Sam Presti Drafting Resume

If he gets a good bigman, now. Next draft if he gets a good bigman, he absolutely gets an A.

good drafts the last few years. OKC is a solid big man away from competing in the west.

Hey td8118, although I agree with your extremely positive assessment of Sam Presti, isn’t he the same guy who drafted BJ Mullens? I didn’t see that name in your list of draft choices.

We don’t know how Mullens will pan out, thats probably why you cant grade it.

ummm…Looney, we don’t know for sure how it will turn out, but I suspect BJ Mullens will be just as big a bust in the NBA as he was at Ohio State. Nonetheless, no matter how it eventually turns out, his name should be included on Presti’s list of draft choices as part of his resume.

I don’t think drafting Mullens was a bad choice. It isn’t like it was a high draft choice and he’s still a Rookie. Mullens still has that same potential and they took a low risk high reward. Plus they needed a big so he tried it out. I wouldn’t say that was anywhere near a bad choice. Well, unless there is another significant player that was available. Don’t say DeJuan Blair ’cause they feel they are set at the PF position although it would’ve been a nice choice with Green always being said to be “Out of position”

he has set his team up for a great future. Also there weakest position is center and this draft has a boat load.

Let me repeat that I think Presti’s done a fabulous job as the GM. I also understand the logic of drafting an unproven, agile, and athletic 7 footer as a long range project. However, I happen to feel that BJ Mullens will be the next Robert Swift for that organization. I truly hope he proves me wrong.

And yes, there were several other players I would’ve taken with the number 15 choice in the draft. Someone, I think RickyRubio9, said that it wasn’t a high draft choice. Let’s not underrate the chance to draft someone in the middle of the first round. That’s still a very valuable selection as many other teams would’ve loved that opportunity.

He has the potential to be an impact 7 footer. On a team lacking that, and with nothing but time to be patient with him, he had to pull the trigger. Blair would have been a good pickup, but I like the Mullens pick. For a long time, people forget he was the number 1 pick on alot of mocks.

You have to also include that other big I forget his name. He is from overseas and he is nice and he is still young developing. Also DJ White in the second round is not a bad pick because if he got more minutes he could put up numbers like Bass. Also you have to mention the trade for Sefoloosa or however you spell it. Dude is solid and he can guard so of the teams best perimeter players. Mullens is a better long term project than Swift because unlike Swift who was super slow, Mullens is a top athlete for his size and you can’t teach size and athleticism so at worst he will be a decent back up because as Westbrook grows into a better point all Mullens would have to do is run and catch lobs.

Well, left out quite a few picks/moves, but I do think he is doing well. He actually was a brain child of the San Antonio system, not the POR system (if that means Portland, I do not know honestly). He is doing well, though I would not give the Green pick an A, and the Durant pick was of course a no brainer for any team choosing second in that two player draft (even though the draft churned out some decent talent, it was at the time after all the Oden/Durant draft, as everyone continues to talk about, lol). As people have said before, the missing piece seems to be big guys. They really have not had the ability to take any that fit. Serge Ibaka and BJ Mullens are huge prospects, so put them on the wait and see side of things, but I think he built a good squad in OKC. Durant and Westbrook are sure fire star players, although Russell’s offense still needs work, but everyone else has a lot of what-ifs. Can Jeff Green be an effective 4 man? I do not think so, and in that case, how will he fit out their without a dominant defensive big? Was James Harden the best they could have made? I do like James a lot, and he has shown flashes of that Ginobili game people saw in him, but I was thinking earlier today about how crazy a Tyreke Evans/Russell Westbrook back court would be. Could you imagine what an offensive nightmare that would be for teams throwing in Kevin Durant? Obviously the original poster is a Thunder fan or something, but I do think OKC has a nice squad. I do not think they will make the play-offs this year, regardless of their floating above .500 7th seed record as of this posting, but in 2011, if they make some plays, they could be very tough, and I give Presti credit for how he has done since he has taken the helm.

i hate how everyone compares Mullens to Swift just because their white personally i think hes like Kwame Brown tons of physical talent but he doesn’t really give much intensity and effort.

A- is not a good grade, I would give it a C at best, only because he is still so young! But mullens is nowhere close to being an nba player.

canesboy6, we definitely disagree on BJ Mullens. I remember reading about him in the fall of 2008 with almost everyone saying he would be the number one big man in the country as a freshman. I was really excited about watching him play and when he finally stepped onto the court, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

BJ Mullens was clueless, he had no game whatsoever on either end of the court. He made his slow moving, plodding predecessor at Ohio State, Kosta Koufas, look like an All American. The young man had no idea what he was doing on the court and unwisely applied for the draft when he wasn’t even ready for college ball at Ohio State.

BJ Mullens should have taken a page out of Cole Aldrich’s book at Kansas, who also had a very poor freshman year, but wisely returned to the college and completely transformed his game. During his sophomore year, Aldrich looked like a different player, and now as a junior, he will almost assuredly become a lottery pick. That means Aldrich will earn about $15 million over the next three years.

Unfortunately, BJ Mullens didn’t have the patience to return to Ohio State for some badly needed skill enhancements, concentrate on developing professional work habits, and to learn the nuances of the game. Let’s face it, he has all of the requisite physical skills because he’s agile and athletic. But I’m afraid he won’t get the individual attention he needs in the NBA and will become a career journeyman at best.

I would love to see Mullens prove me wrong, but I thought, and still think, it was a horrible draft choice. It wasn’t as if Oklahoma didn’t have other options, because at number 15, there was still some excellent talent available on the draft board.

While I’m on the subject, let me say that unlike many people in this forum, I didn’t agree with the Harden choice either. It wasn’t a horrible selection like the BJ Mullens one because he appears to be a very good player and will probably work out OK over time. However, if it was my choice, I would have gone with Tyreke Evans.

yeah but Swift was always a bad pick he shouldn’t have been taken that high hes slow and isn’t that talented while Brown and Mullens have the talent just don’t seem to understand or care about the game.

Hey Birdzilla, generally I’m with you on the issue. If you’ve read my previous posts on this subject, you know I hate it when white players are compared only to other white guys.

However, there are times when that comparison is valid. In this particular case I compared Mullens with Robert Swift only because both of them were drafted by the same organization. Didn’t Oklahoma move from Seattle where Robert Swift was a number one draft choice for them? I don’t think he’s in the league any more, the guy was terrible. I’m afraid BJ Mullens will follow in his footsteps.

I agree that on a style basis, BJ Mullens and Kwame Brown is probably a good one for the reasons you stated.

However, as I stated earlier, I don’t think BJ Mullens and Robert Swift are in any way similar in terms of how they play the game, but both of them were centers who were drafted number one by the same organization. I think the comparison holds up only as a reflection on the judgment of their previous and new GM.