No idea on how tall he was on certain dates, but the semantics seem not that important when considering the two primary reasons he ended up at Santa Clara: a massive growth spurt and not playing for a shoe team (presumably because he was 5-6 as a freshman )
Meanwhile his younger brother got all his height earlier in the process and got wildly over-rated!
(Willing to concede that by going to Santa Clara and playing three years, J-Dub had a chance to grow into his game and frame in a way his younger brother simply has not)
The genes giveth, the genes taketh
Slightly different topic - lots has been made regarding the Thunderās treasure trove of draft picks received from various trades, but those picks really arenāt part of the construction of this team - most of the picks they received are for future years (which really speaks to their flexibility going forward). The only top-ten pick on this roster is Chet!
Cason, Jalen, Chet, Dieng are all lotto picks right?
late lotto, yes, all but Chet picked after a pretty large swath of useless guys (or at least worse guys), and I think all but Jalen taken with their own pick.
Jalen took a while to actually come into his own even after all his height and weight or whatever hit. And even still, I think adjusting for age and competition you could prob find plenty of dudes that seemed like better picks at the time. Guy just kept getting way better after his slow start.
Getting just a starter after the top 5-10 picks is a 50/50 proposition. OKC has drafted and developed wildly well.
#Slater
Itās the end of an era:
BREAKING: The Buss family is entering an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter, the CEO and chairman of diversified holding company TWG Global, sources tell ESPN. Jeanie Buss will continue to serve in her role as Governor after the sale. https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/a943897ff910f?modifier=webview http://espn.com/app
Canāt wait for them to ruin the LAL!
If how heās done with the Dodgers is any indication, you might be waiting a while.
Yeah I was about to say he runs the best org in baseball
Counterpoint: Pegula owns the Bills and Sabres. Bills are good and Sabres arenāt.
The Bills arenāt anywhere near the org the Dodgers are.
Baseball is the one pro sport though where having the richest ownership is the biggest advantage though. I also believe the real big advantage the dodgers have is they were sort of the last one to get a mega regional tv deal. I believe their crazy spending has more to do with that than their owners just throwing money at it like a ballmer. Walter also is only worth 5bil so heās likely buying this with both a ton of leverage and a group so Iād be surprised if they freely spent it like ballmer has. I just donāt think this is a game changer(going from a cash poor owner to this) like some are acting like it is.
The sheer player development research that the Dodgers fund that is unlike anything else in MLB, is my understanding, among many other things that are clear advantages that donāt have much to do with simply buying your way to the top.
Thatās the stuff that everybody else in the NBA should be worried about. Getting MLB level player development science first will be worth a HUGE amount of wins and the Dodgers have a history of keeping it in house.
Yeah they are obviously great operators of a team, my overall point is this is not some situation where the lakers now have just this crazy cash rich ownership group that will just throw stupid money at things like a cohen, ballmer or Walton/penner. I saw something from the hoop collective where they were talking about how the lakers now should have all this cash and it should help a ton, I think they are mistaken(both in how much cash this ownership group has and the difference it makes).
I was never talking about it either. The Dodgers are probably the best run sports club in this hemisphere? I canāt speak to Euro soccer clubs but best in the world is possible. Organizational management is most meaningful competitive advantage in a salary cap league where you really have to grind every edge.
Probably if you donāt consider the advantages certain organizations have. The dodgers just have such a gigantic advantage in revenue and therefore spending compared to their peers + the la player draw attractiveness.
Today was another example of just how selfish and horrible some of these horrible owners in sports are too. Mlb is obviously full of them(pirates, rays, aās Rockies, marlins etc.). All these could cash out to huge profits yet continue to put their fans through misery and use the excuse we just donāt have the money to spend.