I like your take, Ring.Ring_Wanted wrote:I've posted in this spirit before. People act like picking Booker was a given, but I think it could have been guys like Dekker or Oubre (who I like a lot, btw). Selecting Booker warrants undisputed praise in my opinion.Sunsfan4life wrote:I cannot stand when people say this. So if Booker was a bust, McDonaugh wouldn't be at fault? He deserves credit for this pick. It's not like Booker was Lebron James coming out.iLLmatic wrote:Booker was the obvious choice at 13, I think everybody on this board wanted Booker there. Admittedly I liked Len at 5, but I also liked CJ too. I did not like Bender or Chriss, the guys on the radio were having orgasms over that deal like McDonough pulled off some sort of miracle. I felt like it was so-so at the time because both players were unproven. Chriss being so raw and Bender a foreign prospect who was not even a starter on his previous team.ShelC wrote:I'm heading down that path with McD too. We've had some really high draft picks now and it doesn't look like there's a gamechanger/stud among them. We got Booker at 13, who's for sure a stud. But Len (5), Bender (4), Chriss (8) are questionable at the moment, with Len really looking like he's on his way out. You can't go thru this period of losing and miss on top 10 picks, or top 5 for that matter.
If you remove Booker from his draft history, you have pretty mediocre results; four of these picks were lottery picks::
Tyler Ulis - Backup PG
TJ Warren - Sixth man SF
Alex Len - On his way out
Tyler Ennis - Traded (bench fodder)
Archie Goodwin - Released
Dragan Bender - Still too raw to project (not aggressive enough)
Marquise Chriss - Still too raw to project (too aggressive in the wrong way)
Alec Brown - Who??
Bogdan Bogdanovic - Remains to be seen
As for the rest, I won't knock the GM for the results 2013 draft, because a) I didn't really pay attention and b) in hindsight that was a trerrible class.
Warren, again, was an extremely ready to score prospect but Hornacek just didn't use him. That's on the coach, imo. Besides, Warren still has the ability and I think it is just a matter of continuity, which he has not had over his last two seasons due to injuries (with the head one being so weird and obscure to this day). Btw, this season he showed a lot of improvement on defense and rebounding.
I didn't like the trade for Chriss. At best you are looking at a hobo Amare. And for the life of me, I don't see the athleticism. He jumps, but being an athlete is much more than that. Perhaps we didn't give up a ton in terms of assets, but here we could have a case of Minni drafting Rubio and Flynn.
Which brings us to Bender, who is a 7'1 real basketball player but basically a blank canvas at this point. It's up to the coaching staff what path his development follows. Do you bulk him and make him a C? Do you keep him slimmer and try to gain a multiuse forward? I didn't like Watson favoring Chriss at all, especially the first half of the season. Bender was defending pretty well and if nothing else, moves the ball around. Not much but at least not a liability overall, unlike Chriss during a good chunk of the season.
Anyway, look at the rest of the 2016 class. Disgusting. What really sucks over these recent years is the stupid timing of our loses. Top 5 picks in 2013 and 2016. Pffff.
Ulis deserves a honorable mention, and Reed could end up being a nice 2ndR too.
Here's to a 2017-18 season of youth development, good loses and a strong 2018 draft (a dominant big man, please), because with the kids we have. I don't think we are not going far.
I would add that Jones Jr and Williams are good additions. While they aren't draft picks, they certainty are examples of McD adding young talent to the team.
The two things I don't like are Moving up for Chriss when there were so many prospects who were just as good, and drafting Warren when we already had 3 SF on the roster.
McD isn't a disaster, but he still has to prove himself in terms of team building and knowing a good trade vs a waste of assets.
