Pay attention to the Thunder

[Philo Beddoe]

That is going to be us in 3 years. That is going to be the thing for small market teams... trade their superstars and rebuild with a shit ton of draft picks.

[Oriole81]

I can't tell if this is meant to be good or bad, though.

[Philo Beddoe]

I can't tell if this is meant to be good or bad, though.

You just have to hope your scouting department is as good as the Thunders. They have been pretty good drafting players over the years.

[Stork311]

if no fundamental and meaningful change to the rules, it won't matter.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

They will suck because they are young. Their players will have a staggered league tenure which will require they sign young players based on hope they continue to improve....recruitment will begin by large market teams and players will relocate becuase the league is interested in saying super teams are bad....but counting their money all the while.

[Sid Hartman]

That is going to be us in 3 years. That is going to be the thing for small market teams... trade their superstars and rebuild with a shit ton of draft picks.

Except we only have 1 superstar trade

[HeHateMe]

That is going to be us in 3 years. That is going to be the thing for small market teams... trade their superstars and rebuild with a shit ton of draft picks.

Except we only have 1 superstar trade

And OKC was able to raid the Clippers because they got PG AND Kawhi.

I'm sure you could clean house with the Celtics in terms of picks right now for Towns... and make them take on Wiggins for Hayward?

[OliverMiller]

3 years? With rosass in charge it will be by December

[Oriole81]

I can't tell if this is meant to be good or bad, though.

You just have to hope your scouting department is as good as the Thunders. They have been pretty good drafting players over the years.

ehh, they've been okay. obviously Durant, Russ, Ibaka and Harden is an all time run, but they didn't really find any significant player afterwards to help extend their run and get them over the hump, like Kawhi helped extend San Antonio.

[OliverMiller]

I can't tell if this is meant to be good or bad, though.

You just have to hope your scouting department is as good as the Thunders. They have been pretty good drafting players over the years.

ehh, they've been okay. obviously Durant, Russ and Harden is an all time run, but they didn't really find any significant player afterwards to help extend their run and get them over the hump, like Kawhi helped extend San Antonio.

That's everyone though once you start winning. Even the Spurs went through several years of next to no production. Golden State over the last several years, etc.

[Oriole81]

You just have to hope your scouting department is as good as the Thunders. They have been pretty good drafting players over the years.

ehh, they've been okay. obviously Durant, Russ and Harden is an all time run, but they didn't really find any significant player afterwards to help extend their run and get them over the hump, like Kawhi helped extend San Antonio.

That's everyone though once you start winning. Even the Spurs went through several years of next to no production. Golden State over the last several years, etc.

you can still find significant pieces outside the lottery though was my point, and I think OKC has been rather pedestrian at it.

Perry Jones, Steven Adams, Archie Goodwin, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson.
In 2015, they even had Pick 14 and took Cam Payne over Terry Rozier. Devin Booker went one pick ahead of Payne as well, so missed golden opportunity to trade up for him.

that's pretty bad.Adams and Roberson have been solid rotation players, but didn't do much to actually move the needle and get them over the top.

[thinktank]

3 years? With rosass in charge it will be by December

Bullshiiiiiit.

This is a building year.

Keep skirt on, please.

[Moses Scurry]

3 years? With rosass in charge it will be by December

Bullshiiiiiit.

This is a building year.

Keep skirt on, please.

No sarcasm detector today?

[Jamebo Jackson]

Let me see if I have the Class System of Basketball worked out.......

We got AAU, then the NCAA, then the G League, then Europe, and then there’s the persistently rebuilding pee-on NBA-lite teams (our Wolves for example), then oh maybe 3-5 of those pee-ons where a given rebuild is working (to a degree) for a finite period of time (looking at you Milwaukee)......and then finally we have the NBA as recognized in the owners’ suites......everything that exists below feeds here and this is where the real money is spent and earned and the only place where the championship hardware is won and lost. Is that sounding about right?

[OliverMiller]

ehh, they've been okay. obviously Durant, Russ and Harden is an all time run, but they didn't really find any significant player afterwards to help extend their run and get them over the hump, like Kawhi helped extend San Antonio.

That's everyone though once you start winning. Even the Spurs went through several years of next to no production. Golden State over the last several years, etc.

you can still find significant pieces outside the lottery though was my point, and I think OKC has been rather pedestrian at it.

Perry Jones, Steven Adams, Archie Goodwin, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson.
In 2015, they even had Pick 14 and took Cam Payne over Terry Rozier. Devin Booker went one pick ahead of Payne as well, so missed golden opportunity to trade up for him.

that's pretty bad.Adams and Roberson have been solid rotation players, but didn't do much to actually move the needle and get them over the top.

But again, the best player the Warriors picked in their run was Kevon Looney.

The Spurs are an outlier.

[Oriole81]

That's everyone though once you start winning. Even the Spurs went through several years of next to no production. Golden State over the last several years, etc.

you can still find significant pieces outside the lottery though was my point, and I think OKC has been rather pedestrian at it.

Perry Jones, Steven Adams, Archie Goodwin, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson.
In 2015, they even had Pick 14 and took Cam Payne over Terry Rozier. Devin Booker went one pick ahead of Payne as well, so missed golden opportunity to trade up for him.

that's pretty bad.Adams and Roberson have been solid rotation players, but didn't do much to actually move the needle and get them over the top.

But again, the best player the Warriors picked in their run was Kevon Looney.

The Spurs are an outlier.

the original point I was responding to way back though was that (paraphrasing) OKC mgmt has been better at drafting of recent and could be better positioned than average to convert this bundle of picks to really productive players, and I was disagreeing with that. outside of top 5 picks, their track record is pretty bad, so unless a good number of these picks end up in the Top 5, I don't think they're any better positioned than any other team.

GS did get Draymond in the 2nd rd, and they previously had Monta Ellis from the 2nd rd that they were able to convert to Andrew Bogut. plus Curry at 7 and Klay at 11 are all time great calls outside the Top 5.
SAS got Kawhi at 15, but also developed Danny Green, Patty Mills, George Hill, Gary Neal plus way more that I can't remember..in addition to obviously Parker and Manu.
Milw got Giannis at 15, but also great job on Middleton and Brogdon in the 2nd.
Tor had Siakam in the late first and Van Vleet undrafted

Yeah it gets harder to draft the further you get down in the order, but plenty of teams have a better track record than OKC. That's all I'm saying.

[Stork311]

not sure i would classify Steven Adams as a miss....or, if he is, I would take a miss like at every year.

[RubeTube]

Except the Wolves will get bent over. They never win at trades.

[Vendetta11]

If only the Wolves had the last 8 years the Thunder had... You know, something to actually cheer about...

[Oriole81]

not sure i would classify Steven Adams as a miss....or, if he is, I would take a miss like at every year.

I didn't mean to imply miss, he's been a fine player and has obviously outperformed his draft position, but doesn't move the needle enough IMO to offset the other big misses they've had.
Don't forget Giannis went 3 picks after, and again Payne was sandwiched between Booker and Rozier.

[mlhouse]

you can still find significant pieces outside the lottery though was my point, and I think OKC has been rather pedestrian at it.

Perry Jones, Steven Adams, Archie Goodwin, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson.
In 2015, they even had Pick 14 and took Cam Payne over Terry Rozier. Devin Booker went one pick ahead of Payne as well, so missed golden opportunity to trade up for him.

that's pretty bad.Adams and Roberson have been solid rotation players, but didn't do much to actually move the needle and get them over the top.

But again, the best player the Warriors picked in their run was Kevon Looney.

The Spurs are an outlier.

the original point I was responding to way back though was that (paraphrasing) OKC mgmt has been better at drafting of recent and could be better positioned than average to convert this bundle of picks to really productive players, and I was disagreeing with that. outside of top 5 picks, their track record is pretty bad, so unless a good number of these picks end up in the Top 5, I don't think they're any better positioned than any other team.

GS did get Draymond in the 2nd rd, and they previously had Monta Ellis from the 2nd rd that they were able to convert to Andrew Bogut. plus Curry at 7 and Klay at 11 are all time great calls outside the Top 5.
SAS got Kawhi at 15, but also developed Danny Green, Patty Mills, George Hill, Gary Neal plus way more that I can't remember..in addition to obviously Parker and Manu.
Milw got Giannis at 15, but also great job on Middleton and Brogdon in the 2nd.
Tor had Siakam in the late first and Van Vleet undrafted

Yeah it gets harder to draft the further you get down in the order, but plenty of teams have a better track record than OKC. That's all I'm saying.

That is a good point. ANother point is, however, you need good lottery luck and you also need the luck of another team making a mistake.

While Greg Oden was a good prospect, I thought Durant was much better and Seattle benefited from Oden being selected by Portland #1. Then in 2009, they picked Westbrook #4 after MN/Memphis picked OJ Mayo. However, that pick was a small surprise. Then in 2010 Memphis picked Thabeet at #2 leaving James Harden for the Thunder at #3.

Oden-Mayo-Tykreke Evans isn't as good of a team, is it?

[Oriole81]

If only the Wolves had the last 8 years the Thunder had... You know, something to actually cheer about...

I did say they had an all time run with their Top 5 picks of Durant, Harden and Russ. That's 100% earned on their end.
However the fact that they weren't able to convert that to a finals appearance is something worth criticizing, and that it's not necessarily a given that they'll be able to replicate this success going forward with this new haul.
That's all I was saying.

As a Wolves fan though I of course would gladly trade their run for ours. Way better than top picks on Derrick Williams, Wes Johnson, Johnny Flynn, etc.

[OliverMiller]

you can still find significant pieces outside the lottery though was my point, and I think OKC has been rather pedestrian at it.

Perry Jones, Steven Adams, Archie Goodwin, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson.
In 2015, they even had Pick 14 and took Cam Payne over Terry Rozier. Devin Booker went one pick ahead of Payne as well, so missed golden opportunity to trade up for him.

that's pretty bad.Adams and Roberson have been solid rotation players, but didn't do much to actually move the needle and get them over the top.

But again, the best player the Warriors picked in their run was Kevon Looney.

The Spurs are an outlier.

the original point I was responding to way back though was that (paraphrasing) OKC mgmt has been better at drafting of recent and could be better positioned than average to convert this bundle of picks to really productive players, and I was disagreeing with that. outside of top 5 picks, their track record is pretty bad, so unless a good number of these picks end up in the Top 5, I don't think they're any better positioned than any other team.

GS did get Draymond in the 2nd rd, and they previously had Monta Ellis from the 2nd rd that they were able to convert to Andrew Bogut. plus Curry at 7 and Klay at 11 are all time great calls outside the Top 5.
SAS got Kawhi at 15, but also developed Danny Green, Patty Mills, George Hill, Gary Neal plus way more that I can't remember..in addition to obviously Parker and Manu.
Milw got Giannis at 15, but also great job on Middleton and Brogdon in the 2nd.
Tor had Siakam in the late first and Van Vleet undrafted

Yeah it gets harder to draft the further you get down in the order, but plenty of teams have a better track record than OKC. That's all I'm saying.

But again, the reason their drafting suffered is because of the success they had leading to worse draft positioning. They drafted Reggie Jackson and Ibaka at 24.

My point is that almost no team draft well in those late picks to help a contending window extended. Not the Warriors, not the Lakers, Heat, Bulls, etc.

I'll agree in a sense that Presti is better at maximizing assets than drafting (outside of the Harden trade of course).

[thinktank]

3 years? With rosass in charge it will be by December

Bullshiiiiiit.

This is a building year.

Keep skirt on, please.

No sarcasm detector today?

Well there are so many Rosas Crybabies you just never know...

[Oriole81]

But again, the best player the Warriors picked in their run was Kevon Looney.

The Spurs are an outlier.

the original point I was responding to way back though was that (paraphrasing) OKC mgmt has been better at drafting of recent and could be better positioned than average to convert this bundle of picks to really productive players, and I was disagreeing with that. outside of top 5 picks, their track record is pretty bad, so unless a good number of these picks end up in the Top 5, I don't think they're any better positioned than any other team.

GS did get Draymond in the 2nd rd, and they previously had Monta Ellis from the 2nd rd that they were able to convert to Andrew Bogut. plus Curry at 7 and Klay at 11 are all time great calls outside the Top 5.
SAS got Kawhi at 15, but also developed Danny Green, Patty Mills, George Hill, Gary Neal plus way more that I can't remember..in addition to obviously Parker and Manu.
Milw got Giannis at 15, but also great job on Middleton and Brogdon in the 2nd.
Tor had Siakam in the late first and Van Vleet undrafted

Yeah it gets harder to draft the further you get down in the order, but plenty of teams have a better track record than OKC. That's all I'm saying.

But again, the reason their drafting suffered is because of the success they had leading to worse draft positioning. They drafted Reggie Jackson and Ibaka at 24.

My point is that almost no team draft well in those late picks to help a contending window extended. Not the Warriors, not the Lakers, Heat, Bulls, etc.

I'll agree in a sense that Presti is better at maximizing assets than drafting (outside of the Harden trade of course).

I'll agree and disagree at the same time.
And an aside, I just think the Heat and Warriors got comfortable with the idea that vets would come there on sub market deals that they didn't have to worry about the draft anymore, which is too bad.