Bad drafting is a good way to remain bad. This franchise is a good example on that.
First of all IMO Willy didnt "fit a need". Our franchise player was a center. I dont see how our need was a center with zero outside game.
There was also a long discussion on our 2nd round picks last draft. At the time it looked very bad, at this moment it looks very bad and it will probably be very bad in the future too. A popular argument was that 2nd round picks doesnt matter. Its a bad argument because its an opportunity to find cost controlled contributors (that are also trade assets). Its certainly bad if you constantly miss on them or trade them for money (that just goes to the owners pockets). When your team trades them for money, fans should almost always be furious.
Paschall a perfect example already 6 games into his career. He won't be this good and the scoring won't stay this efficient, but he has all the makings of a future long-term NBA rotational player, with potential to be more (as he's shown early this year).
Vlade's had enough time to where I think we can adequately evaluate his drafting prowess. The amount of misses is just staggering:
WCS-6th pick (Didn't resign after rookie deal)
Papagiannias- 13th pick (Gone after 1.5 years)
Trading out of 10 (Zach Collins, Mitchell available) for:
Justin Jackson-15th pick (gone after 1.5 years)
Harry Giles- 20th pick (more than likely gone after 3 years.)
Malachi Richardison-22nd pick (gone after 1.5 years)
Skal Labissiere-28th pick (gone after 2.5 years)
Frank Mason-34th pick (gone after 2 years)
Lost the 14th pick in the 2018 draft for cap space.
Lost 2 spots of draft equity in the 2017 draft going from 3 to 5 due to a pick swap for cap space.
Gave up 8 spots of equity in this year's 2nd round for cash.
Hits:
DeAaron Fox
Traded 37 in 2018 for 2 future 2nds (one became Justin James, other is Miami's 2021 2nd)
Up for debate:
Marvin Bagley (with the obvious caveat that Luka is well on his way to being an MVP-caliber player and he didn't get any additional value like the Hawks did for passing on him).
Can't evaluate:
2019 class
I mean yikes. Hard to believe you'd find a worse drafting record in the past 4 seasons than that. 5 first round picks didn't play out their rookie deal, we didn't resign the 6th overall pick after his rookie deal, traded away another first for cap space. What's a little staggering and frankly unacceptable looking back at this is we've basically invested nothing in the 2nd round trying to find good, cheap, cost-controlled rotational players.