Revisited; Selling the 2018 2nd rd pick to Portland

[Ozymandias]

Rodions Kurucs is looking like a major steal for the Nets and helping them make a playoff push, he went 3 picks after #37. athletic skilled 6'9 SF... Probably woulda been a nice fit here.

There are a few other outperforming 2nd rd picks who went after #37 as well;

Bruce Brown just started vs us the other night for Detroit.
De'Anthony Melton's taken over the starting PG job in PHX and was one of the leaders of forcing Kings turnovers in that debacle *shudders*.
Hamidou Diallo has logged several starts for OKC and looks like great value.

 

[chief bromden]

Kurucs is nice, but this exercise is presuming the Kings would have picked him or any of those other players. After all, when the Kings had a second round pick in 2017, they selected Frank Mason over Monte Morris. Monte Morris is niiiiice.

 

[OffTheWallJamal]

Rodions Kurucs is looking like a major steal for the Nets and helping them make a playoff push, he went 3 picks after #37. athletic skilled 6'9 SF... Probably woulda been a nice fit here.

There are a few other outperforming 2nd rd picks who went after #37 as well

Bruce Brown just started vs us the other night for Detroit.
De'Anthony Melton's taken over the starting PG job in PHX and was one of the leaders of forcing Kings turnovers in that debacle *shudders*.
Hamidou Diallo has logged several starts for OKC and looks like great value.

That's my guy!!! Was talking about him few weeks ago here.

He can guard 1-4 and the fact that he is willing defender and even defending opponents best perimeter players on daily bases and doing a really good job on them is just mind blowing for a 20 year old rookie out of Europe.

He was shutting down Oladipo, Kemba and Booker when I did catch games live.

In my wildest dreams I did not see Kurucs playing rotational minutes or even starting for the Nets (or even any NBA team) this season, but his energy, defense and even moving on the offensive end without the ball is what made him few years ago a projected lottery pick in the 2017 draft and after Levert went down a big part of the Nets run to make a play-off push.

 

[sactowndog]

Yep 2018 was a deep draft. It was not one of Vlade’s better moves.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I remember reading ahead of this draft that players aren't picked in the second round unless they've already worked out a deal with the team. Couldn't find that article but here's one from 2016 stating similar.
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...the-nba-draft-is-broken-but-not-beyond-repair