You are having a discussion with yourself, with a strawman argument.
This thread is not about debating career projections. It is, in fact, about debating the worth of our assets on December 25th, 2012. 30 games into the season. Just this past week, it was reported that the Cavs have been busy gauging the interest of 3 of the games top PFs. None of the three would be available without us including some young talent, so the perceived value of our assets is what I am talking about. Do we know what that value is? No. Which is why I called in to question in my original post, whether or not some here felt that guys we passed on were better trade chips than guys we drafted, and whether or not that should have been a priority knowing that we would have the flexibilty to make moves in the very near future.
So for the sake of this discussion, the value of our prospects 30 games into their careers means everything.
You are David Kahn, Kuptchak or Olshey in Portland... would you take a JV or Drummond over a Waiters and Thompson as part of a package for your PF that you are willing to trade?
The rarity of a C will always make them more valuable as prospects and that is what we are selling at the moment.