I laughed really hard then cried a little after reading this.Or maybe played him at the 3 to "more fully develop him as a player."
Please please PLEASE for the sake of my throbbing temples everybody please quit talking about Andre Drummond. That summer I was worried our idiot front office wouldn't see the value of a player like Drummond, agitated/annoyed on draft night when he was right there and we drafted a runt instead of him, moved to fully aggravated by the time the season got underway and it turned out I was right, and now with Drummond averaging a cool 21.7pts 18.7rebs and 2.0blk on .686 shooting in December, I am about this far from grabbing a hockey mask and a chainsaw and hunting down Petrie
How we didn't pick him just based on his size and frame alone, is a real mystery
blame keith smart. he wanted a nba ready player.
The draft is always a gamble and unless you have the #1 pick, your chances decrease obviously.
Saying this, we don't really have the staff either to choose good prospects like we used to in the Golden era. Back then we chose better players at the end of the draft compared to now choosing lottery picks. It's really sad if you ask me. We really could have used a Lillard or Steph Curry and a Drummond
If most obf yous and mes had been three at the time, TRob would have been picked. Don't let hindsight getcha..
The draft is always a gamble and unless you have the #1 pick, your chances decrease obviously.
Saying this, we don't really have the staff either to choose good prospects like we used to in the Golden era. Back then we chose better players at the end of the draft compared to now choosing lottery picks. It's really sad if you ask me. We really could have used a Lillard or Steph Curry and a Drummond
I'm sticking my neck here in this conversation.
I was not on board for drafting Drummond. Not because I didn't feel as if we needed an interior defender, because we really did, but because Drummond was horrible at UCONN. There was no question that he had the body and the athleticism to be the type of player that people thought he could be. The issue was completely on the mental/emotional side of things. You have all heard the rumors that Andrew Bynum doesn't really like playing basketball, and whether or not that's true, it wouldn't be surprising to be the case because he's just not ever going to be a good teammate regardless of how well his knees heal up.
The same thing can be said of Drummond in his college year. I started off watching Drummond play with him being 1a/1b alongside Anthony Davis for the best player in college that year. And you know what?
Each time I saw him play, each stretch of minutes that he got on the court devalued him. He played dis-interested. He played with no heart, he played with no passion. He just didn't seem to care at all out there. He got out-rebounded and out-hustled by guys 5 inches shorter and half the athleticism. He had basically no offense at all to speak of. He got beat out of his starters minutes by a guy who wasn't good enough to make the NBA.
So he started up at the top of my list and as the year went on, and as I watched him more, he fell more and more in the draft because it didn't appear that he cared about winning or contributing on the court. I think the worst thing you could do is put a player who doesn't care about the game or about winning next to Cousins. Cousins demands winning, and with what I saw, I didn't think the combination would work, even if the skill sets of both those two bigs complimented each other perfectly.
Do you know what he said in his draft interviews when asked who he modeled his game after and who he wanted to be?
He answered that he modeled his game after himself and that when he got on the NBA court he wanted to be compared to Andre Drummond.
He said that after basically playing no-heart/no-hustle basketball for the entire season and showing no emotion/regret after a debacle of a year, and it left you wondering what in the heck is wrong with this guy. He had a year-long audition and he decided it wasn't worth showing up for, and he still expected everyone to drop what they were doing to cater after him.
It was actually hilarious watching UCONN games with national commentators. They would start off the game highlighting Drummond as a 'Star Watch' type of player and talk about his athleticism and defensive potential. Then he would do nothing on the court, and then perhaps make a spectacular block/alley-oop dunk/Offensive Rebound Slam/ect in the middle of the second half and the announcers would say something like 'Yeah, that's what we've been waiting to see!', and then Drummond would disappear and do nothing for the rest of the game leaving the announcers to scratch their heads and wonder what happened.
Anyway, Drummond just apparently decided that he didn't want to play college basketball. What is interesting is if he'd played at all, he wouldn't have been available for us.
So, in the end, I don't blame us passing on Drummond. In hindsight it's obvious that he just wanted to play in the NBA and that is why he didn't play in college. But that is hindsight because you couldn't know for certain that would be the case.
This year there are a number of defensive bigs that we can take, and I don't have the same worries about them as I did with Drummond. I'll be happy if we land any one of them, and there is a great chance that we will.
He was still the best post defender in college, he had great results on a few PnR plays they actually ran. I think it was a basket or a trip to FT line on 7 out 9 plays. No one is playing PnR in college, unless you have GOAT spacing. UConn didn't, and he still was successful. Also Drummond had two little guys who completely monopolized the ball and didn't thought to share. Napier still averaged 5.8 apg BTW, but it was obvious, he wanted to be the star of the show. You can guess, why Drummond was disinterested. Another guy they freezed out was Lamb, who is coming along nicely in OKC. Napier and Boatright will both stay for 4 years, and Napier will fight to even be drafted this year. College and NBA are two very different things.I'm sticking my neck here in this conversation.
I was not on board for drafting Drummond. Not because I didn't feel as if we needed an interior defender, because we really did, but because Drummond was horrible at UCONN. There was no question that he had the body and the athleticism to be the type of player that people thought he could be. The issue was completely on the mental/emotional side of things. You have all heard the rumors that Andrew Bynum doesn't really like playing basketball, and whether or not that's true, it wouldn't be surprising to be the case because he's just not ever going to be a good teammate regardless of how well his knees heal up.
The same thing can be said of Drummond in his college year. I started off watching Drummond play with him being 1a/1b alongside Anthony Davis for the best player in college that year. And you know what?
Each time I saw him play, each stretch of minutes that he got on the court devalued him. He played dis-interested. He played with no heart, he played with no passion. He just didn't seem to care at all out there. He got out-rebounded and out-hustled by guys 5 inches shorter and half the athleticism. He had basically no offense at all to speak of. He got beat out of his starters minutes by a guy who wasn't good enough to make the NBA.
So he started up at the top of my list and as the year went on, and as I watched him more, he fell more and more in the draft because it didn't appear that he cared about winning or contributing on the court. I think the worst thing you could do is put a player who doesn't care about the game or about winning next to Cousins. Cousins demands winning, and with what I saw, I didn't think the combination would work, even if the skill sets of both those two bigs complimented each other perfectly.
Do you know what he said in his draft interviews when asked who he modeled his game after and who he wanted to be?
He answered that he modeled his game after himself and that when he got on the NBA court he wanted to be compared to Andre Drummond.
He said that after basically playing no-heart/no-hustle basketball for the entire season and showing no emotion/regret after a debacle of a year, and it left you wondering what in the heck is wrong with this guy. He had a year-long audition and he decided it wasn't worth showing up for, and he still expected everyone to drop what they were doing to cater after him.
It was actually hilarious watching UCONN games with national commentators. They would start off the game highlighting Drummond as a 'Star Watch' type of player and talk about his athleticism and defensive potential. Then he would do nothing on the court, and then perhaps make a spectacular block/alley-oop dunk/Offensive Rebound Slam/ect in the middle of the second half and the announcers would say something like 'Yeah, that's what we've been waiting to see!', and then Drummond would disappear and do nothing for the rest of the game leaving the announcers to scratch their heads and wonder what happened.
Anyway, Drummond just apparently decided that he didn't want to play college basketball. What is interesting is if he'd played at all, he wouldn't have been available for us.
So, in the end, I don't blame us passing on Drummond. In hindsight it's obvious that he just wanted to play in the NBA and that is why he didn't play in college. But that is hindsight because you couldn't know for certain that would be the case.
This year there are a number of defensive bigs that we can take, and I don't have the same worries about them as I did with Drummond. I'll be happy if we land any one of them, and there is a great chance that we will.
He was still the best post defender in college, he had great results on a few PnR plays they actually ran. I think it was a basket or a trip to FT line on 7 out 9 plays. No one is playing PnR in college, unless you have GOAT spacing. UConn didn't, and he still was successful. Also Drummond had two little guys who completely monopolized the ball and didn't thought to share. Napier still averaged 5.8 apg BTW, but it was obvious, he wanted to be the star of the show. You can guess, why Drummond was disinterested. Another guy they freezed out was Lamb, who is coming along nicely in OKC. Napier and Boatright will both stay for 4 years, and Napier will fight to even be drafted this year. College and NBA are two very different things.
P.S. Did I mention Drummond was 280 pounds with 7'6" wingspan and moved like he was SF.
I didn't want him wither. We don't know if he will hit a Bynum moment and want to quit either. It still has to be a concern.
What was the excuse for not picking Lillard instead of Robinson? That's the real head scratcher
Tyreke, IT, Jimmer, and Aaron Brooks (who had not been signed, but had to be on the radar for the front office at that time.) Also, the front office had just whiffed in drafting a scoring point guard out of a Utah college with major questions about his ability to adapt his game to the NBA.
What was the excuse for not picking Lillard instead of Robinson? That's the real head scratcher