1-10 on this years draft board I'd pick every single player over Marcus Smart. I'd take Buddy, Murray, Dunn, Even Bender over Smart. I'd take Skal Labisierre over him. I'd take Marquess Kriss over him. I'm sorry but Danny goofed that pick up but in his defense, that year was a terrible year for talent so I give Danny the pass on that but only that. Smart is more valuable to us in a trade then he is on the court.
Luckily, there are many GM's like you for Danny to take advantage of.
What he's saying is actually no that unreasonable.
People don't seem to realise that the 2014/15 draft was horrendous once you got past the top 3. That draft was all about Wiggins/Parker/Embiid - once you got beyond that, it was pretty much "choose your role player".
I think Danny picked pretty well, because if Smart did develop his shot and surprise some people then he could have surprised and been better then expected - outside of Exum he was probably one of the higher upside picks outside of the top 3. But in all honesty there just really was not a lot to choose from, and out of a basket full of short straws, Danny picked one of the longer ones.
Realistically Embiid and Smart were probably the closest things there were to 'versatile' players in the top 6.
- Wiggins' only talent relying on his athleticism to score buckets
- Parker could score and rebound decent, but couldn't defend and lacked athleticism
- Gordon looked like a defensive role player from day one
- Randle clearly could not defend to save his life
- Exum had potential but was a huge gamble (kinda that year's Bender)
- Embiid looked like a two-way star potentially, but had major health concerns
Smart was really the only guy in that top 7 who actually looked like he had the potential to be a positive impact guy on both ends of the court.
Fast forward to this year and you have Simmons, Ingram, Bender, Dunn, Hield, Brown, Poeltl, Chriss, Labissiere, Davis, Baldwin - all of those guys have the potential to become two-way players at the NBA level, and all of them have the ability to contribute in more then just one way if they happen to reach their potential.
In fact the only high ranked prospect in this year's draft that looks like a one-way man is Murray - who has about zero defensive potential and who I kinda see as this year's Jabari Parker (albiet a pocket sized version).
Looking at all those guys who could become two-way stars one day,it's actually really hard for me to envision Smart going any higher then top 7 or 8. He could well fall back outside of the top 10 (where Baldwin, Luwawu and Valentine are are currently projected to go). I struggle to see Smart as a major leap above those guys.