My question then is why we even bothered drafting him if he wasn't even a rotation player in Europe...
Vlade saw his former self in Papa G. A fairly skilled guy with huge size. What I saw was potentially a Steven Adams-like player. I thought Papa G could become as good as Steven Adams, another prospect I liked at Pitt. The difference is the mobility and agility and lateral quickness. You have to have reaction time. First to the ball wins!
This is hard to discern unless you see a player up close, something Vlade did on multiple overseas trips pre-draft. Size becomes an advantage when coupled with requisite quickness. Look at a guy like Steven Adams or Nurkic. They tower over the competition and create their space in the key, two things that Papa G can do, but they are also mobile enough to keep up with the pace of the game.
If you are too slow to keep pace you are going to half step slow and get embarrassed and commit and-ones. You are going to get exposed. The pertinent question becomes how does a player like Steven Adams become one of the best centers in the league, relentless offensive rebounder, devastating pick setter, and reliable target on pick and dive whereas a guy like Papa G washes out?
The difference is size AND agility. It is not enough to be big. You have to be able to move! Adams doesn't have the same reaction time and agility of guards or wings but he has enough to go with his mass and force to be a formidable presence. This is what Vlade envisioned in Papa G and he whiffed. You can only bet on probabilities with any of these guys. There are no certainties. He bet Papa G had the required reaction time to be an impact player and he was wrong with tangible results to date.
This is where hindsight bias comes in and where fans say I knew it was a terrible pick all along. But drafting is a probability game. A 18 year old is an unfinished product at best a diamond in the rough at worst fools gold. What if Papa G was eye of the tiger sharp as a tack gym warrior? Would that have made a difference? I think so.
Papa G was (is) being made millions of dollars to take care of his body. In essence, his job is his body. I think DeMarcus development into fairly unstoppable force (pre-Achilles) prior to trade last year and this year with the Pelicans was directly correlated with being in the best shape of his career. He floundered with his efficiency before rising to 55% TS last two years. But that transformation was slow coming. It was delayed longer than it should have been. He was too heavy and out of shape at least the first five years of his career. He waddled up and down the court more than sprint.
Adams is a no nonsense workhouse who doesn't carry extra weight. You can't say that about Papa G or the early part of Cousins career. Could Papa G tenure turned out differently if he had seized on the opportunity with more urgency. I think so. I don't know how anyone could say otherwise. So yeah it was a bad pick in retrospect but the degree of awfulness is compounded by the said player not working hard enough.
) there's not a lot of reason for hope based on our current situation. Especially since our main strategy since Vlade took over has been to make short-sighted moves and then undo them a year later. We have one draft pick this year that we absolutely need to get right. Seems like we've been in that position for the last 10 years. Trading Cousins re-set the rebuild back to square one, that doesn't mean Vlade's slate gets wiped clean too. Not for me anyway.
