Jerami Grant is getting more than the MLE and I think that's all we'll have because I'm predicting we keep Ariza besides even if we let Ariza walk I still think we only have 10 million in cap space which isn't getting the job done either.
I think that nitpicking about a tenth pick is just ridiculous. I don't like Olshey, I think he is too dogmatically loyal to "his guys" and he hurts the team in many ways... drafting Zach wasn't one of those egregious ways because everyone and I mean every GM that has ever done it has missed on picks and Zach isn't even a miss at this point. Neil has missed both times drafting in the bottom third of the first round with Swanigan and Ant but lets look at his overall draft history. Olshey's first draft he got CJ, Crabbe and turned Jeff Withey into RoLo, that's pretty damn good. His second year Neil turned Rondae Hollis-Jefferson into PatCon and Plumlee eventually turning Plumlee into Nurk, very impressive. Next year he got Layman at the 47th pick, again a good value pick. Zach and Swanigan were picked the following year, I'm not willing to call Zach a bad pick (virtually no one knew about Abedayo and Mitchell, those were almost universally considered stretches) I will call Swanigan a bad pick. The next year he picked Simons and Gary, in retrospect those picks should have been reversed and Olshey was and probably still is way way way too high on Ant but wow was Gary a great pick. Last year Nas fell to us and we snatched him up, I am sure he will be seen as great value at the 25th pick in the near future. Neil is bad at making big moves happen but the draft is something he's pretty damn good at.
We have a choice to put an Asterisk * by it though. Because you know if Portland had won it they sure would have.
...or they could be the Iverson Sixers - heroically winning the first game and then losing out. Or maybe that's what WE were in round 1...
I know people are making fun of him because he doesn't play, but he DID play for the regular season. Spoelstra used him and Kendrick Nunn as regular season placeholders to give his stars rest. Surprisingly brutal of him to give both of them ZERO minutes in the playoffs. I'm sure he sat them down and explained it to them, but Nunn in particular has to feel butthurt after he was THIRD in voting for rookie of the year (way ahead of Herro, for example).
It's not often I agree with you, so I'm going to say it explicitly: I agree with you. People seem to side entirely on the "nature" side of the nature/nurture debate (if you need a refresher on this, watch Trading Places) at least when it comes to players. And, sure, there are cases where you should: LeBron James would've been LeBron James wherever he ended up. But I think for most players, it really matters what environment you put them in. This is why people are still mad that we traded away Jermaine O'Neal. But I think Jermaine would never have become what he became without going to an environment where the GM totally believed in him and was ready to coddle him.
Spoelstra is so underrated, at least from the narrative out there. Very highly rated with all the players around the league though.
Why underrated? Most all round ball junkies know he's HOF material now already....
We will see just how good Bam is against the Lakers....Who's he going to guard and who's going to guard him?
Head Case!
Maybe he isn't, but he seems to get left out of conversations or is just an after thought many times.
I think much of it is his personality, pretty humble dude and doesn't like the lime light.
Pelicans will jump on this in a heartbeat
