So I have slept on it and I am still not sure what is the vision and thinking of this hierarchy!
Stauskas is not a bad pick. He is a solid prospect that will be a solid NBA player. Comparisons to Jimmer or Ben are ill-advised. He is a great shooter with his feet set in catch and shoot situations, good coming off screens and not bad creating off the dribble. His handles are very good for a SG. Those are the things that will translate. Hish basketball IQ and a willing passer. Good height for a SG as well. With his size, handles and shot he will no doubt find a spot in the NBA. Right now, Stauskas is a better player than Ben. Defensively, he will struggle. In time you hope he turns into a solid defender. Much like Peja did. Not great but good enough not to be a liability at that end out there.
However, from perspective of our current make up, this pick makes little sense. For a FO that is so protective of McLemore, this picks flies directly into face if everything they have been saying about Ben. Now I am no fan of Vonleh either. Something about him is just not quite right. Payton intrigues me and if you tell me our future backcourt will be Payton-Stauskas pairing, I have a reason to be excited.
But IMHO our #1 priority this offseason is to improve our defence, get that shot blocker and defensive anchor and pair him with a defensively minded backcourt player to even out the balance in the line up. Today we are no closer to doing that and in some cases we are worse off because we added another player that will never be an elite defender (though there is hope he can be a solid one in time). Meanwhile, our #7 pick from last year gets competition for minutes which is not a bad thing but it is when two years in a row you draft players playing the same position and suffocating each other for playing time and opportunities.
I do believe we just improved the SG depth with this pick but it was not our most pressing need and we just burnt our biggest assett and did not get significantly better.
Like I said if you tell me the plan is Payton-Stauskas backcourt on the future, I am excited but its not and we don't have time to waste. We need to make significant strides forward this off-season and despite a lot of rumours, we can away from the draft, standing pat and picking a shooter who will never be a great defender. I will judge this off season come training camp but we are not off to a good start. Again nothing against the player as I think we got a nice player there who would fit next to Cousins and Gay and provide them with some much needed spacing but that was not a pressing need. There were much more important things to address a d we failed to do so. We don't have much trade bait to get much better and no cap room to get there via free agency. It will once again be the case of trading for some overpaid talent with teams wanting to shed that salary (ie Rudy Gay tupe deal and potentily Josh Smith) but that is not a way to build a team.
Meanwhile, for two offseasons in a row, the New Orleans Pelicans are making the moves that I wish our front office would make. That team is a team of young, talented pieces that fit. Asik, Davis, Tyreke, Holiday, Anderson....very nice core there to build around. Will cause all sorts of headaches to opponents for years to come if they can stay healthy and get a half decent coach!