Grantland: The Ultimate Crapshoot

[Hobbesarable]

I remember that too. Weren't more people in favor of Deron than Paul?

Both point guards were highly touted at the time while John Nash was hyping up Martell Webster.

Where is John Nash these days?

 

[Rhal]

Both point guards were highly touted at the time while John Nash was hyping up Martell Webster.

Where is John Nash these days?

Years ago he was a scout with the 76ers, not sure if he is still there.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I remember that too. Weren't more people in favor of Deron than Paul?

And Raymond Felton. Lot of Blazer fans wanted us to trade down and draft Gerald Green. Of course Marvin Williams who went 2nd was preferred by most. We can still get him.....

 

[Draco]

Both of those are WAY behind dumb luck. Scouting would've told you Evan Turner was a superstar in the making. Medical evaluations means everybody passes on Batum and Dejuan Blair. The problem is, you're picking unfinished products. Even Brandon Roy - everyone thought he was done developing and he would be a solid starter at best, but he kept getting better... until those knees gave out.

And suppose "medical evaluation" tells you: he's broken bones a few times - like Embiid. So what? Can you infer that it's going to keep happening? Or were those just accidents? Zydrunas Ilgauskas looked like he was done before he started. Then he had a long and productive career.

Exactly, great post! Teams spend millions of dollars on scouting and medical staff and still consistently make tons of wrong choices in the draft. Its very difficult to predict.

You could almost think of it as picking stocks; sure its easy to identify the factors in hindsight that lead to good buys or good sells but in the moments its extremely difficult to know what direction these things will go.

 

[illmatic99]

Lets not give the fans a free pass on the CP3 fuck up either. There were a select few on most Blazer message boards who were in favor of Paul. As I recall the phrase "another midget PG" (referring to Damon) was the brilliant reasoning for not wanting him.

Don't forget the Canzano piece where he warned against drafting CP after he punched Julius Hodge in the crotch and got suspended for the tournament, saying he had character issues. I was naiive back then, and read about how Gerald Green was the next TMac and wanted him over anybody else. oops

 

[BlazerWookee]

I remember that too. Weren't more people in favor of Deron than Paul?

I didn't want Paul because he has a first name for a last name, and CP3 is, when spoken, one of the top five most annoyingly stupid nicknames in sports history.

 

[cmeese47]

I remember that too. Weren't more people in favor of Deron than Paul?

Deron is still miles ahead of Martell