I wasn't around these parts during the 2013 Draft, so would anyone mind informing me as to what the general reaction was to Danny taking KO over Giannis? Giannis is honestly one of my favorite players in the league, so I don't look back fondly on that decision.
From what I recall, a good number of people were stumping for Giannis or Dieng, and a few for Schroder (though not too many due to Rondo being around). The Celts moving up to select Olynyk was a bit of a surprise.
I remember being dubious of Giannis, thinking he could end up as another Austin Daye / Anthony Randolph, and feeling a little bit excited because of how productive Kelly was in college. I remember thinking, though, that Dieng could have addressed the needs of the team better and that it would've been nice to end up with a player with the kind of upside that Giannis had.
What would have made more sense is if we had drafted like this -
2013 - Dieng
2014 - Vonleh and whoever, lol
2015 - Winslow, Hunter, etc.
At least at that point we'd have a core and a vision for the team moving forward, but why do what makes sense, right, lol ? Ugh. I'll never understand the Isaiah Thomas trade, and we might as well have kept Rondo for the year (and then perhaps let him walk or perhaps not, depending on who we could have gotten in the draft), still traded Green (if not for Prince than a first round pick in this year's draft), and finished the season with the 9th or 10th worst record, which ultimately nets us Winslow.
Okay, what have I done wrong now, lol ?
Why Vonleh over Smart? Smart has already proven he's a capable NBA player, Vonleh hasn't.
And would you really rather had kept Rondo all year than have Crowder, IT, and the Dallas pick, just for the sake of maybe being worse?
The reason I was for Smart or Randle was because I hadn't seen a video of Vonleh which I later came across and had me like (that's also the last time I'll ever put all my stock into draft express videos, lol . They're too negative, imo.). Smart is okay, but nothing in his highlights really gave off the same impression. Here, have a look at this -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYXa1_nb_Dk
OH MY GOD . An 18/19 year old power forward who already has better post moves, with either hand, than 90-95% of guys in the league, plus he can rebound, defend, pass, shhot (even out to the 3 point line, as we saw in the summer league) and handle? Wow. You know what would have been even better, though? If we had traded for Vonleh before the draft. Charlotte clearly had no idea in what they had in him, imo, as evidenced by their reason for trading the guy - because they couldn't move Cody Zeller. Seriously. Unbelievable. Give them ET, Sully, and KO for Vonleh and their second round pick at 39, which they traded to Brooklyn, anyway, leaving us with Vonleh and Smart, plus the guys from this year's draft. Noah had some good games at the end of the year, btw, when they actually gave him the time. Check this out -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjWnbHACRk
Crowder is a good player, but giving him a 5 year deal was ridiculous, imo, but I hope that I'm proven wrong. It would have been better to have signed Glenn Robinson III, who just inked a 3 year deal with the Pacers. Doh! God I love and hate Larry right now, lol . Alternatively, Crowda could just have been replaced with an undrafted free agent.
I'm not sure about the Dallas pick, and I'm not an IT fan. He's just too much of a defensive liability, imo, as was seen in the playoffs, and he excels at hero ball. Great (sarcasm) . We could have gotten a better player from, again, this year's class of undrafted free agents , imo.
All in all, and whether Rondo would have stayed or not, I guess I'm looking more at the big picture. Wouldn't you rather have a young core of Vonleh, Winslow, and Smart, instead of whatever this 'roster' is right now? At least we'd have a vision of what kind of team we want to make moving forward, and at that point we could start to shoot for making the postseason this year. I'm not advocating for a 76ers approach, here, but I just feel like it's best long-term if we first have the necessary talent in place, and the last two drafts were loaded. I know, I'm nuts .
I think Vonleh's issue was attitude, iirc. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that in his draft workouts something came across bad to Danny or Brad about his attitude. The kid has talent and potential, but with the culture that Brad is trying to build here I think they're trying to sway away from those types.
Now I'm of the opinion that the package was too much, but you HAVE to think that Danny said "Hey, I have Olynyk over here. Since Kamibsky is a clone of KO, why not substitute him for one of the picks?" If they were set on Kaminsky and we're working under the assumption that KO and Kamibsky are very very similar players with similar ceilings, then they had no reason to not take that deal. They could've got their guy along with more assets, and we could've fixed our PF jam and added Winslow. It makes too much sense for everyone involved. Surely KO was at least brought up as a possibility.
This is one of the many inconsistencies with Danny Ainge that has always puzzled me. He often says how he wants 'high character guys,' and yet drafts a guy in Smart who went into the stands after a fan (yes, I know what was said, and I'm appalled by it, but I do remember that people were questioning Smart's attitude, self-control, decision making, and stuff after it happened, so that's the only reason why I'm bringing it up in the first place), stuck by Sullinger after he beat up his girlfriend (okay, I guess that I should say 'allegedly beat up his girlfriend'), and didn't Fab Melo get kicked off the team for academic reasons (talk about the gift which keeps on giving. Ugh). So to then turn around and say that they loved Vonleh's talent but his attitude was concerning just makes me roll my eyes, quite honestly.
I guess another way you could look at this is that there are, obviouly, different kinds of character concerns. Look at Mitch McGary, for example, who is a lot like Sullinger, 3 pointer and body aside, as a player. He got busted for weed while at Michigan, which caused him to slip in the draft (I was hoping that those character concerns would mean that he would drop a lot further, allowing us to trade for him, perhaps, but alas, okc ruined that idea. Deng Sam Presti
), but would you rather have a guy who got caught engaging in an activity in which many other current players apparently partake, or would you prefer to have someone associated with domestic violence on our roster? Right.
I'm not saying that doing weed is okay, btw, I was just making the point that it could be a lot worse.