outside Anthony Davis of course. In retrospect, that draft was weak, and the clear pick at #4 was Andre Drummond, who will go down as the second best player in that draft.

Grant thoroughly researched Dion making all those trips up to Syracuse to watch their practices. He staked his career on that pick (as well as the Bennett pick). And still he missed on it.

Unfortunately, for all those years of rebuilding under his watch, he didn't manage to find many decent players. Kyrie, Tristan, Zeller, and that's pretty much it. Not much to show for all those picks and all the opportunities to identify cheap free agents and undrafted players.

Don't forget rehiring Mike Brown. NEVER forget rehiring Mike Brown.
 
Depends on the qualifications you have for terrible. It's funny how he gets no credit for taking Kyrie when he had such a small sample size to go off of and he was hurt during the pre-draft process. Especially considering how many people wanted Williams and Knight/Walker or said that package would be better. Much bigger gamble back then when compared to looking back at it now, and he deserves some credit for it. Now, I love using win shares to provide a players value currently (and if you look at previous drafts sorted by win shares, it looks pretty accurate based on what I also see on the floor), so bear with me.

So far, in retrospect, in the 2011 draft we have the 5th and 9th best players by total win shares. Tristan, the 4th pick, is ahead of the 2nd and 3rd pick in both win shares and WS/48. We also have the only All-Star so far with this class (though it will change this season with Butler and Klay Thompson).

Obviously, this being a Dion thread and all, his #4 pick is currently not justified as he is 23rd in total win shares and 38th in WS/48, but young ~15 ppg scorers at the guard spot are still valuable. Also, where is the love for the Zeller pick? Drafted 17th, 9th in total win shares, 14th in WS/48 (there are 3 players ahead of him who have played less than 100 games), ahead of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th players taken. No credit there for a good pick?

Now, no one can defend last years draft. Bennett has been a shit show so far in the league, there is no denying that. But it has been noted many times that Grant wanted to trade down because he was in a no win spot at the #1 and was denied by ownership. And now that Sergey is getting some playing time, he is looking pretty valuable for a 21 year old.

Everyone here loves to look back on the guys he should have taken, shit, its all some posters do in here. How about we bring up the guys he didn't take that were mentioned here that would have been even worse than what we actually got? Derrick Williams, Thomas Robinson, Austin Rivers, etc. We could have been worse off, believe it or not.

No just no. Kyrie was the no brainer pick. Yeah there were talks about a Williams/Knight possibility but that was all a bunch of hot air from the media and fans. Kyrie was always the clear number one. Don't try to re-invent history and argue that deciding on a Kyrie or Williams/Knight was a difficult decision. Intriguing? Yes. Happening? In your wildest dreams.

TT was a WTF pick. Everyone and their mama thought the 4th pick was gonna be Jonas. TT wasn't projected that high. He was picked for his defensive prowess. Grant was lucky that TT became an elite offensive rebounder since he's nothing special on defense. As for Dion, what can you say. The obvious pick here was Drummond. Dion wasn't even on the radar. I don't care what the other GM's were saying about Dion. They obviously fucked up in their evaluation too but since we had the higher draft pick, Grant fucked it up even more. I don't even know what to say about Bennett. A clear fuck up. So aside from Kyrie, he had a chance to go with the conventional but decided that he was "smarter" than everyone in the room and tried to be hip. It blew up in his face like a bitch. Seriously, stop sticking up for the guy. If his picks and moves were great or even average, some other franchise would offer him a job. Apparently not. I would love for him to get re-hired by another team and tune in during draft night to get a good laugh.
 
Chris Grant was actually right about the 2012 draft. It was hyped as being very strong, but he reportedly didn't like it much, outside Anthony Davis of course. In retrospect, that draft was weak, and the clear pick at #4 was Andre Drummond, who will go down as the second best player in that draft.

Based on where we're currently at, I think Lillard will go down as the second best player in the 2012 draft. He's light years ahead of Drummond right now.

Of course, we didn't need another point guard at the time.
 
Based on where we're currently at, I think Lillard will go down as the second best player in the 2012 draft. He's light years ahead of Drummond right now.

Of course, we didn't need another point guard at the time.
Lillard is also more than 3 years older than Drummond, and bigs traditionally develop slowly.

Drummond's defense has already taken a big leap forward this year, and he is already arguably the best rebounder in the league.

3 years from now Drummond is likely to be a beast to be reckoned with.

He is never going to average 20 points a game, but could easily settle into a role as a rich man's Ben Wallace type on a contending team.

In that period between cutting Smith and Jennings getting hurt you could already see what Van Gundy envisions with Drummond being his Dwight Howard surrounded by shooters like he had in Orlando.
 
Lillard is also more than 3 years older than Drummond, and bigs traditionally develop slowly.

Drummond's defense has already taken a big leap forward this year, and he is already arguably the best rebounder in the league.

3 years from now Drummond is likely to be a beast to be reckoned with.

He is never going to average 20 points a game, but could easily settle into a role as a rich man's Ben Wallace type on a contending team.

In that period between cutting Smith and Jennings getting hurt you could already see what Van Gundy envisions with Drummond being his Dwight Howard surrounded by shooters like he had in Orlando.

I honestly feel like you should be a Pistons fan.
 
Lillard is also more than 3 years older than Drummond, and bigs traditionally develop slowly.

Drummond's defense has already taken a big leap forward this year, and he is already arguably the best rebounder in the league.

3 years from now Drummond is likely to be a beast to be reckoned with.

He is never going to average 20 points a game, but could easily settle into a role as a rich man's Ben Wallace type on a contending team.

In that period between cutting Smith and Jennings getting hurt you could already see what Van Gundy envisions with Drummond being his Dwight Howard surrounded by shooters like he had in Orlando.

Regardless of how old Lillard is, to this point in their respective three year careers Lillard has been a significantly better player on significantly better teams. Drummond might not even be the best player on a team that could miss the playoffs in the East. Lillard is arguably the best player on the third best team in the West.

Aside from that, guards typically have longer careers than bigs, so Lillard's age isn't a major factor.
 

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