Agreed. Smith has the highest floor of all of those players, but if you’re picking 1st overall, you’re probably not 1 player away from winning it all. Imo, taking risks with high picks (e.g., taking Chet) is the only way you can change the trend from being a perennial bottom feeder to an actual contender. Look at the Mavericks - they took Luka when they had absolutely nothing going for them after Dirk retired and a few years later, they’re in the Western semifinals with a decade plus of being a playoff team (and potentially more) ahead of them. Obviously risks don’t always pay off either, but why play it safe if your team already sucks.
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Darko. Pain still lingers…
Jabari can get stronger. It’s clear that he lacked the strength to get to the rim.
Jordan Poole has one of the best handles in the league, did you expect that from him coming into the NBA? If this was always apparent then the allegations of Beilein grossly underutilizing him in the ball screen game might be true.
He both clearly had the ability and also clearly was ridiculously good using that ability for the first half of the year and then played very poorly for much of the second half of the year. The scouting report was clear that he had that sort of upside. It was also clear that he was struggling to play winning basketball at different points that season. He was also 19 or whatever.
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I would disagree with this characterization, but also he always profiled as a combo guard who could play on-ball and off-ball. That was always his archetype. Go read Dylan’s scouting report on him: Scouting Report & Video Breakdown: Jordan Poole | UM Hoops.com
Now he’s doing what he did in high school / college but better. He’s not a completely different guy. He’s a better version of the same guy. And that’s a pretty important distinciton for on-ball players. You can have on-ball talent but it’s only valuable if you are at a particular level of good at that. And so guys will wash out if they don’t reach that threshold. Poole eventually did. There’s no Jabari Smith scouting report that’s gonna tell you he shows flashes of playmaking talent but just has sloppy decision making.
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At 2pm today, Givony had the Pistons taking Bryce McGowens at 36.
3 hours later, he has McGowens at 42 to the Knicks and the Pistons taking Jaylin Williams at 36.
(Houstan at 38 to the Spurs has been constant today, with no Moussa)
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I have officially heard the Dunc’d On take on Jabari. If you really think the handle is pretty dire, I get it. It really limits what he can be on offense and he hasn’t shown what he can be on defense so you can pretty readily craft some “not incredible upside, surprisingly low floor” takes. I think I’m prob taking the other side of that bet bc I don’t think we are good at figuring out which guys actually have limited upside and his shotmaking at his age is really, really plus.
The thing that gives me pause is the idea that he really is kind of of a paint-by-numbers learner/performer. He puts in the work but there are just guardrails on bc he doesn’t intuit the game readily. I expected they’d say better things about his BB IQ.
…I’m gonna listen to Paolo but man I just…I dk. I wasn’t into him when I watched him and then Pelton’s stats said he was meh so now I want to dunk on him. But that’s dumb.
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Dang nabbit Nate and Danny think Paolo has great feel and BB IQ and I love betting on that. CONSARNIT!
Why the heck are they letting Woj spoil on tv
Never doubt the Vegas line!
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Woj single handedly swung the betting markets today
Also why were the Magic lying. Literally no incentive
Kings taking Murray! Bring on Ivey to the Pistons!!!
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omgggggg it’s happening KAANNNNNGZ ARE TAKING KEEGAN!!!
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Ivey! Don’t overthink it!
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I hope Detroit takes Johnny Davis!
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Ivey! Gotta get him.
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Please for the love of god, take Ivey and let’s get this over with!
Congrats to all the Pistons hive on Ivey. That is a super fun team. May have to dip into the pistons as my 2nd team thread more often now
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