To me it signals that the team has given up on McLemore which means both a wasted pick last year AND a huge indictment of this FO's ability to judge talent given how high on him they were last year. I think McLemore comes around this season. I really do. And he has the tools to be a good one-on-one defender where Stauskas doesn't. On the other hand, McLemore's biggest defensive issues were between the ears in terms of getting lost in the team scheme. He was in no man's land on WAY too many possessions last season. But I don't think he's a lost cause in that regard either. He just has to get to the point where things slow down for him on both sides of the ball.
Here's the thing with LaVine for me - based on the eye test he was horribly inconsistent and more often than not a complete non-factor for UCLA. I see the Westbrook comps but I never even saw him handling the ball enough to judge that aspect let alone trust him to run a team. So I think he's more of a 2 than a 1 and at that spot he has average height/length and his sleight build worries me.
And beyond the actual game film and measurables I have yet to find one stat or advanced metric that shows LaVine to be a good player. He shoots relatively well with a solid percentage from 3 but he struggles to get to the rim at his low FT attempts attest, has a poor assist/TO ratio, and his steals rate is WAY too low for an athletic guard/wing on the college level. Steals and steal rate are a couple of those overlooked stats that I think say a lot about how a guys game will translate. For all the talk about how Exum is a "man of mystery" I think LaVine is a much bigger gamble with a lower chance of paying off. I don't see how a slightly built SG with just an average shot, inability to penetrate or create his own shot consistently or play effective defense becomes a real factor on the NBA level, let alone a star.
If I were going to gamble on a guy Clint Capela would be a name I'd have in mind. I think he's probably a reach at #8 but I'd actually be happier with him than McDermott or Stauskas. Capela has a chance to be an Ibaka/Chandler type player and ideal next to Cousins. The issue is that he's incredibly raw and would need time to develop when this FO seems too impatient to take on such a project. Which is why they wouldn't take LaVine either.
Maybe I've become a glass half empty guy over the years but I don't have faith in PDA. I think his rush to build a winner right away is going to end up having this team spin its collective wheels for a few years until he's replaced and the next guy has to do the total rebuild that he should have done to begin with. Only at that point Cousins has moved on. Believe me, I hope I'm wrong, but all the talk from Mullin and D'Alessandro and the moves they've made so far mostly strike me as ones from a FO that just doesn't understand how to build a team.