kind of hate to say it but I’m now dumbfounded by what Vlade didn’t see in Luka. I was fine wth the Bagley pick, he said all the right things about Sacramento, obviously loads of potential and so on. I warmed up equally to both as our pick, still what prompted his fellow countryman and probably the GM with the most access to Luka justify his decision.
I’ve heard discussions that not a great fit with Fox, too many guards all ready with Hield and and a comparable player in Bogdan, I’ve even considered that Luka’s group made it clear that Sacramento was not a place he wanted to be. I also somewhat jokingly suggested that Mrs Divac told Vlade that Luka’s attractive mom best stay clear of the Kings or trouble for Vlade.
Anyways, currently I don’t get it.
I think he may have bought into the "high floor/low ceiling" stuff surrounding Luka before the draft.
Even a lot of us Luka fans thought his ceiling would be in the 20/8/8ish level (see Joshua's post above, and I was in the same boat). I don't think anyone had him pegged at the obscene 30/10/10 (and I do think these numbers will drop once he has an actual team around him) he's at now.
Vlade rolled the dice, thinking Bagley had the higher ceiling, despite being a riskier pick. His entire tenure as GM has been full of gambles. He's won some, he's lost some. It's a real bummer he lost on this one though.
What was dumb to a lot of us on draft day is now looking 1000 times worse as Luka puts together an MVP season at age 20.
Bagley's high ceiling hasn't gone anywhere, he can still develop into a 25/12 big. But for a lot of us who wanted Luka in the first place, that's still just a consolation prize, and there's no guarantee it will ever even happen.