PS: But please don’t bring the “who should Leon have drafted that would put us right there with OKC” to the new thread.

What we can probably all agree on is that the main “general” issue with Leon’s drafting is his actual draft board. And in that regard, I would put the Obi blunder first

It’s really hard not to look back on passing on Hali as just such an annoying self-own.

1) unless you are clearly making a “profit” on trading a particular pick, just pick the highest ranked player remaining on your board at that spot

2) do not consider cap implications at all when making a draft pick

I think we all agree on #1. As to #2, it gets more tricky since the margins between the aprons are so punitive that even a few dollars can make a huge difference.

What we can probably all agree on is that the main “general” issue with Leon’s drafting is his actual draft board. And in that regard, I would put the Obi blunder first and the 2022 draft second. All of the other picks are sort of quibbling, giving the imperfect science of creating draft boards in the first place. There wasn’t really any consensus on the 2021 draft, and since there were way more misses than hits from #19-28, we were lucky to not have drafted two misses (such as EB suggested in Kai and Keon.)

But it’s fair to say that Leon & Co. are not particularly good at it, probably middling is the best way to describe them. Nothing over time distinguishes them positively from the KB hive mind (whatever that is) in that regard.

yeah, yabu was a nice get, or so it seemed at the time – we really need though another functional defensive big…

time to go check to see if there was anything interesting said by the players post game yesterday…

okay, seems mike brown really likes using the word: sprays…

jalen got grilled pretty good, as always handled it well…KAT’s still smartly aloof, glad he’s a knick…

Kyshawn George
Furphy
Cam Christie

Ousmane Dieng was 8th ahead of Duren.

Keon Johnson is ahead of Jalen Johnson. If Kai doesn’t go at 19 because of Keon, we take Kai at 21. Jared Butler ahead of Deuce.

Obi at 5 is ahead of Hali at 7 from what I’m looking at.

Leandro Bolmaro, Malachi Flynn, and Payton Pritchard were ahead of Bane.

(*) I don’t pay for ESPN, so I’m using a 2nd hand source that purports to list their draft order.

We’d be in a better position if we had at least a couple of young players with upside but also not the stuff we got in return for not having them?

Seems like one would have to go all the way back to the Thibs hiring to evaluate that. Once you commit to winning now, as you do when you hire Thibs, you pretty much commit to drafting outside of the lottery. Once you have acquired a guy like Brunson, and then Kat (who didn’t really cost much draft capital) you are pretty much committed to drafting crap shoots. So you can keep rolling with the young guys with upside that you actually had (IQ, Grimes, Obi, even RJ) and hope you pick some winners, or deal picks in the hope of cashing in on Brunson’s and KAT’s primes.

Now maybe you strike gold in the late first or the second, but more than likely you are going to bank on having a top-7 with vet’s minimum guys and late draft flyers filling out the roster.

It sucks that none of Dadiet, Kolek, McCullar, Huk, or Diawara seem like hits yet, but that’s what you opt for when you go all in on guys like OG and Mikal. Would we have been better off without those two guys but with the “young guys with upside” that the assets we used to acquire them still in tow? Maybe, maybe not. You still have to hit on the picks outside the lottery.

There is no getting around the Thibs hire really being the thing that blew big holes in the build through the draft stragegy. But hey, here we are!

Melo’s comments about Phil are pretty fair especially the part he says at the end about Phil should’ve coached the team if he was so obsessed with implementing the triangle but Phil doesn’t want to coach bullshit teams.

Yeah, Melo handled that well.