It just so happened that improvement was slow enough for him to be blessed by the lottery balls in 2009. That's why he went after extra picks in 20. He only intended to stink for two seasons. 12. That faith, that pride expressed in McDonough's quote is a real defense against full-on tanking. 1 pick on average will outperform the No. But the average GM sees it through a different lens: through faith in his own ability to excel. 1 pick.Īs analysts, we sit back and see the actual difference in value between expected output from the No. 24 pick, there is likely to be lower thirst for that No. But because these GMs believe they can make steak and lobster out of the No. There's no question that in any given year you'd rather have the No. And the Celtics sure did it, with McDonough playing a role in the Rajon Rondo pick. You don't get to become a general manager of an NBA team without believing you can pluck stars from anywhere in the draft. The next-generation GM Suns don't need to deal But in some ways it's an insult to myself and my staff to think we can't without a top 5 pick, that we can't have success outside of the lottery." "Is it easier to be picking in the top 5? Sure. "One of the reasons I'm here and one of the reasons we had great success in Boston was because of our success outside of the lottery," McDonough told Arizona Sports 620's Burns and Gambo. It takes more.Īnd that brings me to pride, and in particular something Suns GM Ryan McDonough said last month. Getting a top pick - even the top pick - in a big draft is never ever enough. Buford and Gregg Popovich making a whole lot of other crucial moves, including taking Manu Ginobili in the second round and Tony Parker near the end of the first round. But all those titles don't come without R.C. Yes, the Spurs tanked on purpose once David Robinson went down. The whole Spurs- Tim Duncan tank job conversation applies here, too.
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The decision to pick James Harden despite having elite scorers in KD and Westbrook on the roster paid dividends (though perhaps not enough) once Presti ended up trading him. The Westbrook was nothing of the sort: it was a master stroke. the trades have made Toronto better! The Celtics might be tanking if they weren't in such a horrid division and if Rajon Rondo didn't heal like Wolverine.īut again, the Thunder are not the Thunder by sole virtue of Presti stripping the team. But those players were performing so poorly that trading them has had the opposite effect as a Presti Plan move would. The Raptors dumped two high-dollar players, one for a draft pick. The Suns rebounded so quickly behind a new coach, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic that they eliminated themselves from the Presti Plan conversation. The Magic bizarrely won the Dwight Howard trade (by no small margin) and so they don't really fit the Presti Plan bill anymore. Another, the Bobcats, appeared to recently have tried it but have since abandoned the idea in order to improve. And there's no question that at least one team, the Sixers, are currently following that strategy. The Presti Plan is to strip the roster, leveraging space and vets to maximize rebuilding assets. 24 in 2008 ( Serge Ibaka).ġ2/13: Where did New York's draft picks go? 5 pick in 2007 ( Jeff Green) for Ray Allen and renting out cap space to the Suns for the No. (As it turns out, the Sonics and Thunder were not competitive for three years, and landed three of their own high picks, used on Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.) But that wasn't the totality of Presti's plan: he also dealt his assets for picks, landing the No. There's no question that Presti's strategy in Seattle and then Oklahoma City was to make the Sonics and Thunder non-competitive for two years to acquire two of their own high picks.
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4 pick a year later, despite that guard's range being all over the place? Was it lucky, in that same year, to pick a Congolese prospect in the 20s and have him challenge for Defensive Player of the Year within three seasons? Was it lucky to land potentially the best player in the draft at No. 2 pick was both obvious and a future ultra-elite scorer? Do you think Presti was lucky to pick out a future All-NBA point guard with the No. Do you think Sam Presti was lucky to land the No.