when vlade says he doesn't know enough about him, i don't think he means that he didn't do his research. i think he means that there's a dearth of research available on emmanuel mudiay, and that it was simply too difficult to even know enough about him. mudiay played in high school. he played in a handful of games in china. he didn't workout for the kings. he didn't interview with the kings. sure, there's a bit of game/scouting tape to review, but i'd hardly call that a sufficient amount of information with which to make a legitimately informed selection. the kings are on the clock with demarcus cousins; they need to add talent that they can count on to produce. if you're a team like denver that's about to embark on a full-scale rebuild, then there's every reason to snatch mudiay when he falls to you at 7. but vlade determined that it wasn't worth the risk, and i agree with his pick 100%...
Seconded. But I also want to add:
With the #6, the Kings should be looking at selecting whoever gives the team the most holistic value. That means looking at the context of the *
entire* team before making a decision. It may turn out to be that Cauley-Stein is not the best player available at #6, but still gives the team the most value when considering the situation the entire franchise is in.
Let me illustrate. Lets say that the Kings take Mudiay. He’s not going to be ready to run the Kings day one. He’s just not. He’s a high school kid who played a few games against mediocre competition in China. He’s going to have growing pains. He’s going to make mistakes. NBA teams are going to exploit his weaknesses when he has the ball more aggressively than he’s ever experienced before.
Lets face it: Cousins and Karl are on thin ice together. Vlade is determined to stay the course and have coach and star work it out. They HAVE to win now. Just have to. If they don’t, Boogie will be gone, Karl may be gone, and the Kings are razed to ground zero. Boogie-type talents don’t grow on trees.
So, even in the BEST case scenario, and Mudiay eventually becomes an All-Star, he won’t help the team as a rookie as much as a win-now prospect. The Kings will have an All-Star guard, but the All-NBA center and Hall of Fame coach are gone. That’s a net negative.
Contrast that to if the Kings take Cauley-Stein and he helps the team win more games year one. Winning calms the Boogie/Karl tempest and the team has a future together. Cauley-Stein may not be the same caliber of player as Mudiay, but they keep their franchise center and coach.
And this is Mudiay’s best case scenario. Forget about if he flat out busts. Its over.
This is it. It’s the final countdown for Boogie in Sacramento. Vlade needs it to work now, or it will be over for good. The #6 should be single-mindedly spent in achieving that goal.