quote:
Of the top 21 picks last year, only 3 players played less mpg than Jaxson and NAW. Romeo Langford, Goga, and Samanic. Samanic sucks. Langford probably does too. Goga played in 54 games last year, but hasn't played yet b/c he hurt his ankle, but the Pacers expect him to be part of the rotation this year. Langford is out for months with wrist surgery. Samanic hasn't played yet, b/c he sucks.
Jaxson played 16mpg. The next closest to him in the top 13 was Cam Johnson at 22mpg. NAW averaged 12.4. Everyone in the top 21 but those i just mentioned (Jaxson/NAW/Goga/Langford/Samanic) played at least 19mpg, and played in at least half the games (except Zion).

This is interesting and more good research, because it sort of puts into question the idea that this is simply a coaching philosophy issue unique to SVG, since these trends are holding through two regimes and two seasons.

I think the most generous rationale I could get behind is that both regimes were pushing for wins(Gentry on the hot seat, SVG by nature) and we had a situation of taking the rawest guy in the top 10 and a player that caught the yips during the regular season...The more troubling is that maybe Langdon/Griff just aren’t that good at talent evaluation and we fricked up

Gun to my head I don’t think it’s the fatal situation of the latter, but I do think it will be hard for the regime to ever justify the Hayes pick with how much developmental distance is emerging between him and his immediate BPA peers from that draft. NAW doesn’t feel like a starter in this league but he does have 6th or 7th man potential, and Kira is someone I bought into after the draft but so far to me feels like the best pick we have made since Zion.

But that’s also speaking nothing of basically striking out as an organization in FA and the Two-Way pipeline besides Reddick. Melli, Kenrich, Okafor, Cheatham, Miller, Gray, Thornwell, and Hernangomez all either were complete duds or are heavily trending toward that conclusion....And we’re crossing our fingers a journeyman undrafted FA that averaged 8 minutes in 30 games can allow us to not have to play our number 8 overall pick for the 2nd year.

This post was edited on 12/28/20 at 11:14 am