Petrie is predictable... He's stated before that he goes for best player available... Of course his pick might not be the best player available in hindsight.
Right. He doesn't always pick what will turn out to be the best player, but he tries to. However, finding rookies for a team is half art, half opinion, there is nothing very objective about it. In Petrie's case it is almost a trademark style, very likely going back to his days as a player in Portland. He was a very skilled ball handler and shooter, and played a very smart game. They weren't a big and athletic team, but they made up for it with ball movement.
There's nothing weird about expecting that he should shape teams in his image. People learn from their life experiences and put those experiences to use later on.
Those are the glasses that Geoff is wearing when he is looking at draft candidates. Everybody's perceptions are going to be affected by who they are and where they've been, and he is no exception. His perception of the best player will not be universally accepted at the time, nor will it necessarily be afterwards. Which is OK. A GM
needs to have a vision of what he is trying to create. But the (objectively) best player available won't always fit that vision.
Are we disagreeing about anything, or not?
Gary:
I think the last 3 picks will be the best picks available at their positions at the time of the pick... Martin was drafted at a spot in the draft where thre were a bunch of nobodys surrounding him.
Cisco the same.... We all know if Cisco gets the SF job next year (if Artest is gone) that he will flourish. I got a good feeling that his confidence has soared in these last few weeks.
As for Douby. Give it a year or two. So Petrie has done well in the draft. Oh yah.. Look at Wallace and who was drafted near him. Petrie is the master of the mid/high first round picking.
OK, the guys drafted
after Wallace included Sam Dalembert, Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas, Bobby Simmons and Mehmet Okur. Doesn't seem all
that masterful to me. Kevin Martin was the almost the last decent guy available in a bad draft year (Varejao and Nocioni being exceptions), and is looking like a great choice. Garcia was picked over over David Lee, Linas Kleiza, Luther Head, Monta Ellis and a bunch of other players who are arguably at least as good. It's too early to be sure of much with regards to Douby, but so far he's not looking superior to guys like Williams or Rondo.
It's instructive to see what other teams have done with lousy draft positions. Nearly all have picked a loser to two, but some have done very well. Spurs picks since '99, for example, have included Ginobili, Tony Parker, John Salmons (who they immediately traded for Speedy Claxton) and Leandro Barbosa, and all their picks were at 26-28. Since '99 the Lakers got Devean George plus 6 current members of their team at 23-29.
Petrie has done a better than average job of finding bargains late in the first round. He hasn't usually picked the best, but he has never, ever picked the worst, and there's a lot to be said for that. On the other hand, that's not so hard to do if you're disregarding team needs.
He has never found a keeper in the second round, but I doubt that he puts much effort into it. He's seemed willing to trade away 2nd round picks at the drop of a hat, so he probably doesn't put much faith in them.
I don't expect him to pick the guy, at #10, who will be considered in retrospect to be
the deal of the 2007 draft. He will pick a skilled guy who won't bomb. He is very good at doing that, but he's human, and shouldn't be teflon-coated.
