He also used a player he drafted to acquire a 5th, his starting PG.

Got it. It’s okay for Miami to move young picks/players for 35yos but not okay for the Knicks to move them for 27yos or future draft picks. Makes sense.

Riley drafted 4 of the top 7 players in the Heat’s current rotation.

And in last year’s Finals run, the Heat played only one of their draft picks more than 20 total minutes throughout the entire playoffs. One.

When he has not made picks, it’s because he traded the picks to acquire LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Jimmy Butler, and Goran Dragic.

Only 1 of those guys was one the team for last year’s finals run. They made it despite having few draft picks over the last decade.

And why not roast him for drafting Precious Achiuwa over Tyrese Maxey, IQ, and Desmond Bane?

Good night, EB. And good luck in school tomorrow.

You love calling me names anytime you lose an argument.

You were wrong about how much Morey and Riley love picks. You can just say “Gee, guess I was wrong” and move on.

This thread is a ChatGPT version of the 10,000 previous threads. Right?

Written by Drew Ortiz at Sports Illustrated.

I don’t think I’ve ever turned down such a thing without a real reason

The pain of traveling to & from Met Life stadium is a real enough reason.

In the last ten years, I’ve only gone there for Wrestlemania, Metallica, the 2016 Copa America final, and…. (is there any way I can type this in a smaller font?)… (I really want to whisper this under my breath)… Taylor Swift.

I’m gonna flip this on you. I actually like the hybrid method, and I think Leon has executed it terribly.

To hybrid well, you have to draft. You don’t have to tank, but you have to draft.

The key to succeeding without high picks and without a lot of assets to spare, AKA the hybrid method, is to get large ROIs on your players. Get more production out of them than most teams do for comparable money, draft picks, or other assets spent. Making good draft picks is obviously a great opportunity to get these kinds of ROIs, but it’s not the only way.

As a whole, Leon has generated pretty good ROIs. His ROI on Brunson is outstanding–he’d literally double his AAV on the open market.

Without opening the whole Randle can of worms, I think we all agree that his current contract underpays him for his regular season contributions in a Good Randle year (Leon of course did not originally acquire Randle, but did sign him to said contract).

The draft has been more of a mixed bag than you acknowledge. Obi was an enormous whiff, 2021 was an own goal, and while we disagree about 2022 as a general transaction I definitely won’t argue Leon got a good ROI on his trade(s)–it’s one big TBD from me.

However, IQ was picked 25th and is currently 5th among 2020 draftees in VORP. It wouldn’t shock me if he overtakes Bane before too long. This was a legitimately great pick that has softened the blow of a lot of his errors.

Grimes was picked 25th and is currently 8th among 2021 draftees in VORP. Hell, Sims was picked 58th and is currently 14th among 2021 draftees in VORP.

We wouldn’t be as good as we are if Leon didn’t generate some value with his draft picks. Overall, he’s been a good-not-great hybrider.

There’s probably no GM in the business who cares less about draft picks than Pay Riley.

Riley drafted 4 of the top 7 players in the Heat’s current rotation.

He also used a player he drafted to acquire a 5th, his starting PG.

When he has not made picks, it’s because he traded the picks to acquire LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Jimmy Butler, and Goran Dragic.

Good night, EB. And good luck in school tomorrow.

the hybrid masters are okay not making picks

When they needed stars, they made their picks.

This is about what you do when you’re rebuilding, not what you do when you’re in the NBA finals, not what you do when you have Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey.