Why did we draft Luke Babbitt?

[Mediocre Man]

To actually answer the question, we drafted Babbitt because Nate wanted shooters, and he was supposedly one of the best in the draft. Since the guy can't even get off the bench on an extremely depleated team, I would say it has been a bad pick thus far. Nate's other gem that he wanted was Taurean Green. Maybe we should stop letting Nate make any basketball decisions?

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Because Mike Barrett was gushing all over him during the Summer League and pre-season.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Batum, Cunningham, and Pendergraph were exceptions Nate made due to injuries. Johnson was an exception he made due to having no other sub PG. Exceptions forced upon him don't disprove the fact that he waits many months to play rookies. He believes they need no development time in game situations, only in practice.

And we don't have injuries now?

Bottom line. We're depleted at SF since Cunningham has to play PF and Matthews is our SG. So if Luke could play at this level right now, his fanny would be out there on the court- period. jlprk, you can have all the man love for him you want, but he's not an NBA talent yet, And nobody knows if he ever will.

 

[jlprk]

Batum had pro experience before getting here. Cunningham and Pendergraph were just placeholders as rookies.

Whose minutes should be cut so that Babbitt can replace him? I don't see the lack of depth that you see. Johnson is carrying his weight to enough that Mills doesn't have to play. Substitute center is all I see lacking depth. Babbitt would have to learn a new position. He was a PF at Nevada.

I don't love him, I'm just saying 16 games in, with a coach who doesn't like to play rookies, this isn't unusual.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Batum had pro experience before getting here. Cunningham and Pendergraph were just placeholders as rookies.

Whose minutes should be cut so that Babbitt can replace him? I don't see the lack of depth that you see. Johnson is carrying his weight to enough that Mills doesn't have to play. Substitute center is all I see lacking depth. Babbitt would have to learn a new position. He was a PF at Nevada.

I don't love him, I'm just saying 16 games in, with a coach who doesn't like to play rookies, this isn't unusual.

And we all know that Nate is loathe to play rookies, but will do so when necessary- and he has consistently proven that. Now, we have all the backup minutes for Batum up for grabs with Roy & Pendy gone (Cunningham is playing nearly exclusively backup PF and Matthews & Rudy are playing SG and backup SF). Since SF is Lukes natural NBA position, it would make sense, and be consistent for Nate, to play him behind Batum. But he's not. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Really. But, psssssssssssst, here's a hint and I want you to keep this quiet- BABBITT AIN'T NO GOOD YET!!

 

[jlprk]

BABBITT AIN'T NO GOOD YET!!

Read my signature. It's there to save me typing time for you. I'm disagreeing with those who say he'll NEVER be any good.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Read my signature. It's there to save me typing time for you. I'm disagreeing with those who say he'll NEVER be any good.

OK, I get that. For now he evidently can't get on the floor. The hope is that in the future he will be able to contribute.

 

[Minstrel]

15 isn't the average PLAYER. It's the average MINUTE played. The better players get most of the minutes. Hollinger's poor definition of PER never mentions this.

That's exactly what I said and Hollinger has mentioned it plenty. andalusian has provided quotes from Hollinger about it before.

 

[jlprk]

I was agreeing with you, Minstrel. Looks like this is my day for people with whom I agree to think the opposite.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I was agreeing with you, Minstrel. Looks like this is my day for people with whom I agree to think the opposite.

But we still love y, er, like y, er, put up with you.

 

[Minstrel]

Looks like this is my day for people with whom I agree to think the opposite.

You and I have disagreed in the past?

 

[jlprk]

But we still love y, er, like y, er, put up with you.

I ran that through an online translator. Turns out that the youth culture in Liechstenstein slang knew what that meant for a brief time in 1847-49, but then they replaced it with the dreamy, "You're grand...simply grand."

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I ran that through an online translator. Turns out that the youth culture in Liechstenstein slang knew what that meant for a brief time in 1847-49, but then they replaced it with the dreamy, "You're grand...simply grand."

Kudos for cleverness. Not funny, but clever. And that's good enough for this board.

 

[LittleAlex]

To actually answer the question, we drafted Babbitt because Nate wanted shooters, and he was supposedly one of the best in the draft. Since the guy can't even get off the bench on an extremely depleated team, I would say it has been a bad pick thus far. Nate's other gem that he wanted was Taurean Green. Maybe we should stop letting Nate make any basketball decisions?

Honestly not everything wrong with the team falls on Nate.

He has a large portion of the responsibility for how the team plays and how they practice but outside of that he only has as much influence as the team gives him.

Considering the mix of players on the team versus the type of guys Nate would want I am guessing that Nate had next to no say in what players were drafted, signed or traded for.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Honestly not everything wrong with the team falls on Nate.

He has a large portion of the responsibility for how the team plays and how they practice but outside of that he only has as much influence as the team gives him.

Considering the mix of players on the team versus the type of guys Nate would want I am guessing that Nate had next to no say in what players were drafted, signed or traded for.

I agree with you 100%. All I am saying is that Nate wanted both Babbitt and Green.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

To actually answer the question, we drafted Babbitt because Nate wanted shooters, and he was supposedly one of the best in the draft. Since the guy can't even get off the bench on an extremely depleated team, I would say it has been a bad pick thus far. Nate's other gem that he wanted was Taurean Green. Maybe we should stop letting Nate make any basketball decisions?

You also were all over Nate when the Blazers drafted Roy saying that Roy was a Nate guy and that is why the Blazers drafted him.

Maybe we should let Nate take over all draft decisions.

 

[andalusian]

If you go to a gas station and ask the gas attendant to put premium in the tank and he puts Diesel and it ruins your car - it is not your fault, just as Nate's correct observation of wanting shooters does not make him wrong if Babbit does not pan out as a shooter, as Nate has to work with the data presented to him by the draft people (GM, scouts etc...).

 

[Minstrel]

If you go to a gas station and ask the gas attendant to put premium in the tank and he puts Diesel and it ruins your car - it is not your fault

No, it's not. It's McMillan's fault.

Glad we agree.

 

[Draco]

Batum, Cunningham, and Pendergraph were exceptions Nate made due to injuries. Johnson was an exception he made due to having no other sub PG. Exceptions forced upon him don't disprove the fact that he waits many months to play rookies. He believes they need no development time in game situations, only in practice.

Roy, LaMarcus, Sergio, Rudy all played major minutes as rookies. Nate doesn’t play BAD rookies major minutes, he doesn’t play players who will harm the teams chances of winning games. But Nate has been more than willing to give young guys large minutes if they warrant it. Nate moved a rookie with 0 NBA minutes ahead of last season’s backup PG Bayless who would have been in his 3rd season. Saying Armon is an exception is silly, he is the only backup PG because Nate wanted him to be the backup for this team.

Nate plays young guys far more than other coaches like Larry Brown or Phil Jackson, even Mike Dunleavy. Remember how many years Jermaine sat on our bench? You make it sound like most NBA coaches play fan favorite rookies just for fun no matter how it’ll affect the team’s performance. Do we really want to go back to the days where we are losing games to “develop” Serge Monya, Viktor Khyrapa and Ha Sung Jin?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Roy, LaMarcus, Sergio, Rudy all played major minutes as rookies. Nate doesn’t play BAD rookies major minutes, he doesn’t play players who will harm the teams chances of winning games. But Nate has been more than willing to give young guys large minutes if they warrant it. Nate moved a rookie with 0 NBA minutes ahead of last season’s backup PG Bayless who would have been in his 3rd season. Saying Armon is an exception is silly, he is the only backup PG because Nate wanted him to be the backup for this team.

Nate plays young guys far more than other coaches like Larry Brown or Phil Jackson, even Mike Dunleavy. Remember how many years Jermaine sat on our bench? You make it sound like most NBA coaches play fan favorite rookies just for fun no matter how it’ll affect the team’s performance. Do we really want to go back to the days where we are losing games to “develop” Serge Monya, Viktor Khyrapa and Ha Sung Jin?

Then you really have to wonder how shitty Babbitt is. Nate plays rookies, Wanted shooters in the draft, we are short handed. How horrible must babbitt be to not get minutes on this team

 

[andalusian]

Then you really have to wonder how shitty Babbitt is. Nate plays rookies, Wanted shooters in the draft, we are short handed. How horrible must babbitt be to not get minutes on this team

That's definitely a concern. It can also be an issue of who is ahead of him in the rotation.

The Blazers play Batum and Wes at the 3 a lot (We see a set of Wes/Batum, Rudy/Wes and Rudy/Nic at the 2/3 a lot) - so quite frankly, saying that he is not as good as Nic and Wes is reasonable and does not really tell us how bad he is.

The other position he is supposed to play is the 4 - where he is behind LMA (duh) and Dante - who is not exactly stinking the place.

So, while it is somewhat of a concern, it is too early to write the book on him. He plays one of the two positions where the Blazers actually had health and reasonable production so far...

 

[Nikolokolus]

That's definitely a concern. It can also be an issue of who is ahead of him in the rotation.

The Blazers play Batum and Wes at the 3 a lot (We see a set of Wes/Batum, Rudy/Wes and Rudy/Nic at the 2/3 a lot) - so quite frankly, saying that he is not as good as Nic and Wes is reasonable and does not really tell us how bad he is.

The other position he is supposed to play is the 4 - where he is behind LMA (duh) and Dante - who is not exactly stinking the place.

So, while it is somewhat of a concern, it is too early to write the book on him. He plays one of the two positions where the Blazers actually had health and reasonable production so far...

At the very least we have to acknowledge the likelihood that if he can't even get 5 minutes a night, then he's probably not threatening any of those guys ahead of him on the depth chart -- and right now his advertised strength (shooting) is in pretty short supply.

I think it's a safe bet he's sucking pretty badly. (and his negative PER in 25 minutes doesn't appear to recommend him much either).

 

[LittleAlex]

Then you really have to wonder how shitty Babbitt is. Nate plays rookies, Wanted shooters in the draft, we are short handed. How horrible must babbitt be to not get minutes on this team

If his limited minutes this season and his performance in Summer League are any indication then Babbit is Barely-Makes-The-D-League bad.


Personally I think Babbit is like Samson. He should never have cut his hair.

If he would have left it long he would be the next Mike Miller instead of the next Joe Wolf.

 

[andalusian]

At the very least we have to acknowledge the likelihood that if he can't even get 5 minutes a night, then he's probably not threatening any of those guys ahead of him on the depth chart

.. and I did that by saying that that's definitely a concern...

But, it is also pretty clear that if a guy who was drafted at #16 can't crack the rotation after 14 games as a rookie behind 3 pretty good players in LMA, Nic, Wes and a pretty decent backup in Dante, maybe, just maybe, it's too early to declare him DOA.

 

[Boob-No-More]

So, should we trade Babbitt and risk him becoming the next Jermaine O'Neal? I mean, come on, it's been 14 games and the guy can't crack the rotation. What are the chances he'll ever be worth a damn? Everyone knows the suckage horizon for rookies is 15 games. If Babbitt doesn't blow up in the next game, we should just cut our losses and ship the guy out to anyone who will give us a late 2nd round pick.

BNM

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

So, should we trade Babbitt and risk him becoming the next Jermaine O'Neal? I mean, come on, it's been 14 games and the guy can't crack the rotation. What are the chances he'll ever be worth a damn? Everyone knows the suckage horizon for rookies is 15 games. If Babbitt doesn't blow up in the next game, we should just cut our losses and ship the guy out to anyone who will give us a late 2nd round pick.

BNM

It's way too early to determine how he'll pan out. I said when we drafted him that he's making a much bigger jump to the NBA than most college players as he played in basically a juco conference- talentwise. He needs more time to get used to the speed and strength of who he now plays against. The D-league would do him a world of good. Maybe in his 3rd season we may get to better determine if he's an NBA player.

 

[andalusian]

It's way too early to determine how he'll pan out. I said when we drafted him that he's making a much bigger jump to the NBA than most college players as he played in basically a juco conference- talentwise. He needs more time to get used to the speed and strength of who he now plays against. The D-league would do him a world of good. Maybe in his 3rd season we may get to better determine if he's an NBA player.

His Nevada team-mate (Armon) is clearly an NBA player...

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

His Nevada team-mate (Armon) is clearly an NBA player...

Maybe. Talk to me in a couple of years. Remember when people thought Sergio was an NBA player. And Bayless our next all-star? Turns out they weren't. We tend to grossly over evaluate players here.

I'm not saying good NBA players can't come from the lesser leagues, but that if a player dominates juco talent that means very little to how he'll play in the NBA.

 

[oldmangrouch]

By all means, let's be patient with Babbitt ( and Claver, and Williams). It's not like the Blazers are struggling *now*.

Oh....wait.....

Outside of LMA and Batum, everybody on the team is mediocre, injury prone, or too old to be part of a rebuilding effort. They didn't have the luxury of wasting those 3 picks.

 

[RR7]

I dunno, I can see the complaint of judging a guy too early in his career to see how good he will be. I just feel like he's too much of a tweener to be all that effective for us. He seems like he'll always be too slow to cover 3s, and to small to cover 4s. And, to be a mismatch both ways, he'd need to be faster than most 4s, and stronger than most 3s, or bigger, and he just isn't. Like Outlaw was. Or, a guy like Beasley. Faster than 4s, stronger than 3s. So he is basically a bonus on offense, bad on D. With Luke, he doesn't look like he'll blow by 4s, or outmuscle 3s. With Dante, he at least could make attempts at covering some of the bigger 3s(Lebron, Carmelo, Artest, etc.), and he is pretty strong, and can hold his own against some 4s. Even has against some 5s.