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2018-2019 Tank Thread

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
I know it's easy to give passes if the consensus said player X was THE pick of picks, but GM/team presidents are paid a ton of money to see Giannis over Bennett, Kawai or Klay over TT, Barnes (?) over Waiters.

Grant was of particular annoyance, as he drafted like he was the smartest guy in the room (meaning he was willing to go against consensus), but clearly wasn't.

It's also ironic, funny, sad(?) that the Cavs could have killed Golden State in the womb if they had drafted smarter (Klay, Barnes, Green all on the board for the Cavs)

Anyway.. moving on!

I think it's even worse that we were willing to pair Dion Waiters with Kyrie in the 2012 draft, but not Lillard... That.... That's just embarrassing..

He's 1 inch smaller but literally better in every other aspect..... we should totally take Waiters instead!
 
He is also Dikembe Mutombo's Nephew. Shotblocking big with 3 point range and NBA Bloodlines seems like a good risk at 26.

Just wanted to add that he was born in Canada, so he's actually his stated age.
 
Bennett wasn't Grant's pick, Bennett was Griffin's pick with coach Brown's approval. Still can't believe people haven't realize that. Grant wanted to trade back and Gilbert said no. That was the end of Grant in Cleveland............right when he was right.
 
It's also ironic, funny, sad(?) that the Cavs could have killed Golden State in the womb if they had drafted smarter (Klay, Barnes, Green all on the board for the Cavs)

Anyway.. moving on!

Literally almost no GM gets every one of those type of picks right, setting aside the butterfly effect of how drafting Klay/Kawhi/etc instead of the lesser Thompson would've affected our 2012 draft position to select someone like Barnes. But yes, a baseline competence for a GM is not to screw up one or two of those types of picks.

I joke that if we want to play what-ifs, what we really should've done is not made Del Curry a claimable player in the expansion draft in '88. Then Steph grows up wanting to play with LeBron...and doesn't meet Ayesha whom IMHO gave him his dickwad side.

But we should be moving on, indeed..
 
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Bennett wasn't Grant's pick, Bennett was Griffin's pick with coach Brown's approval. Still can't believe people haven't realize that. Grant wanted to trade back and Gilbert said no. That was the end of Grant in Cleveland............right when he was right.
When Dan said not to trade back, Grant is still the guy who had the final say as to which player to draft . He didn't like Bennett, but he decided to go with Griffin and the others who did anyway.
 
Bennett wasn't Grant's pick, Bennett was Griffin's pick with coach Brown's approval. Still can't believe people haven't realize that. Grant wanted to trade back and Gilbert said no. That was the end of Grant in Cleveland............right when he was right.

I never heard that Gilbert said that Grant couldn't trade back. I've always heard that Grant was still making calls to trade back up till the moment they had to have the pick in. No one was willing to trade up.
 
I think it's even worse that we were willing to pair Dion Waiters with Kyrie in the 2012 draft, but not Lillard... That.... That's just embarrassing..

He's 1 inch smaller but literally better in every other aspect..... we should totally take Waiters instead!

I agree that is also a bad look. Outside of trading for Baron Davis which resulted in us getting Kyrie. I'm not sure anyone could make a convincing argument that Grant made the proper pick or trade after that.
 
I agree that is also a bad look. Outside of trading for Baron Davis which resulted in us getting Kyrie. I'm not sure anyone could make a convincing argument that Grant made the proper pick or trade after that.
Considering Gilbert has final say, I can't blame Grant for getting tangled up in Dan 's web. Hopefully Gilbert has cut down on the voices and streamlined things.
 
Considering Gilbert has final say, I can't blame Grant for getting tangled up in Dan 's web. Hopefully Gilbert has cut down on the voices and streamlined things.

One thing I remember after the Bennett pick was Gilbert did tell the front office that they had to get a guy with the most star potential with the number 1 pick. The problem was no one in the draft was seen as having much star potential.

That's where I think that's how they landed on Bennett. Oladipo was probably the best player in most people's eyes but he wasn't seen to have star potential. No one really knew anything about Giannis.

I agree hopefully Gilbert has learned from the past and to not put conditions on who we draft. Just get the best player available and let the rest fall into place over time.
 
Was it star potential, or duplicating positions/skills with Waiters already signed (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

Oladipo was a junior. His progression of an upperclassman turning into a star is pretty wild and almost unprecedented. Kawhi and Jimmy butler are similar though. All defensive players that added to their offensive games in a big way.

Oladipo was seen in that draft as a really high level roleplayer, sort of like Mikal Bridges in this draft. A guy that will be able to hit the 3, and be a good defender at 3 positions. He wasn't seen a guy with a handle or a super beat you off the dribble like he has become. Even his 3 was catch and shoot not off the dribble like it is now.

Even in retrospect, where it seems like it would have been nice to trade Waiters and have Oladipo instead of Bennett, I don't think Oladipo lasts through that first year purge. He was still very raw at that time.

Keep in mind OKC was really happy to trade him to the Pacers for George. A lot of people thought Sabonis was the better player in that deal.
 
Was it star potential, or duplicating positions/skills with Waiters already signed (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH)

I think it was both. Though Oladipo was project to be a SG/SF during the draft process. I never understood Grant's draft philosophy. It was always a big and a guard. He didn't want to draft wings at all. He also said at one point he didn't want more than 2 rookies each year.

I still don't understand what kind of team Grant was trying to build.
 
Oladipo was a junior. His progression of an upperclassman turning into a star is pretty wild and almost unprecedented. Kawhi and Jimmy butler are similar though. All defensive players that added to their offensive games in a big way.

Oladipo was seen in that draft as a really high level roleplayer, sort of like Mikal Bridges in this draft. A guy that will be able to hit the 3, and be a good defender at 3 positions. He wasn't seen a guy with a handle or a super beat you off the dribble like he has become. Even his 3 was catch and shoot not off the dribble like it is now.

Even in retrospect, where it seems like it would have been nice to trade Waiters and have Oladipo instead of Bennett, I don't think Oladipo lasts through that first year purge. He was still very raw at that time.

Keep in mind OKC was really happy to trade him to the Pacers for George. A lot of people thought Sabonis was the better player in that deal.

I always thought Oladipo was perfectly for Mike Brown because of his defensive intensity coming out of college. If we didn't win the number 1 pick, I wonder if Oladipo would have been a more viable option at #2 or #3 if he was there.

I also thought at the time that Oladipo made sense to be our starting SF that year and if it didn't work out that you either move him or Waiter to being a six man.

Also if we had Oladipo I'm not sure we would have had Delly. I also wonder how much wanting Jarrett Jack played into not wanting Oladipo too.

It crazy to think the impact both bad and good that pick had on the organization.
 
I always thought Oladipo was perfectly for Mike Brown because of his defensive intensity coming out of college. If we didn't win the number 1 pick, I wonder if Oladipo would have been a more viable option at #2 or #3 if he was there.

I also thought at the time that Oladipo made sense to be our starting SF that year and if it didn't work out that you either move him or Waiter to being a six man.

Also if we had Oladipo I'm not sure we would have had Delly. I also wonder how much wanting Jarrett Jack played into not wanting Oladipo too.

It crazy to think the impact both bad and good that pick had on the organization.

Yeah I mean Waiters as 6th man might have been good for his career in retrospect. A good defender at the 2 who could grow into his role on the team could have been cool, but then how does JR who was crucial to the championship run turn out?

Lot of what ifs there. I said we should swing on Stephen Adams or Giannis because you ought to just get a physical freak if no one wows you otherwise. Should have listened to me! Except I don't want Adams 25 per contract.

If we had Giannis in 2017 we are talking about 4 peating
 

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