Started By
Message

re: 1.5 years into year 2 and Jax, NAW and Didi are all unplayable

Posted on 2/13/21 at 11:44 am to
Posted by GOP_Tiger
Baton Rouge
Member since Jan 2005
19945 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 11:44 am to
quote:

I can’t believe people still want to go to bat for Griff in 2021with Hayes racking up DNP’s as one of the worst big defenders in the league and NAW getting benched in favor of a 19 year old rookie.


OK, lemme see if I've got this straight. Griffin is bad at his job because the guard he drafted this year is playing better than the guard he drafted last year? OK, sure, that makes a lot of sense.
Posted by duyp
Member since May 2011
3037 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 11:44 am to
NAW and Hayes are proving the haters right. It’s even more disappointing when we barely see them improving much. Compared to other draft picks
Posted by Bronc
Member since Sep 2018
12646 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 12:11 pm to
quote:

OK, lemme see if I've got this straight. Griffin is bad at his job because the guard he drafted this year is playing better than the guard he drafted last year? OK, sure, that makes a lot of sense.


In the context of this discussion, which has to do with our handling of the 4th pick in last years draft, yeah, it’s entirely relevant when both those picks are unplayable and our 22 year old guard is losing minutes to a 19 year old with less than half a season under his belt and our drafted center is getting embarrassed by a journeyman.

I’m not sure how you think this is a gotcha? It can both be true that Griff drafted well this year and royally fricked up last year.
Posted by GOP_Tiger
Baton Rouge
Member since Jan 2005
19945 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 12:16 pm to
No, the context of the discussion was whether or not Griffin is bad as his job. You were absolutely not just judging that one draft. You're now trying to justify a dumb argument by pretending that your argument was really about something else.
Posted by LesGeaux45
Member since Nov 2009
9232 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 12:42 pm to
I still don't disagree with moving back a few picks and picking up another first and a second. The bigger issue is obviously who they ended up selecting. I realize this is revisionist history and probably not guys they were targeting, but if they took Herro at 8 and Clarke at 17 I don't think we're having this discussion.

Basically all I'm saying is criticism is fair at this point, but it should be directed more at their scouting in 2019 than the trade itself. Luckily it looks they targeted the right guy in 2020 with Kira, rather than playing it safe with a high floor, low ceiling type pick.

And maybe let's give Didi a shot to actually play an NBA game before we deem the kid unplayable
This post was edited on 2/13/21 at 12:47 pm
Posted by New City Champ
Member since Jul 2018
591 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 2:02 pm to
You don’t need to be a skilled GM to draft Zion. Literally everyone on this board could get that much done. You’re judged as a GM on your ability to find talent further down the draft, to sign free agents who fit, make trades that build your team into a contender.

It’s early for Griff and Trajan, but so far the results don’t look great. Whiffing in the top 10 is not good or, more charitably, taking a player so raw you can’t even play him for 2 or 3 years is a debatable decision. So is taking another project guard at 17 when your roster is already loaded at guard. This year they didn’t even try to fill out their roster needs with solid prospects even though they had multiple picks in the draft because they had earmarked all that capital for the Steven Adams deal, another debatable decision.

This doesn’t even get to coaching hire and overall philosophy of wanting to pay expensive vets during a rebuild situation to teach “culture” and be a “family.” You can lose with anybody. Can’t see that Adams and Bledsoe have injected too much competitiveness and grit into this team “culture” despite the high price they cost. Can’t say that having Redick or Holiday last year taught anything about how to be at least a .500 ball club despite having an abundance of young talent.

Right now the Pels are a bottom tier NBA team and that’s even without dealing with any major injuries. Anyone who says that isn’t a disappointment given the assets Griffin was handed is delusional.
This post was edited on 2/14/21 at 11:45 am
Posted by barbapapa
Member since Mar 2018
3691 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 2:18 pm to
Fair assessment
Posted by CP3forMVP
Member since Nov 2010
15463 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 2:48 pm to
quote:

What other trade do you think was out there? Or is that not important, sorry.


Staying at 4 and taking BPA is what they should have done. You weren’t getting a franchise guy like Zion & Ja, or even Barrett at 4, but you still had an opportunity to get a guy that could be a major core piece for years to come and you dwindled your chances significantly by moving out of that slot.

I think it’s a poor decision regardless, but who they ended up selecting makes it even worse.
This post was edited on 2/13/21 at 2:50 pm
Posted by LesGeaux45
Member since Nov 2009
9232 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 3:47 pm to
quote:

 know better than guys like Travis Schlenk, you take BPA and move on.


I mean Schlenk made an even bigger mistake than Griff the year before by trading Luka in order to pick up another first that ultimately became Cam Reddish. That's not exactly taking BPA.
Posted by dcw7g
Member since Dec 2003
2111 posts
Posted on 2/13/21 at 4:14 pm to
quote:

There were 4-5 coveted guys at the top and the rest of the class was pretty crap.


Which is why you don’t trade out of 4.
Posted by PUB
New Orleans
Member since Sep 2017
19938 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 12:48 am to
Griff is below average GM, way overrated and looking more like he outright sucks
Posted by Fox McCloud
Member since Oct 2020
3525 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 6:43 am to
He’s one of the worst drafters all time. He drafted Bennett and mosgov. Who the frick though he would be a good drafter after that? Drafting Hayes and NAW set us back tremendously. We would have a starting shooting guard in Garland and would be pushing for playoffs right now. Unacceptable misses by that moron Griffin. Laughable at the people saying well he drafted Zion. What a fricking joke.
Posted by Baron
Member since Dec 2014
1872 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 7:27 am to
quote:

We would have a starting shooting guard in Garland and would be pushing for playoffs right now.


All right, let’s tone down the hyperbole before this train derails any further
Posted by ThePistol
Lafayette, LA
Member since Mar 2007
1746 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 8:30 am to
I did find Bronc’s use of Schlenk to defend his stance a little weird. We are comparing crappy players to rotation guys. If we look at the Hawks trade, we are comparing an all star to an already first team NBA and probable all time guy. All of the scouting info was there.

The fact that Doncic basically went after Ayton, Bagley, and Young shows that while Griff messed up, it’s not even close to an all time mess up. Could you imagine Luka with Booker and the rest of Poenix’s roster minus Ayton? What about with Sacramento? Luka and Fox backcourt with Buddy as a spacer? Or on the Hawks roster? That is what you call GMs being too cute and trying to outhink the league.

Griff definitely didn’t make the right call but it’s not unforgivable given the other alternatives. Phoenix, Sacto, and Atlanta on the other hand...
Posted by CelticDog
Member since Apr 2015
42867 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 8:50 am to
quote:

NAW and Hayes are proving the haters right. 


hate is hyperbole.

I wouldn't have taken hayes with the last pick in round one. he was a mid 2nd. a flyer.

it's a shame.
but he can still learn.
he will probably blossom a couple years from now.

naw could settle down tomorrow.
or never. that 37 point game is why he was selected. I saw him look briliant on offense in college. naw is an understandable choice. they dont all pan out.

I'm with the poster who observed that there were, as usual, only a few really sure picks and you can have one at 4, so get a solid guy.
obviously pels went for high ceiling and ignored that hayes is the living definition of wet behind the ears.

it's a shame this matter is still being debated. hayes sucked before the draft and he still sucks.

I think what sticks in everyone's craw is that trading down says mgmt did not have confidence they could identify a sure thing at 4.
imho
they wanted to double their chances to hit on a guy.


This post was edited on 2/14/21 at 9:08 am
Posted by LesGeaux45
Member since Nov 2009
9232 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 9:06 am to
Almost every mock draft had Jaxson going between 8 and 10, exactly where we took him. Most had him going to Atlanta at 10. It's fair to be disappointed in how he's played, but no one should act like he was some out of no where reach that would have slid into the 20s or second round if we hadn't taken him.
Posted by Bronc
Member since Sep 2018
12646 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 10:31 am to
quote:

I did find Bronc’s use of Schlenk to defend his stance a little weird. We are comparing crappy players to rotation guys. If we look at the Hawks trade, we are comparing an all star to an already first team NBA and probable all time guy. All of the scouting info was there.


Schlenk demonstrated the folly of trading back just the year before, but reversed course the next and targeted the new guy Griff was the underlying point there. This isn’t the NFL, talent is overwhelmingly concentrated at the top of the draft, rarely do you have a Jayson Tatum situation where moving back is the wiser choice, and if you do, you typically
don’t want to be moving out of the top 5 history says.

Furthermore, non-skilled rim running big men have amongst the highest bust rates in the league. So you not only are thinking yourself smarter than the collective wisdom, but smarter than the history of past performance for the type of player you chose.

As to the person that said had we just picked Herro and Clarke, well, we know unequivocally Herro was never on Griff’s radar, Hayes was supposedly graded top 5. So this was always Griff over confident in his ability to be smarter than everyone in the room.

And if you go through his history, this is a recurring problem. It was with Anthony Bennett when he was the loudest voice in the room lobbying for him, it was for Mozgov(a theme we are seeing again where he becomes enamored with a type of big that is on the way out in this league and overpays for them), his coaching hires like David Blatt, his acquisition of Melli, blindspots to talent already on his roster like Wood or Joe Harris, and you see it a lot in his lesser trades where he moves a ton of pieces around in a complex capacity and very often they do nothing.

Most were all reservations I voiced before hiring him and I hoped once we did that he had largely learned from them and wouldn’t repeat.

And to be clear I don’t think he is a bad GM, AD trade was great, Jrue trade was great, Kira looks to be a hit, he’s managing the roster to this point wisely and looking to not fall into the sunk cost fallacy, fall in love with marginal talent ala Demps, or overpay players on the hope of great future performance...but he has some major blindspots and seemingly an arrogance that leads to a sort of tunnel vision that is often detrimental to his performance.
Posted by PUB
New Orleans
Member since Sep 2017
19938 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 11:08 am to
Pathetic like giving Demps credit for selecting Anthony Davis.
Guy is close to another worthless overpaid incompetent in pro sports.
Posted by Chalkywhite84
New orleans
Member since Dec 2016
31247 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 11:16 am to
Naw isn't the problem.

Hayes is the problem
Posted by LesGeaux45
Member since Nov 2009
9232 posts
Posted on 2/14/21 at 11:25 am to
quote:

As to the person that said had we just picked Herro and Clarke


As I stated in my post, I realize we likely weren't targeting them. The point was that in a vacuum I don't disagree with moving back in that particular draft.

It was rightly considered predraft to be a 2 person draft with a dropoff after 2 and another dropoff after 3. There were players available at 8 and later like Clarke and Herro who will likely ended up being as good or better than the players who went 4-7. However, the criticism of the 2019 scouting and who they picked once they made the trade I think is justified at this point.

Now if we somehow got a top 4 pick in this coming draft and pass up on a chance to get Suggs, Cunningham, Mobely, or Kuminga, I'll be pissed. Unlike 2019, this is looking like one where you can get elite level talent anywhere in the top 5.
first pageprev pagePage 2 of 4Next pagelast page

Back to top
logoFollow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News
Follow us on X, Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on LSU Football and Recruiting.

FacebookXInstagram