Welp. So much for Nanu. This is an example of where you don't necessarily draft best player available on your draft board. You have to consider what the team is and what the league is doing. We had and have very obviously de-emphasized the center position in this small-ball era. Not only that but the whole league was and is trending to small bigs or at the very least bigs that can get out and run and also shoot. On top of that we were a playoff team trying to win a championship. Nanu was the wrong pick. He is a big tractor that is slow, wide, and not long. Doesn't matter if he was the "highest rated" player on the board. He didn't fit. And he was very undeveloped. And there was and still is a huge GLUT of big men with similar (or better) skills and similar (or better) length and athleticism. We drafted a baby dinosaur. And we paid Cuban to exterminate him for us. Lord what a waste. We generated our own personal luxury tax penalty to Cuban. We should've drafted Uthoff and signed him to a three-year deal. We would've got more out of him. No telling what he would have developed in to in our system. I'm not bitter or anything......
Oh you mean the 25 year old Uthoff that has barely played 9 games in his entire professional career? Yeah I wonder what he could've done for us under our system. If only we could find a way to get him on our team.... OH wait.
Now, go right ahead and tell us that Onuaku has been and is the better player and better fit for this team over Uthoff.
I never said or claimed that. You did. My point: If Uthoff was such a great gift with us and to our system... we probably wouldn't have traded him away when we had him. He's basically RJ Hunter lite... minus the NBA roster spot. NEXT!
You literally just posted that. Like I said, I never said that. No one cares about Onuaku or Uthoff. Only you bud. Move on!
What I said, very clearly, is you go ahead and tell us that Onuaku is the better player and fit for our system. I simply used Uthoff as an example of players that were available with that pick. Yes, I am partial to Uthoff. And yes, I know he's the better player over Onuaku. But I could have used McCaw, Felder, or several other players as well. And I haven't even discussed that we could have traded the pick for a future pick or at least cash....all which would have been more profitable to us than fooling with Onuaku for two years and then paying him for a third year not to play here. Especially when the other players drafted around him did not get as good of a guarantee as he did. We gave him a higher guarantee than players drafted ahead of him! It was a bad pick when we made it. It was bad then. Not just in hindsight. But in foresight it was a bad pick. It did not make sense. There's simply no justification for it. The only thing we have in hindsight is absolute undeniable permanent proof for people like you that couldn't tell when the pick was made that it was bad and confirmation for people like me that felt it was a bad pick but we thought maybe the organization knew something about Onuaku we didn't know. I go back to the only logical reasoning for this pick. We had to have drafted Onuaku because there was a possible Capela trade on the table that would have left us short handed on young, developing bigs. There's no other explanation that makes any kind of sense here. Personally, I think this pick...and some other player evaluations....lacked Sam Hinkie's input. I think we missed and do miss Hinkie's impact on our scouting and player evaluations. And it showed ..... right here. On a separate note, Jarrod Uthoff is not RJ Hunter lite. Uthoff is a textbook stretch 4 that can actually play some small micro ball 5 and can adequately defend most 3's and 2's. He's a much better shooter than RJ. He's a much better defender than RJ. He's clearly a better player then RJ. He'd be a great fit in our rotation and fit several other NBA team rotations. His game is ready-made to be able to step into many NBA rotations and immediately yield quality minutes. The argument that Uthoff (and many other non-NBA players) are not good enough to play in the NBA is a fallacy. It's opportunity combined with willingness to make small potatoes for 2-3 seasons that only happens once in a while for guys like him. I'm confident he'll eventually land his spot in the NBA and have a nice career that will far exceed Onuaku's career and at least half the players that were drafted in the 2016 draft. It's just a matter of time. Anybody that can't see Uthoff's NBA-ready skill set either doesn't know or understand the game or simply hasn't watched enough NBA basketball. Uthoff is plug-and-play ready for the NBA. He simply has to come upon the right opportunity. It will eventually happen.
No one cares about scrubs that will never have meaningful roles as you do @basketballholic And for that I commend you. Yet still....... who even cares!
And yet, the people who made the pick are in an NBA front office, doing this for a living...and you are not. Amazing. How do you explain that?
Professionals care. Everything impacts a team's championship opportunities. Even including waxing second round picks. Granted, there's always a waste factor in draft picks. Always! With every team. With every GM. With every scouting department. NOBODY is 100% on draft picks. So I sure done expect that of Morey and our FO. But you gotta call 'em as you see them. The only logical reason that explains this pick was we were losing Dwight and maybe Morey was worried about trading Capela and the cupboard being bare of any young bigs for development. There is simply no way Onuaku was the #1 guy on the draft board. He was selected from among a group of guys all similarly rated. The only reason that could possibly explain the pick was fear of attrition, which.......I can't possibly see being worried about because of the GLUT of big men available with the deemphasis on playing power basketball.
You win some you lose some, every big man pick is a gamble. In your case didn't you swear Thong Maker was the pick over Capela? Rox have picked some horrible big men but they also got some keepers over the years including Capela, Patterson, Harrell and Mandry maybe Onuaku was a miss but Rox have had so many hits you kinda look ridiculous crying about a low 2nd rounder. We don't even miss Onuaku the Rox git Joe Chee and Hardenstein who show more promise than Onuaku or Uthoff ever did.
Bro I'm 100% sure Rox didn't get a low 2nd rounder big man to replace Dwight wtf. If Dwight could be replaced by a 2nd round rookie he wouldn't have made 15M when he left the team. The team just thought he was the BPA. Period.
It's just this simple. Morey is great at what he does. But he's fallible. As we all are. And he flat out missed here. I cannot explain why he missed however. Because I know he's smarter than this. That's why I'm looking for some other reason why he picked Onuaku over a wing or point guard. And the only thing I can come up with is he must have feared attrition. Combined with our scouting leeching since we lost Hinkie. In my opinion, Hinkie was probably more responsible for discovering guys like Parsons than you know Remember, we were struggling with point guard pay, having another playmaker in the lineup besides Harden at that time. And guys like Kay Felder, Fred Vanvleet, Ron Baker, Yogi Ferrell, and Bryn Forbes were all available. Every one of those player has already been better players and have had more productive careers than Onuaku will have when he's finally done even if those guys never play another NBA minute. We would have been better off to pick up one of those guys and give them a three-year guaranteed minimum salary contract than to draft and pay Onuaku. And I haven't even gotten to guys like Troy Williams, David Nwaba, Derrick Jones, Jr., etc. It was a bad pick. And I'm scrambling to understand why we picked him.
What I said is I would trade Capela for Thon. And I stand by that. I would STILL Capela for Thon. I would much rather have Thon on a rookie scale deal and some other pick and roll very big man like Tyson Chandler or Nerlens Noel signed to small deals to cover that rim running rim defending role than to pay Capela $80 million plus the ongoing luxury taxes his contract generates over a vet pnr big and a young big on a rookie scale deal. And then take ess than half of what we paid Capela and sign DeMarcus with it.....like the Warriors did. Or better yet, pay $3.5 million to buy Jordan Bell in the second round, a guy that can MOVE! AND let him develop!!!! Instead of drafting Onuaku. Good night Irene. Gimmeabreak! Everything I just mentioned is what the Warriors have done and it beats the living crap out of paying Capela $80 million and paying a huge luxury tax bill for Capela to sit the bench when we play the Warriors while we draft Onuaku and pay him not to play for us and then play another team to take him off our hands!!!!!! Don't you see the difference here in us and the Warriors when it comes to our bigs???????????????????????? They're playing Green and KD at the 4,5 down the stretch with Bell and Looney on minimum contracts playing the rest of the big msn rotation minutes with another vet big on a minimum deal chewing up minutes for them in the regular season. and we got Anderson and now Capela ($33 millon) sitting on the bench down the stretch when we play them!!!!!!! You really wanna argue with me about Capela and Onuaku versus Cousins, Bell, Noel, Maker, etc.?????????? Get real man. Just..........get real.
LOL you are the one who needs to get real. Cousins tore his hamstring he will only be back in the playoffs. The comparison is just Thong Maker vs Capela when you said that Capela was still on a rookie scale deal now its Capela vs Thong Maker, Cousins, Bell, Noel..Thong and Noel don't even play for the Warriors wtf are you saying if the Rox picked Thong maker they would have all those other guys too?????? If Bell was so good how come he didn't dominate SL? Didn't Noel turn down the same 17M a year offer Capela took? Noel's stock was so bad OKC got him for the minimum but I guess he is better than Capela right? GSW isn't dominant because of Bell and Demarcus Cousins signed with them because they had 4 all stars on their team not because they had Jordan Bell. GET REAL, man. Capela is 10x better than Jordan Bell that's why Capela is making 17M a year and Jordan Bell isn't. Wanna bet Jordan Bell won't get 17M a year when he hits free agency? P.S. The rox did draft big men who can move and let them develop: Joe Chee and Hartenstein. These guys looked just as good if not better than Jordan freaking Bell in SL.
You just don't get it. Golden State is dominant because they don't waste money on specialists that can only contribute on one end of the court and/or have to sit down in crunch time. No, Capela is not 10x better than Jordan Bell. It's debatable whether he's actually better right now. But you go ahead and believe what you want. The Onuaku pick was a wasted pick. It was a waste when we made it. We got zero benefit from it. And then it cost us to clear him off the team. We would have been better off picking my 22-year old neice and then not offering her a contract.
What did Capela do to you? Did he borrow money? Something with a family member? Get a phone number that you couldn't get? I have to commend you. You don't lose the commitment. You decided that Capela was not very good, and you have not wavered. Never mind the playoffs, and all the analysts, the accolades from his teammates, and the big contract. They are all wrong, and you would rather have Noel. Everyone could have had Noel, but never mind. Honestly, I don't even need to know what he did -- I just need to know that it was bad.
Yeah but you sir are no professional. Just another random dude with a random ass opinion about some marginal players that don't even come close to the impact needle that you're suggesting they do. Everything matters! Of course, that's why Morey tries to snag up some solid UDFA after the draft. Especially considering we've been in buy mode and picks have been limited in these most recent drafts. You have an agenda with every player that you don't consider "your guy" on the Rockets. Which is evident, based on the above exchange regarding Capela. So who cares what you think honestly.
