re: I’ve noticed that Ochai Agbaji is not a popular candidate on this board

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I’ve addressed this before. If we believe that we are going to be consistently making the playoffs for the next few years, then this is going to be our highest pick for a while. You can find bench contributors and rotation guys throughout the draft and in FA. It’s much harder to get high-end starters/finishing 5 players. The guy we take in this draft either needs to have the potential to be a finishing 5 player to replace someone who might leave in a few years when the roster gets expensive or be valuable enough to be a trade piece that helps us get that last guy that pushes us over the top. It’s why a lot of us were banging the drum for Sharpe so much because he could be that guy.


I don’t view Agbaji as that guy. I don’t think in 3 years from now we are going to be saying “man if we could have just upgraded our 8th best player with Agbaji we could have gone far.” So if he’s not that guy, then why not take a swing with someone like Daniels or Sochan who maybe could be?

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100% agree on this thinking

Haven’t watched enough of Agbaji to say he can’t be that, but one only needs to look at the Warriors to see why you don’t just draft for need in the here and now.

Kuminga, Moody, and Poole(maybe Wiseman, but more and more he looks like a bust). These are guys that are likely turning the Warriors window from 1-2 years, to potentially contenders for the next decade.

The Warriors could have(and lots of analysts and “experts” suggest it still) traded in all their chips for 27-32 year old vets that raise their ceiling higher now and maybe give them a couple more years, but instead they have built what has the potential to be a Spurs like dynasty that will potentially span multiple eras by taking advantage of the good fortune of multiple years with lottery level picks to pick high upside guys that they can develop over multiple years and transition into bigger roles organically, instead of thinking ultra short term and just grabbing high floor/low ceiling guys or trading picks away to get off contracts or bring in short term role players that aren’t going to be meaningful long term pieces

How old is CJ and Val? What does the cap situation look like in 3 seasons? What’s going to happen with Zion in the future? The warriors and spurs are the only teams in the past 20 years that have sustained a championship level for an extended period of time. We aren’t going to be contenders for a decade straight.

And the thing they both have in common(Boston as well) is that they wisely leveraged the draft to find the next generation of talent.

Most teams get a core and immediately begin mortgaging their future to marginally better position their present.

There are certain circumstances where that might be your only option, but that’s not the Pels situation.

The sort of trades and players most of you all are talking about trading the 8th pick for, or moving down, are for players that will be around every offseason and every trade deadline.

What is almost never available is the Kuminga’s, young Kawhi’s, Anfernee Simons, Jordan Poole’s, and Donovan Mitchell’s.

Ill also point out if we followed the logic of many on this board every offseason, we wouldn’t have Trey Murphy(cause who cares about non lottery picks, we need win now talent), Herb Jones(cause second rounders are basically worthless according to many, if you can trade them and it gets you a rotation player for a couple years do it!).

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Zion is 21 and BI is 24. I’m not dumb I know our team is youthful.

But consider salary cap in 3-5 years when everyone is on their second contract or looking to get paid. Now include CJ being closer to 35 at that point and JV being 33-35.

Again, how long until you say win now

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I get both strategies but what you posted is exactly why I'd swing for the fences. A 24 yr old star with 26 yr old Zion and 29 yr old BI keeps that window open much longer than 27 yr old role player. This team should be able to attract role players. Our other first round picks can be used to draft role players, like they were this past season. We should not be drafting this high again in the near future so I hope we make it count

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Everyone who keeps saying we won’t draft this high again in the near future, we control the Lakers picks the next two years. I am willing to bet we will be Top 8 again due to them

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I hope so too, but you just can’t count on that. I don’t think people realize how rare it is that the Lakers’ pick is a top ten pick. Teams that owe their pick will fight to the end of the season and make moves to get marginally better because draft slot doesn’t matter. The Nets picks to Boston were the exception not the rule. Normally instead what you have is the year that we had the TWolves pick that became Austin Rivers at 11th. If it was like any other TWolves year during the Levin Love era, we get a top 6 pick and take Lillard. But instead, it was their only pick that landed outside the top 10 in years because it was the one year they didn’t care about draft position.

Also, as much as I hate LA, don’t believe in Buss ownership, and know how poisonous Klutch is, I still don’t like betting on LA not lucking into a star player forcing their way to them. I would plan the Pelicans future with the idea that whatever we get from LA is just Lagniappe

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the board all agrees our window is the next 3-5 years,

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The window is open NOW and there is no sign in it closing. The Pels have a ton of assets and only need to hit on a couple starters over the next 5 or so years to keep the window open indefinitely.

Ha, this board agreeing on ANYTHING!

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6’5 combo guard

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3-level scorer

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I don't see this when I see him play. He's more of a 2 or 3, a wing type of player than a combo guard who can run your offense and handle the ball for any real stretch of play. A 3 level scorer can make plays off the dribble, hurt you at the rim or in the midrange. I didn't see him doing that at a high level in college- given his age and role at Kansas, I would be very surprised if he suddenly became a plus offensively at any offensive area beyond catch and shoot/movement 3's in the NBA.

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Elite shooting

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Capable defender

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High Character

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41” vertical

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Yes. These are definitely his strengths from what I've seen. Not sure I would say he's an elite shooter, but he profiles as someone who can provide legitimate spacing while playing good defense on the wing.

I think Agbaji would be a good late lottery pick. 10-14 makes sense- it's where Duarte, Kispert, etc. got picked last year.

At 8 I'd rather take a chance on Mathy, Daniels, etc.

My biggest complaint about him is that he seems to lack competitive drive.

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Everyone who keeps saying we won’t draft this high again in the near future, we control the Lakers picks the next two years. I am willing to bet we will be Top 8 again due to them

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That's wishful thinking. The two previous seasons, the Lakers had much better records than this season. Maybe this starts a trend but I don't think they'll allow that to be Lebron's Lakers legacy. I think they'll do whatever they have to, even further mortgaging the future, to be competitive while LeBron is there. I would love to be wrong but I wouldn't bet it.

Even Griffin said the team didn't expect the pick to fall where it did.