Draft position is sooo overrated

Here’s a perfect example:

 Player 1:   6′ 10.5"w/o shoes  225lbs 7′ 2" wingspan,  9′ 0" standing reach.  

 Player 2: 6′ 9.25"w/o shoes  216lbs 7′ 3.25" wingspan, 9′ 3.5" standing reach.  

 Both players have similar athleticism, similar perimeter-based skill sets, similar slight frames that leads them to avoid banging in the post. They are also within 3+ months age of each other. Player 2 is considered to have terrible intangibles, despite having lottery talent. Player 1 is considered the favorite to be the #1 pick next year, despite looking like he’ll be ineligible for this entire coming college season. Player 2 just went undrafted, but has already shown major talent in the NBA preseason. http://www.youtube.com/watch

Here’s a perfect example:

 Player 1:   6′ 10.5"w/o shoes  225lbs 7′ 2" wingspan,  9′ 0" standing reach.  

 Player 2: 6′ 9.25"w/o shoes  216lbs 7′ 3.25" wingspan, 9′ 3.5" standing reach.  

 Both players have similar athleticism, similar perimeter-based skill sets, similar slight frames that leads them to avoid banging in the post. They are also within 3+ months age of each other. Player 2 is considered to have terrible intangibles, despite having lottery talent. Player 1 is considered the favorite to be the #1 pick next year, despite looking like he’ll be ineligible for this entire coming college season. Player 2 just went undrafted, but has already shown major talent in the NBA preseason. http://www.youtube.com/watch

 If you are so confident in the Celtics picks, why do you spend multiple threads a week to try to justify your players?  Celtics have a fair roster and an exceptional coach.  A coach that I consider to be top 6 or 7 already.  Brad Stevens covers up the OBVIOUS deficiencies in this roster.  5’8", 6’2", 6’3" 6’3" are the sizes of the majority of their guard rotation.  They don’t have a top 30 player in the league, and their best player typically gives up as many as he gets.  I admire that you are excited about your team, as you should be.  To act like the Celtics are just draft gurus though is pretty ridiclous.  Having mediocre players (I.E no superstar, or potential superstar no matter how much you want to say Smart is the next Harden) is a result of their mediocre draft position.  That is all.  

They play in a historically weak conference.  They have a great coach and a mediocre roster at best.  If Brad Stevens decides to take a job everybody knows he is waiting for (one of the big 5 colleges) the Celtics will be the new 76ers.  8th seed and out every year.  I mean that still might be the result even with Brad Stevens scheming their way to victories to make up for the obviously medicore roster that Ainge has assembled.  And will continue to assemble, because NO free agent wants to play in Boston.  When you do finally decide to cash in and get a superstar it will cost you about 4 of your rotational players.  

Sure you have like all of the Nets draft picks for the next 63 years.  I guess that prevents the need to truely bottom out.  But to act like the success of the Celtics last year was a result of some genius drafting is just as ridiculous as most of your posts.  It’s because you have a brilliant coach.  Hiring him was Ainge’s 3rd best move he has made as a GM.  The first two resulted in a championship…. Albeit only 1.

You are such a Celtics homer, it’s like your Bill Simmons down syndrome cousin or something.  

 If you are so confident in the Celtics picks, why do you spend multiple threads a week to try to justify your players?  Celtics have a fair roster and an exceptional coach.  A coach that I consider to be top 6 or 7 already.  Brad Stevens covers up the OBVIOUS deficiencies in this roster.  5’8", 6’2", 6’3" 6’3" are the sizes of the majority of their guard rotation.  They don’t have a top 30 player in the league, and their best player typically gives up as many as he gets.  I admire that you are excited about your team, as you should be.  To act like the Celtics are just draft gurus though is pretty ridiclous.  Having mediocre players (I.E no superstar, or potential superstar no matter how much you want to say Smart is the next Harden) is a result of their mediocre draft position.  That is all.  

They play in a historically weak conference.  They have a great coach and a mediocre roster at best.  If Brad Stevens decides to take a job everybody knows he is waiting for (one of the big 5 colleges) the Celtics will be the new 76ers.  8th seed and out every year.  I mean that still might be the result even with Brad Stevens scheming their way to victories to make up for the obviously medicore roster that Ainge has assembled.  And will continue to assemble, because NO free agent wants to play in Boston.  When you do finally decide to cash in and get a superstar it will cost you about 4 of your rotational players.  

Sure you have like all of the Nets draft picks for the next 63 years.  I guess that prevents the need to truely bottom out.  But to act like the success of the Celtics last year was a result of some genius drafting is just as ridiculous as most of your posts.  It’s because you have a brilliant coach.  Hiring him was Ainge’s 3rd best move he has made as a GM.  The first two resulted in a championship…. Albeit only 1.

You are such a Celtics homer, it’s like your Bill Simmons down syndrome cousin or something.  

 Here’s another (imperfect) example, using the first pick and the last pick of the 2012 draft.

career per 36 minutes:

Player From To G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1

 Kyrie Irving 2012 2015 256 256 8832 7.9 17.5 .453 1.9 4.8 .390 6.0 12.7 .477 4.2 4.8 .862 0.8 2.9 3.7 5.9 1.5 0.3 3.0 2.3 21.9pts

 Isaiah Thomas 2012 2015 283 154 8001 6.5 14.8 .441 2.0 5.6 .363 4.5 9.2 .488 4.7 5.5 .860 0.7 2.4 3.1 5.9 1.2 0.1 2.7 2.8 19.9pts

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi

 Here’s another (imperfect) example, using the first pick and the last pick of the 2012 draft.

career per 36 minutes:

Player From To G GS MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1

 Kyrie Irving 2012 2015 256 256 8832 7.9 17.5 .453 1.9 4.8 .390 6.0 12.7 .477 4.2 4.8 .862 0.8 2.9 3.7 5.9 1.5 0.3 3.0 2.3 21.9pts

 Isaiah Thomas 2012 2015 283 154 8001 6.5 14.8 .441 2.0 5.6 .363 4.5 9.2 .488 4.7 5.5 .860 0.7 2.4 3.1 5.9 1.2 0.1 2.7 2.8 19.9pts

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi

 Well… 12 comments and 2 people.

Anyways, I think we should just wait til the season starts to say the Celtics are excellent drafters and that D’Angelo Russel is a bust. I think that we should also wait for the season to start to criticize Danny Ainge. As annoying as it is for T Rex to hype the Celtics as much as he does. We can honestly not say how good or bad the Celtics drafting skills are until we at least at the very least see one season of both guys in the NBA.

On to T Rex, yeah you found an excellent soon to be All Star in Marcus Smart, not as good of a player as James Harden, but still a good pick up. But then you also F’d up in that same draft by selecting James Young over guys like Rodney Hood, or Jordan Clarkson. Now, the Lakers also picked up some talent in Jordan Clarkson, but they have also screwed up in drafting just as the Celtics have.

T Rex, your main point was that drafting position is soooo overrated. Now, that’s not necessarily true. I mean, more often than not, you’ll find that the #1 pick is better than #15. It just normally happens. Not all the time (Kobe, Malone, and of course, the Anthony Bennett Draft) but generally, the first pick is one of the best if not the best. So, it’s not fair to bring up #1 and #60 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft because that is something that happens once in a million years. That’s the only time that I can think of that the first and last pick were that similar.

My final point is that every team has their good picks and bad picks. My Jazz picked up John Stockton and Karl Malone both outside the lottery, but then we have also screwed up in picking Ryan Humphreys at fourteenth, and Kris Humphries at pick #14. That stuff happens. Every team strikes gold some years and loses others.

So, you can’t say that draft position is completely overrated. But you can’t really say that a franchise sucks at drafting. The draft is a big win or lose games. You can’t predict injuries for a guy like Greg Oden, or drug problems like Michael Beasley. You just have to do your best at scouting and hope that injuries or other problems don’t follow.

Man… this is the longest post I’ve ever written. I don’t think that I’ve even written an essay this long.

 Well… 12 comments and 2 people.

Anyways, I think we should just wait til the season starts to say the Celtics are excellent drafters and that D’Angelo Russel is a bust. I think that we should also wait for the season to start to criticize Danny Ainge. As annoying as it is for T Rex to hype the Celtics as much as he does. We can honestly not say how good or bad the Celtics drafting skills are until we at least at the very least see one season of both guys in the NBA.

On to T Rex, yeah you found an excellent soon to be All Star in Marcus Smart, not as good of a player as James Harden, but still a good pick up. But then you also F’d up in that same draft by selecting James Young over guys like Rodney Hood, or Jordan Clarkson. Now, the Lakers also picked up some talent in Jordan Clarkson, but they have also screwed up in drafting just as the Celtics have.

T Rex, your main point was that drafting position is soooo overrated. Now, that’s not necessarily true. I mean, more often than not, you’ll find that the #1 pick is better than #15. It just normally happens. Not all the time (Kobe, Malone, and of course, the Anthony Bennett Draft) but generally, the first pick is one of the best if not the best. So, it’s not fair to bring up #1 and #60 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft because that is something that happens once in a million years. That’s the only time that I can think of that the first and last pick were that similar.

My final point is that every team has their good picks and bad picks. My Jazz picked up John Stockton and Karl Malone both outside the lottery, but then we have also screwed up in picking Ryan Humphreys at fourteenth, and Kris Humphries at pick #14. That stuff happens. Every team strikes gold some years and loses others.

So, you can’t say that draft position is completely overrated. But you can’t really say that a franchise sucks at drafting. The draft is a big win or lose games. You can’t predict injuries for a guy like Greg Oden, or drug problems like Michael Beasley. You just have to do your best at scouting and hope that injuries or other problems don’t follow.

Man… this is the longest post I’ve ever written. I don’t think that I’ve even written an essay this long.

 This thread now has an official video.

Draft Position is Overrated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

 This thread now has an official video.

Draft Position is Overrated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch

 Haha why do I feel like ive just watched a nazi propoganda film.

 Haha why do I feel like ive just watched a nazi propoganda film.