Fez's summer plan: The bullet points

[Fez Hammersticks]

IMO, if they provided him with "enough defense", then his SSOL wouldn't work.

I don't think this is true. The SSOL wont work if you don't have a PG and if your main offensive threat is a ball-stopping, ISO heavy player. The NYK roster was a disaster waiting to happen for MDA.

 

[B-Roy]

because good 2 way players are tough to find? I dunno. In order for the mismatches to work well in SSOL, Amare played C, when he's really a PF. Thus, Diaw was their PF. Maybe they could have found a "Ben Wallace", but, many teams would love to have one. To just say oh, they sucked because they never had an elite defensive big is a little ridiculous, IMO. SSOL works well running apick and roll with Nash/PG and a big, and spreading the floor with shooters. It's not always tough to find good wing defenders that can shoot the 3. Finding Cs that are defensive anchors that are also either spreading the floor, or an offensive powerhouse on the pick and roll is extremely difficult, which is probably why the system struggles defensively at times. Or, offensively, if the defense is better.

Either way, you're wrong that providing him with more defense ruins the SSOL...

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Hopefully they are not only active but know what they're doing. If they have another Smith-over-Faried type of fiasco I think the 3.4% will only rise.

According to chief operating officer Sarah Mensah, there was a 3.4 percent drop in renewals from last season, which seems awfully low considering the dramatic dropoff in product. The team even sent out a last-gasp email early this week to those who didn't renew, extending the deadline to Tuesday.

Mensah said most who didn't renew said they wanted to wait and see what the team did this summer. Who is going to be the general manager? Who will be the coach? And what kind of free agents can the team lure?

"People want to see action, not words," Mensah said. "We get that."

Yeah? Well, just say no to combo-guards!

 

[THE HCP]

Remind me, but didn't a lot of teams pass on Farried and that fat guy in San Antonio that everybody has a crush on? Not just us right?

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

It's more about their ability to evaluate talent.

Faried was CLEARLY the better player/prospect than Nolan Smith. Duke Basketball message boards were shocked that he went in the first round.

Our scouts took a player who should have went undrafted (or mid-late second round at best) in the first round.

Talk is cheap, Mrs. Mensah but making dumb decisions doesn't help your case to sell fans on this team and management.

 

[Rhal]

It's more about their ability to evaluate talent.

Faried was CLEARLY the better player/prospect than Nolan Smith. Duke Basketball message boards were shocked that he went in the first round.

Our scouts took a player who should have went undrafted (or mid-late second round at best) in the first round.

Talk is cheap, Mrs. Mensah but making dumb decisions doesn't help your case to sell fans on this team and management.

Smith wasn't projected as Undrafted, he was projected anywhere from the 20th pick to the 42 pick depending on what site you went to. I'd be more worried about there talent evaluation if Babbitt didn't show he could shoot the lights out. Here are our picks for the last 3 drafts
2009
Victor Claver 22nd: Is playing good overseas haven't seen him in the NBA or Summer league
Dante Cunningham 34st: Currently with the Grizz
Jeff Pendegraph 31th: Pacers
Patty Mills 55th: SA
2010
Luke Babbit 16th:
Elliot Williams 22nd:
Armon Johnson 34th: 10-day contract with Nets
2011
Nolan Smith 21st:
Jon Diebler 51st:
There is no real Bust in that group of players. Everyone except for Johnson will be in the league in 3 years. Babbit has shown he was a lot more to offer then most of this board thought, Williams is an enigma with his flashes of brilliance/bone headed plays and constant injuries. Claver hasn't come over yet but is having a promising career overseas. Smith has had a very small and inconstant sample size. Will never be a star might be develop into a role player.
We passed on a few players but a lot of people did, if anyone knew Faried would be this good he would have been a lotto pick. A lot of us wanted him on this board and we didn't pick him but it wasn't just us who passed on him. You can take a look at any team and nit pick there drafts to make them look like they can't evaluate good talent. I'm not saying this is a great organization for recognizing talent but I don't think were a horrible one. I am in no way saying Smith was a better player/prospect then Faried.

 

[Blaze01]

Rhal, have you lost your mind?

POR drafting the last 3 years has been atrocious...there is no way around it and no sugar coating it...

Nolan Smith was not projected as a 1st round pick anywhere I saw, he was projected as a 2nd round pick and by REACHING for him POR passed up on Faried who WAS well regarded by a lot of scouts AND was a need (b\u PF) for the team. FURTHERMORE there were other highly regarded players (Marshon Brooks, Norris Cole) on the board....it was a horrible pick, no other way around it, and to make matters worse not only has Nolan Smith generally looked bad and shown that he is likely more of a "combo" guard\SG than a PG but those three players taken after him all have looked good this year, particularly Faried. Buchanan is a bad scout...his reasonings were need, senior, came from big time program, character....all stupid reasons to select a player for the NBA....You don't use those as your main "selling\reasoning" points and outweigh them over talent & NBA position....

Luke Babbitt has finally shown that he may have some use as an off the bench scorer, but he was a reach at #16....particularly when you see guys like Chase Budinger and Chandler Parsons for HOU, both similiar players, taken in the 2nd round and who have played better to date....just a stupid reach pick, and Buchanan's comments were basically 50\40\90...just dumb, especially when you had some good PG prospects like Avery Bradley & Eric Bledsoe who were available?

Elliot Williams has shown some flash of good potential, he will be an undersized SG but he has shown talent as possibly being an off the bench scorer, but here is the problem...He can't stay healthy, he has Roy\Oden syndrome...I hope he can come back and stay healthy, if so then this pick looks better...

Armon Johnson was\is HORRIBLE what a waste of a pick, instead of addressing a PG at #16 which they should of done they tried to bandaid it here, should have gone BPA here and I refuse to believe that Johnson was BPA, if he was then POR scouts really are awful...Fields, Stephenson, Jeremy Evans...Ainge (Bradley, Harangody), O'Conner (Hayward, Evans) and Walsh (Rautins, Fields & J.Jordan) all potential GM candidates fared much better than POR

and then you have 2009....the punting of a pick (Claver) who may never even come over to the NBA, you don't think Casspi, Beabouis (worked out in POR at least twice) or Taj Gibson would have helped? Then we take Cunningham & Pendergraph with high 2nd round picks, both end of bench NBA types over a guy like Dejuan Blair (projected 1st round consensus pick) Why b\c of injury? really? and that didn't preclude them from picking guys like Roy, Oden and Williamns? Seriously? That was a no brainer pick with one of those 2nd rounders and they flubbed it...Also where was the scouting on guys like Marcus Thornton? Chase Budinger? Jonas Jerbeko? Take Budinger in this draft and they would have saved themselves from the Babbitt pick fiasco....

So sorry, but anyone defending Buchanan must be either insane or a serious homer, his track record is horrible...

Out of those NINE players taken in THREE years, you have ZERO starters and possibly 2? 3? rotation players and that is being very generous....So it is obvious to see why this team has a talent deficiency gap, they just have failed miserably in the draft of adding young talent to this roster and this with more picks in the last 3 drafts (9) than a lot of other teams.

This is one of the more important aspects of a being a GM, talent evaluation\draft and Buchanan has failed in the last 3 years he was the guy....and don't give me the bs about Pritchard in 09', he was fired BEFORE it began, no way he was making those picks, and Cho wasn't even on board in 2010 and was fired before 2011. I have ZERO doubt that Buchanan was the guy giving the talent evaluations that led to these picks, and his track record fucking sucks. How anyone could defend him or incredibly want him to be the GM is incomprehensible....

If he is the guy leading the evaluation then it likely won't matter where\what picks POR has they will fuck it up...guaranteed, just look at the track record....

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Blaze01 nailed it.

Our international scouts have been 'meh' as well.

Mike Born made two good picks in Batum and Freeland but has wasted a lot of picks on players who may never see an NBA court -- And getting Freeland away from FIBA teams like Barcelona is another problem. Picking Euros haven't been kind and stashing prospects has backfired (Freeland has options).

 

[Rastapopoulos]

POR drafting the last 3 years has been atrocious...there is no way around it and no sugar coating it...

I'm not over the moon about the players we've collected, but let me try to coat some sugar.

Nolan Smith was not projected as a 1st round pick anywhere I saw, he was projected as a 2nd round pick and by REACHING for him POR passed up on Faried who WAS well regarded by a lot of scouts AND was a need (b\u PF) for the team. FURTHERMORE there were other highly regarded players (Marshon Brooks, Norris Cole) on the board....it was a horrible pick, no other way around it, and to make matters worse not only has Nolan Smith generally looked bad and shown that he is likely more of a "combo" guard\SG than a PG but those three players taken after him all have looked good this year, particularly Faried. Buchanan is a bad scout...his reasonings were need, senior, came from big time program, character....all stupid reasons to select a player for the NBA....You don't use those as your main "selling\reasoning" points and outweigh them over talent & NBA position....

First: I agree that Nolan was a dodgy pick, although I think he has turned out worse than could reasonably be predicted.
HOWEVER: the pick does not prove that Buchanan is a bad scout. We don't know that this was Buchanan's call. While it's conspiracy theorizing to lay EVERYthing at Nate's feet, this pick does smack rather of McMillan. He has long worked with Coach K (the original one) for team USA and probably wanted a senior from a big program whose coaching he felt he could trust. Coach K had plenty of time to sell Nolan up.
I'm not convinced that Marshon Brooks or Norris Cole are better picks. Brooks makes Jamal Crawford look pass-first and Norris Cole has cooled off massively since looking vaguely good while playing with the Miami 3. I bet Nolan could look pretty good in that situation (in fact, it would be ideal for him, as Wade or James could handle the ball.)
Faried is making us look stupid. But not just us.
However, the player I continue to think we really should have drafted is Nicola Mirotic, who has just become the first player ever to win back to back "rising star" awards in the Euroleague, and looks like an only-slightly-poor man's Pau Gasol.
Finally, remember: picked BEFORE Nolan were such greats as Jimmer Fredette (10), Marcus Morris (14), Chris Singleton (18), Tobias Harris (19). Some of those might turn out decent, but so might Nolan (in the right situation) and they've certainly done little so far.

Luke Babbitt has finally shown that he may have some use as an off the bench scorer, but he was a reach at #16....particularly when you see guys like Chase Budinger and Chandler Parsons for HOU, both similiar players, taken in the 2nd round and who have played better to date....just a stupid reach pick, and Buchanan's comments were basically 50\40\90...just dumb, especially when you had some good PG prospects like Avery Bradley & Eric Bledsoe who were available?

Don't we have Pritchard to thank for Luke Babbitt? Didn't he sing his praises on the way out the door?
I was dead against Budinger, I remember, as he had a "soft" label, and I still don't think he's all that. And Parsons went undrafted, so EVERYBODY whiffed on him (and signed with Houston as a free agent). I'm with you on Bradley, who has turned out to be very useful for Boston, although he's not a "PG prospect" at all. The reason he sank so low is because he, like Bledsoe, cannot run a team. Bradley is only having success now because he's playing with a veteran team with a ton of scorers, and alongside Rondo.

Elliot Williams has shown some flash of good potential, he will be an undersized SG but he has shown talent as possibly being an off the bench scorer, but here is the problem...He can't stay healthy, he has Roy\Oden syndrome...I hope he can come back and stay healthy, if so then this pick looks better...

True.

Armon Johnson was\is HORRIBLE what a waste of a pick, instead of addressing a PG at #16 which they should of done they tried to bandaid it here, should have gone BPA here and I refuse to believe that Johnson was BPA, if he was then POR scouts really are awful...Fields, Stephenson, Jeremy Evans...Ainge (Bradley, Harangody), O'Conner (Hayward, Evans) and Walsh (Rautins, Fields & J.Jordan) all potential GM candidates fared much better than POR

Funny that you sing the praises of Bledsoe and trash Armon, when both are pretty similar. Good to great athletes who are too short to play SG and have no PG skills. And no pick in the second round is EVER terrible, because 90% of players in the second round are out of the league in 2 years. Okay, that stat was made up on the spot, but I bet it's not far off. Let's look at the two picks before Armon, shall we?
32 Oklahoma City Thunder Dexter Pittman C, 6-11, 303 Texas
33 Sacramento Kings Hassan Whiteside C, 7-0, 235 Marshall
I rest my case.

and then you have 2009....the punting of a pick (Claver) who may never even come over to the NBA, you don't think Casspi, Beabouis (worked out in POR at least twice) or Taj Gibson would have helped?

Beaubois is ANOTHER short shooting guard. He looked good for a while for Dallas, but they've cooled on him considerably. Casspi has also pretty much disappeared. Taj Gibson was a "boring" pick - Ed O would've screamed, because I think he was 23 when he was drafted. Clearly Chicago (who've picked up Gibson, Asik and Mirotic, all with low picks) are doing something very right. I get the impression that Claver was a fallback when (a) ALL of the PGs the Blazers wanted went in the five picks before Claver (seriously, by the 16th pick they had to be thinking "we're BOUND to get ONE of the PGs we want" and then this happened:

17.	76ers		Jrue Holiday		PG
18.	Timberwolves	Ty Lawson		PG
19.	Hawks		Jeff Teague		PG
20.	Jazz		Eric Maynor		PG
21.	Hornets		Darren Collison		PG

...so Claver was picked just so the Blazers didn't have to fill a roster spot right now. Stashing is a time-honored Spurs tradition.

Then we take Cunningham & Pendergraph with high 2nd round picks, both end of bench NBA types over a guy like Dejuan Blair (projected 1st round consensus pick) Why b\c of injury? really?

Jesus, do we have to rehash Blair AGAIN? YES because of injury! See your comments about Elliot Williams. And remember, the Blazers' doctors had declared Darius Miles' knees unfit to play, so we couldn't really go endorsing Blair. In fact, I seem to recall hearing he got a medical red flag from just about every team.

So sorry, but anyone defending Buchanan must be either insane or a serious homer, his track record is horrible...

Why do people say "sorry" when they don't mean it?
Buchanan hasn't looked awesome, that's for sure. But in every draft, there are worse picks above him, and most of your complaints are about THE SECOND ROUND, which is where basically they let the interns make the picks because IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. If you get a half-decent pick in the second round you know you're incredibly fortunate. If your player is a dog, it's what you expect!

Out of those NINE players taken in THREE years, you have ZERO starters and possibly 2? 3? rotation players and that is being very generous....So it is obvious to see why this team has a talent deficiency gap, they just have failed miserably in the draft of adding young talent to this roster and this with more picks in the last 3 drafts (9) than a lot of other teams.

Let's look at some lottery picks in that time:

2009
2.	Grizzlies	Hasheem Thabeet		C
6.	Timberwolves	Jonny Flynn		PG
8.	Knicks		Jordan Hill		PF
11.	Nets		Terrence Williams	SG
12.	Bobcats		Gerald Henderson	SG
13.	Pacers		Tyler Hansbrough	PF
14.	Suns		Earl Clark		SF

2010
2 	Philadelphia 76ers  	Evan Turner SG, 6-7, 214 Ohio State 
3 	New Jersey Nets  	Derrick Favors F, 6-10, 246 Georgia Tech 
4 	Minnesota Timberwolves  Wesley Johnson F, 6-7, 195 Syracuse 
8 	Los Angeles Clippers  	Al-Farouq Aminu F, 6-8, 210 Wake Forest 
11 	New Orleans Hornets  	Cole Aldrich C, 6-11, 245 Kansas 
12 	Memphis Grizzlies  	Xavier Henry G, 6-6, 210 Kansas 
13 	Toronto Raptors  	Ed Davis F, 6-9, 215 North Carolina 
14 	Houston Rockets  	Patrick Patterson F, 6-8, 223 Kentucky 

2011
2.	Timberwolves	Derrick Williams	PF
3.	Jazz		Enes Kanter		C
4.	Cavaliers	Tristan Thompson	PF
6.	Wizards		Jan Vesely		SF
7.	Kings		Bismack Biyombo		PF
10.	Bucks		Jimmer Fredette		PG
12.	Jazz		Alec Burks		SG
14.	Rockets		Marcus Morris		PF

Feel better?

 

[Blaze01]

I will feel better when POR has a new GM and his name is NOT Chad Buchanan.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

I also think stashing prospects in Europe has to stop.

FIBA teams are offering big money now and it's keeping guys over there.

Not once has this method worked out. Freeland could have helped the past two season but he's now in the drivers seat whether or not to come over to the NBA or sign with Barcelona.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Yeah, that's why Ricky Rubio will NEVER come over.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Yeah, that's why Ricky Rubio will NEVER come over.

It worked out for Minnesota. It has yet to work out for Portland after five draft picks since 2005 were used on talent-to-stash in Europe.

Granted, Freeland is the only player that is a legit NBA prospect of the bunch but with his rapid development he's going to be very hard to pry away.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

You're looking at it solely from a talent perspective. Here's another way to look at it:

28. Dallas              Maurice Ager
29. New York            Mardy Collins
30. Portland            Joel Freeland

Assume Freeland NEVER plays for Portland. Who made the best pick? The two teams who paid guaranteed money for THREE YEARS on Ager and Collins, or the team that paid NOTHING and took up no roster spots? This is why teams will continue to pick foreign players with low first-rounders, because of the guaranteed money for those picks. (It's also the reason it's easy to pick one of these picks up on draft night - teams would rather dump them than use them, half the time.)

And, hey, look at the foreign players picked in that part of the draft:

2006
27. Phoenix             Sergio Rodriguez
30. Portland            Joel Freeland

2007
24. Phoenix             Rudy Fernandez
28. San Antonio         Tiago Splitter
30. Phailadelphia       Petteri Koponen

2008
20  Charlotte Alexis Ajinca - PF  
24  Seattle Serge Ibaka - PF  
25  Houston  Nicolas Batum - SF  

2009
22.	Trail Blazers	Victor Claver		SF
23.	Kings		Omri Casspi		SF
25.	Thunder		Rodrigue Beaubois	PG
30.	Cavaliers	Christian Eyenga	SF

2010
17 	Chicago Bulls 		Kevin Seraphin F, 6-9, 265 France 

2011
20.	Timberwolves	Donatas Motiejunas	PF
23.	Rockets		Nikola Mirotic		SF

In general, the ones that came over (with the possible exception of Ajinca and Eyenga) have proved to be at least worthy of a first-round pick, and the ones that haven't, haven't cost their teams a dime!

 

[RR7]

It worked out for Minnesota. It has yet to work out for Portland after five draft picks since 2005 were used on talent-to-stash in Europe.

Granted, Freeland is the only player that is a legit NBA prospect of the bunch but with his rapid development he's going to be very hard to pry away.

Rudy didn't come over?

 

[Rhal]

Rhal, have you lost your mind?

POR drafting the last 3 years has been atrocious...there is no way around it and no sugar coating it...

The drafts haven't been great but its not like we picked busts with every pick.

Nolan Smith was not projected as a 1st round pick anywhere I saw, he was projected as a 2nd round pick and by REACHING for him POR passed up on Faried who WAS well regarded by a lot of scouts AND was a need (b\u PF) for the team. FURTHERMORE there were other highly regarded players (Marshon Brooks, Norris Cole) on the board....it was a horrible pick, no other way around it, and to make matters worse not only has Nolan Smith generally looked bad and shown that he is likely more of a "combo" guard\SG than a PG but those three players taken after him all have looked good this year, particularly Faried. Buchanan is a bad scout...his reasonings were need, senior, came from big time program, character....all stupid reasons to select a player for the NBA....You don't use those as your main "selling\reasoning" points and outweigh them over talent & NBA position....

I don't like the pick but we had a need at backup PG and PF/C. Smith was all over the board depending on what site you went to, espn had him at the 40th best player going somewhere in the early second. Sports Illustrated had him going at 29. Rotoworld had him going 20th. nbadraft had him at 38th, draftexpress had him at 36. We reached for him i'm not saying we didn't. There were rumors that the trade for Felton wouldn't go down if we picked Faried. The only PG we passed on that I kinda liked was Norris Cole. He looks decent but also plays next to 2 superstars and 3 all stars.

Luke Babbitt has finally shown that he may have some use as an off the bench scorer, but he was a reach at #16....particularly when you see guys like Chase Budinger and Chandler Parsons for HOU, both similiar players, taken in the 2nd round and who have played better to date....just a stupid reach pick, and Buchanan's comments were basically 50\40\90...just dumb, especially when you had some good PG prospects like Avery Bradley & Eric Bledsoe who were available?

Babbit went pretty much were people expected him to go. He is showing that he can be an NBA player who is best coming off the bench, just like both Bledsoe and Bradley. I don't buy into the hype from Bradley at the moment, I don't think he can keep up what he is doing. Another big thing is we didn't draft Babbit we traded for him. We probably told Minnesota to draft him but I can't remember reading anywhere that confirmed that.

Elliot Williams has shown some flash of good potential, he will be an undersized SG but he has shown talent as possibly being an off the bench scorer, but here is the problem...He can't stay healthy, he has Roy\Oden syndrome...I hope he can come back and stay healthy, if so then this pick looks better...

The pick was steal at the time. He dropped a lot because of the fact it was known he needed to have surgery going into the draft. His game relying so much on his athleticism and the fact teams didn't know if he would regain it let him slip.

Armon Johnson was\is HORRIBLE what a waste of a pick, instead of addressing a PG at #16 which they should of done they tried to bandaid it here, should have gone BPA here and I refuse to believe that Johnson was BPA, if he was then POR scouts really are awful...Fields, Stephenson, Jeremy Evans...Ainge (Bradley, Harangody), O'Conner (Hayward, Evans) and Walsh (Rautins, Fields & J.Jordan) all potential GM candidates fared much better than POR

I got nothing here, horrible pick I didn't like it. Was impressed a couple of games but overall seemed to just not be an NBA quality player.

and then you have 2009....the punting of a pick (Claver) who may never even come over to the NBA, you don't think Casspi, Beabouis (worked out in POR at least twice) or Taj Gibson would have helped? Then we take Cunningham & Pendergraph with high 2nd round picks, both end of bench NBA types over a guy like Dejuan Blair (projected 1st round consensus pick) Why b\c of injury? really? and that didn't preclude them from picking guys like Roy, Oden and Williamns? Seriously? That was a no brainer pick with one of those 2nd rounders and they flubbed it...Also where was the scouting on guys like Marcus Thornton? Chase Budinger? Jonas Jerbeko? Take Budinger in this draft and they would have saved themselves from the Babbitt pick fiasco....

We picked Claver because he was an intreaging prospect with a lot of talent. A Batum type player. Whats better picking a player to stash in Europe with the intent to bring him over in a year or two or drafting guys who would NEVER see the floor? Batum/Bayless/Webster/Outlaw/Rudy/Blake. Were would Casspi/ Beabouis every find minutes behind all of them?
As for Dejuan Blair yea i'm annoyed we didn't pick him but we weren't the only ones who passed on him. Most teams thought it was to much of a risk. As for Cunningham he is a rotation player in Memphis, currently on end of the bench material. Pendegraph is end of the bench material, more of a locker room guy then anything else.

Out of those NINE players taken in THREE years, you have ZERO starters and possibly 2? 3? rotation players and that is being very generous....So it is obvious to see why this team has a talent deficiency gap, they just have failed miserably in the draft of adding young talent to this roster and this with more picks in the last 3 drafts (9) than a lot of other teams.

We have had 8 picks, i'm not going to count Babbit since it was a draft day trade.
We have had 3 first round picks and still own all 3 players, Babbit looks like he could be a good bench player, Williams same thing but injury prone, Claver is an unknown but a player we still have the rights too and could bring him over.
We have missed on our second round picks but the second round is such a crap shoot almost every team has a hard time finding starter level talent in the second round. The fact that every one of our second rounders, save for Diebler who we picked this year, is actually fairly impressive. Most second rounders don't pan out and are out of the league within 3 years.

This is one of the more important aspects of a being a GM, talent evaluation\draft and Buchanan has failed in the last 3 years he was the guy....and don't give me the bs about Pritchard in 09', he was fired BEFORE it began, no way he was making those picks, and Cho wasn't even on board in 2010 and was fired before 2011. I have ZERO doubt that Buchanan was the guy giving the talent evaluations that led to these picks, and his track record fucking sucks. How anyone could defend him or incredibly want him to be the GM is incomprehensible....

If he is the guy leading the evaluation then it likely won't matter where\what picks POR has they will fuck it up...guaranteed, just look at the track record....

What I am getting at is if you look at our drafts and what happened that day not taking hindsight into account then I don't think we did a bad job the last 3 years. Certainty not great but not horrible. In Hindsight they aren't impressive drafts and our second rounders haven't worked out (which is the usual thing with second rounders) but none of our first rounders are busts yet. Smith certainty looks like it but you don't give up on a player in their rookie year.
Besides the Faried complaint which pretty much everyone agrees on, most of your complaints are coming from the second round in the draft. A total crapshoot that no team has a great track record with and your lucky to have 2 starter, 3 rotation players and a total of 5 other players still in the league after 3 years from the entire second round.
I don't think we are a great drafting team but i'd put us somewhere in the middle of the pack.

 

[Blaze01]

Fair enough Rhal...nice post

I would just like to see the draft run under a different set of eyes and not Chad Buchanan's, I just don't think his track record is good at all...

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I said about Diebler:

No. He's a one-trick pony. Leave him in Greece.

Well, it looks like he might have other tricks - he had 9 rebounds in a road win in the Greek Playoffs. But that boxscore also gives us some idea of his competition: his counterpart on the other team who put up gaudier numbers was Brent Petway, a summer-league fill-in for the Blazers a few years ago. (As I recall, Petway was a real dunker.)

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Depending on the coach (MDA) how about this idea?

Batum for Derrick Williams?