RollWithEm

Why is everyone so harsh on this draft class? They are going to surprise some people.

__________________
But that's just me.

Bogg

I actually agree. My point was that everyone 2-6 has question marks about them, and Robinson's going to wind up as way more than Brandon Bass, so it's no ludicrous to look at Robinson at 2.

Najee

It gives credence to the questions I had about Charlotte acquiring Bismack Biyombo in the first place. Charlotte knew going in that Biyombo would be a long-term project, especially on the offensive end. Drafting Thomas Robinson basically states that Charlotte is looking at another player as potentially its long-term solution, one year after acquiring the former No. 7 pick.

Charlotte is falling into that tendency a lot of bad teams do, and that's just taking players at the same position regardless of personnel needs. While I agree a team in Charlotte's case should take the best player available, however most bad teams just continue end up taking multiple players at the same position and the players usually fail.

Despite having a small, shooting point guard who didn't shoot well in D.J. Augustin, the Bobcats took another small, shooting point guard who doesn't shoot well in Kemba Walker in the lottery last year. Now you're talking about Charlotte picking another power forward with the No. 2 pick just a year after acquiring a power forward who was the No. 7 pick. And it's not like Walker and Robinson were and are considered players with star profiles.

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RollWithEm

I completely agree with this, and I always have. This whole take the best player available regardless of position concept presumes that you have enough stability in your organization and in your head coach to get every player the appropriate amount of minutes and practice time to develop correctly regardless of positional logjams. Instead, what happens far too often is that one of the young guys is buried on the bench because the other guy seems to be playing better in the short term. Many times this leads to the player who was buried on the bench still going on to excel in the league... for another team... who got him relatively cheaply compared to the production they eventually got out of him.

I know this is easy for me to say, but if I were a GM, I'd draft players who compliment each other in the same way Harden complimented Durant and Westbrook better than Tyreke Evans would have.

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But that's just me.

Tom

The key is drafting as you want...not because it is expected of you.

Najee

Unless the player is projected to be a star -- a la Orlando taking Shaquille O'Neal with the No. 1 pick in 1992, one year after taking Stanley Roberts in the first round in 1991 -- it makes no sense for a building team to use back-to-back first-round picks on players manning the same position. If Charlotte chooses Thomas Robinson at No. 2, that would mean a team with holes all around will have two top seven picks at power forward in consecutive years. And even in the case of Orlando, Roberts went No. 23 in the 1991 draft and he was considered a project.

It would be one thing if Robinson had the look of a star player, but based on what I seen he looks more like a Paul Millsap-type player. Since Bismack Biyombo cannot play any other position, it tacitly says that the team believes Biyombo is not the long-term answer.

There have been seen in many instances that picking players at the same positions in the draft usually doesn't work out for one or more players. The Washington Wizards are the most recent example. Andray Blatche has a breakout season in 2009-10, and in the draft that summer the Wizards acquire two power forwards -- Kevin Seraphin (No. 17) and Trevor Booker (No. 23) -- in draft-day trades. Then the Wizards take Jan Vesely with the No. 6 pick and Chris Singleton (who played power forward in college) at No. 18 in 2011.

Meanwhile, the team has a thin backcourt that cannot shoot and create shots for others. Blatche is all but gone. The team not has only a group of inexperienced players manning the same position, but it added two veterans who also can play power forward (Nene and Emeka Okafor).

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RollWithEm

If the Bobcats indeed do see Thomas Robinson as "their guy" at the top of this draft, they better not trade down too far. It looks like the Nets are looking to trade back into the lottery to get him: http://www.netsdaily.com/2012/6/26/3...move-up-way-up

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onelakerfan

fire MJ, o wait you can't

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RollWithEm

So they just went with Jeff Taylor and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with no trading? Seriously? With all the talk about stock-piling assets? I just don't get it.

__________________
But that's just me.

Bogg

Eh, if they didn't get a deal they liked I don't hate it, at least Derrick Brown isn't a starting NBA forward anymore. You can always use a guy who defends.

RollWithEm

Apparently the Bobcats made a hard play for Goran Dragic but struck out.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/81...on-4-year-deal

__________________
But that's just me.

Bogg

$34 million is a lot for a guy who played 30 good games last year. The Bobcats needs to leverage cap space into some extra draft picks and make a free agent splash two years from now, not fill out the roster before you have your stars in place.

Najee

Meanwhile, in its continual fixation with signing C-level veteran players as stopgaps the Bobcats are discussing signing free agent Antawn Jamison:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...#disqus_thread

The Bobcats continue to show why it is, IMO, the worst run organization in the NBA.

__________________
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Najee

I would rather spend $8 million per year on a taller, athletic and creative point guard in Goran Dragic than spend nearly $13 million per year for Ben Gordon, a shot-chucking small guard who duplicates what the Bobcats already have. Seriously, you don't think Kemba Walker and D.J. Augustin were better than Dragic this past year.

But once again, Charlotte continues to show why it is the worst franchise in the NBA. The team refuses to change from its formula of drafting role-player types who mostly aren't around and C-level veterans who are traded for the unused "salary cap space." You almost wonder if Michael Jordan acquired the Bobcats for a tax loss, the way Donald T. Sterling used the Clippers for years.

__________________
And when the groove is dead and gone, you know that love survives and we'll rock forever.

Bogg

How do you still not get what happened with the Gordon trade? Charlotte traded for a mid first-round pick, and taking Gordon was the price they had to pay for it. The fact that he's better than Maggette is ancillary.

Color me skeptical on Dragic, he's the third journeyman point guard in as many years to step into the starting role in Houston and overachieve. I'm sure he's a halfway decent player and he'll make a competent starter, but he's not a guy who's going to turn a team around, best case scenario he wins you 5-8 extra games next year and drops you four to five spots in the lottery. Getting Charlotte to the playoffs is a multi-season project, and starting it by spending money on the best possible supporting cast is nothing but a sure ticket to winning 35 games a year until you tear it all down again or hit a one-in-one hundred shot in the lottery.

I mean, really, if they wanted to be as good as possible next season they'd have gone after Lowry, Dragic, or Lin, paid Ryan Anderson, and traded the second overall pick for someone like Iguodala or Al Jefferson.....and they'd have gotten nowhere but tenth in the East for the next three years.