That's starters. And not counting guys that went in the second round. And in those same drafts there are lots of guys who went top 14 who were misses. 1-60 it's all a gamble.
not what the original point was. for every few names you can drop, i can name twice as many people either you've never heard of or are out of the league. again odds aren't in your favor from your op
1. Star (We technically have our Big 3---James, CP, Clint) That record together is amazing, despite our slow start. 2. Decrease The Drop (Patience---and Knight is expendable, but could be a GREAT addition) 3. Welcome Home.... _ _ _ _ _ _
So what do the George, Leonard and Butler deals teach the league? First, we have seen that trading a star doesn't mean rebuilding. This isn't a brave face the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs have put on, it's reality. In these recent deals the teams sending away the star ended up receiving established players in return. The Indiana Pacers seem to have hit the jackpot because Victor Oladipo morphed into a star but he'd been in the league four years. DeMar DeRozan is in his 10th season, Robert Covington is in his sixth. Second, these trades weren't able to deliver valuable draft picks. In the three deals combined there were only two picks traded. The only first-rounder went from Toronto to San Antonio in the Leonard deal, and it was protected. Right now, it would be the 30th pick in the 2019 draft as the Raptors are off to a tremendous start. Granted the Houston Rockets offered four first-rounders for Butler but clearly Minnesota felt the parameters Houston was offering didn't make them that valuable. Third, the teams trading the disgruntled players all took on more long-term money than they sent out when moving their stars. This is partly a function of trading players nearing the end of their contracts. But more to the point, none of these deals created meaningful salary-cap relief. The old playbook when trading a star called for trying to get prospects, picks and cap relief when forced into such a deal. Or at least two of the three. In these leveraged deals, that old credo has been abandoned. Fourth, we saw prospects traded, but not prime prospects. All three trades included recent lottery picks who are still on their rookie contracts, which is theoretically good. The Pacers received Domantas Sabonis (who is playing fantastically), the Spurs got Jakob Poeltl and the Wolves landed Dario Saric. There's reason to have some excitement about each of these players. But in Poeltl's and Saric's cases, neither were the most valued players on rookie deals on the teams that traded them. Fifth, it has been made clear that new provisions in the collective bargaining agreement to discourage star player movement aren't working well. George and Leonard both gave up the chance to qualify for the Designated Player Veteran Extension. In other words, by forcing trades they left as much as $70 million in guaranteed money on the table. By informing the Wolves he'd leave in free agency, Butler was willing to walk away from a fifth season of a new contract and as much as $47 million. As Irving said when he was traded to Boston, also missing out on the chance for the DPVE cash: "You can't put a price on happiness."
Sounds like Josh Smith is coming home. I keep wanting to relieve that 14-15 season magic, therefore, I overlook that he is old, that he sucks at threes, turns the ball over like crazy and probably can't play as good defense anymore.
I was thinking pretty much along the same lines , the value of those picks differs due to where you are as a team. Teams who don't have an established star , those picks are more valuable to the future than a team chasing a championship who wants to cash them in now.
