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. 
Embiid has already shown himself to be a 2 way dominant center so it is all about his health. I expect Saric will just top out as a good role player not a star. I don't see a basis for saying Simmons will be timid in scoring or a mediocre rebounder. He averaged 19.2 pts, 9 ftas and 11.9 rebs in college. He also can play defense but he just didn't put forth the effort a lot of the time. Coach Brown and Embiid won't let him get away with that. The success of Giannis running the Bucks offense bodes well for Simmons since he's a much better passer and ball handler. Besides their own 2 picks the Sixers also get the Lakers pick either 4th-6th this year or unprotected next year. When you've got a lot of picks, hitting on 50% works out pretty well.
As for us, we really need to get Fultz because Embiid, Simmons and Saric are >>>> Smart, Brown and Zizic.
good point, thanks for the reply and a tp.
just a bit more on simmons since, honestly, i have serious questions on parts of his game.
one of the hits on him in scouting reports, and it was confirmed by a handful of summer games (sss) was his shot is absolutely bad. as if we use college as an indicator (iffy to do so, but what the heck) at 3 point shooting, in 33 games simmons took THREE TOTAL three pointers, and made ONE. he shot FT at 67%, not terrible, not great. so yes, it is legitimate to raise questions about his shooting.
also, he is hesitant to play hard physical contact basketball. hence my question (and it is really that, a question) on his ability to rebound in the nba the same way he rebounded in college. plus he wont have the consistent height mismatches.
finally, defense, simmons, according to every report i have seen, is not good at it. now, you raise the fair point that he might improve since physically he has the ability to play better defense. you may be right. but again, my question (aiirt,aq) is how did the coaching staff and embiid do in teaching okafur how to play defense?
see? i am not contradicting your points, but i am posing questions, real legitimate questions, that have not been answered yet.
that is why i finished my original post here with the caveat that we all need to be patient and wait and see before coming to any conclusions.
p.s. personally, questions aside, i think your take on saric is probably spot on.
Topic: How Good is Our Future, Really? (Read 6534 times)