For Vlade f***ing Divac. >:([/quote]
To be fair, that was set up beforehand and he had told the Hornets he had no interest in playing for them.
For Vlade f***ing Divac. >:([/quote]
To be fair, that was set up beforehand and he had told the Hornets he had no interest in playing for them.[/quote]
I still call bs on that! Imo he would have played he was bluffing. But no one the hornets could have been sure.
[quote=“CMack124, post:39, topic:25503”][quote=“Normmm, post:37, topic:25503”]I just looked at every draft since 1990. Only 5 top 10 picks have won a championship with the team that drafted them. That’s out of roughly 200 top 10 picks, or a 2% success rate. Tim Duncan is the only over all #1 to have done it.
Andrew Bynum - 10th - 2005
Dwayne Wade - 5th - 2003
Paul Pierce - 10th - 1998
Tim Duncan - 1st - 1997
Lindsey Hunter - 10th - 1993[/quote]
Look over the same time period, how many teams won championships with their best playing being a guy they didn’t acquire through the draft?
-The first two Laker teams with Shaq
-Maybe the Pistons team, depending who you want to say their best player was
-Maybe the Celtics if you want to say KG was their best player.
That’s maybe 4 out of the last 21 championship winning teams, not great odds.
And of all the teams you listed who landed big players not through the draft, only James and Boozer are on championship contending teams and Boozer isn’t anywhere close to the best player on his team. Everyone can agree that the LBJ situation was quite unique.
My point is: If you want to win an NBA championship you almost certainly have to acquire your best player through the draft. I think this holds up over the past 20 years. Maybe you get lucky and draft Kobe in the teens (or get even luckier and somebody trades you the pick), but the bottom line is you almost have to get your best player through the draft if you want to be a legitimate contender and actually win.[/quote]
I never said abandon the draft. You pointed out that most of the championship teams obtained their best player in the draft. That doesn’t really prove anything. Every team in the league obtained their best player in the draft.
Just pointing out that planning around a lottery pick may not be the best solution. Certainly not the only solution. I’d say in that same time frame (1990-2010) that only 2 championship teams happened from drafting that franchise player to build a team around, Duncan and Wade.
If the Bobcats are going to be successful they’re going to have to bring in quality FAs too. I wasn’t saying Boozer was the best player in Chicago. Or that Atlanta was a championship contending team. Just saying that other teams have been able to land marquee FAs.
Also during the same time frame (1990-2010) Phil Jackson won the NBA championship 11 times.
Maybe we just need a good coach?
You don’t build a championship team through the draft in the NBA. You get your best player, sure, but one player never wins a title. You have to augment your team with high caliber free agents.
Dwade won a title, sure, but he had Shaq there too.
Kobe was drafted by the Lakers, but Pau wasn’t, neither was Shaq.
Of the title team for the Mavs this year, well, they only had TWO players from the team that went to the title game 5 years ago. TWO.
Celtics? Paul Pierce was drafted, but Ray Allen and KG sure weren’t.
Scottie Pippen? Drafted by the Sonics.
Now, the Spurs did very well with building a team through the draft. Manu Ginobili might be the best second round pick of all time. But getting Duncan was luck beyond luck. Robinson got hurt, they barely miss the playoffs and win the Draft Lottery. It is very rare a team gets two superstars via the draft. And when they do, those teams are dominant.
Other than the heat, I agree.
[quote=“Powerbait, post:45, topic:25503”]You don’t build a championship team through the draft in the NBA. You get your best player, sure, but one player never wins a title. You have to augment your team with high caliber free agents.
Dwade won a title, sure, but he had Shaq there too.
Kobe was drafted by the Lakers, but Pau wasn’t, neither was Shaq.
Of the title team for the Mavs this year, well, they only had TWO players from the team that went to the title game 5 years ago. TWO.
Celtics? Paul Pierce was drafted, but Ray Allen and KG sure weren’t.
Scottie Pippen? Drafted by the Sonics.
Now, the Spurs did very well with building a team through the draft. Manu Ginobili might be the best second round pick of all time. But getting Duncan was luck beyond luck. Robinson got hurt, they barely miss the playoffs and win the Draft Lottery. It is very rare a team gets two superstars via the draft. And when they do, those teams are dominant.[/quote]
If you’re going to count Kobe as drafted by the Lakers then you have to count Pippen as drafted by the Bulls.
I agree PB, you don’t win solely through the draft but you have to start there. If you don’t get a superstar through the draft you can’t land the quality free agents who fill out the championship caliber roster (well, you probably can but you overpay and still don’t win enough). You absolutely need both, but I think it has to start through the draft which is the point I am trying, and apparently failing, to make.
Going back to the original topic, the Bobcats need to get a draft pick right, they have made some awful picks and had bad luck with high picks in bad drafts, I think they will continue to be a poor team until they hit a home run with one of their picks. They have to start building through the draft and then bring in the help later through FA, no point in hanging onto guys like Wallace and Jackson without a star player for them to compliment.
CMack, I agree with you for the most part. My point is that they traded Wallace for Bismack and another pick next year. But that pick will probably be in the 20-30 range. Then they traded Jackson for Maggette. Neither of those transactions scream upgrade to me.
Then by trading both Jackson and Wallace, they’ve clearly bailed on the 2011-2012 season in hopes of getting a very high draft pick. Which I don’t think there’s a really high level lottery pick next year. If 2012 had a Dwight Howard or Lebron James type player at the top of the draft, that would be a different story.
Also was curious why you thought there’s no way Charlotte would get a marquee FA.
I think next year’s draft will be a lot better than this, Barnes and the Kentucky freshmen (assuming he lives up to the hype) could be very, very good. Plus Drummond, if he can get eligible for it, could be the best of them all. I’d hate for them to end up with a Sullinger-type guy, he can be good but probably won’t ever dominate.
I don’t see Charlotte landing a big time FA because no big time FA is going to go for the complete money grab. They will want to go somewhere with some kind of base for building a winning team. I don’t see Charlotte as that place right now. What do they really have in Augustine and Kemba? Two role players? Two stars? Who knows. Howard isn’t going to sign with the Nets if Deron Williams isn’t there, he won’t go sign with a bottom-tier team just because they can offer him money, he’s going to find a team with a good core of talent and go there trying to win a championship. I don’t see that in Charlotte now and I don’t see them building that in the next 2 or 3 years. I think (or maybe hope) that MJ will spend the money to sign big time FAs, but I don’t think there will be mutual interest anytime soon.
Mack, I agree. This years draft was atrocious because the best players didn’t want to risk being locked out. I think if Kyrie was healthy all season, he’d still be at Duke.
Next year will be loaded with quality players.