I posted a majority of this comment on another thread, but realized it was kind of off-topic.
I see a lot of talk on the Blog about how the future is our time. Names like Jaylen, Smart, both Nets picks, and sometimes Rozier get thrown out there. And I don't disagree. However...
How good of a future are our young people/assets, really? The Nets picks are still unknowns and I won't enter the controversy about Danny being a 'bad drafter', but we should all be able to agree that drafting isn't his strongest suit. I'd say he's gone 1 for 2 in the top 6 so far.
Let's be real. The Bucks, Wolves and even Philly with their picks look like they may have brighter future cores than ours. The Sixers could own two top 5 picks this year, and let's not forget Embiid and Simmons both have higher upside than anyone on our entire roster.
I love Smart's D but offense is simply more important, and Smart is bad at it. He's less of a prospect than Wiggins; he's probably less of a prospect than Middleton. Jaylen is less of a prospect than both Towns and the Greek Freak. And that doesn't even include Lavine's upside, a Wolves lotto pick in a deep draft, Jabari Parker, Maker, & Brogdon (who owns us).
Even if the future is our time, and even if we pick the BPA with both picks (however high they turn out to be) - can we really say in early 2017 that we have a top 3 young core/asset pool?
Compare us to Philly. In my reading of the situation, Smart is still an elite prospect, because he's becoming Ron Artest 2.0, which is valuable. Let's say that Philly doesn't get LA's pick, their top assets are:
Embiid
Saric
Simmons
Philly '17 pick
Philly '18 pick
Ours are:
Marcus Smart
Jaylen Brown
Ante Zizic
Brooklyn '17 pick
Brooklyn '18 pick
I think our top 5 assets and theirs are close in value. Imagine the opportunity to put up stats that any/all of Smart/Brown/Zizic would have had on Philly's dreadful roster. Embiid and Simmons being injury-prone is something to think about, too.
you may be spot on. but, as greece666 used to say, prediction is difficult, especially about the future.
for example, what were the early predictions about okafur? about noel? i see your list for philly and perhaps it will all pan out, giving them multiple all stars. but i also think the player ceilings might turn out something such as this:
embiid - injuries make him oden 2.0, or limit his abilities
saric - a great rotation guy, but not a go-to guy on a top quality team
simmons - great passer who cannot play defense, is timid in scoring, medicore rebounder, and cant shoot. ala some of the cb predictions for smart - valuable, but flawed rotation player.
Philly picks in 17 and 18...see noel and okafur above. the lottery is really is a gamble and thus far philly is batting .500, tops.
philly might be sitting pretty in 5 years. but it is not a lock. conversely, philly might have a handful of talented but flawed players with important limitations. let's wait and see.