re: Jaxson Hayes Interview in The Athletic

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And all I got out of the vast majority of that interview was the same trust fund bratty kid annoyed because the world didn’t hand him what he feels entitled to, like when he melted down over the rookie all star game spot. He’s now matured just enough to try and dress up and deliver his entitlement and blame shifting with an even keel, as opposed to melting down. But he’s still not getting it. Feels like until he is playing in China he won’t get it. Until every person he could point fingers at is gone and it’s just him.

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I don't think that he's going to get it even then. If getting tazed and arrested didn't do it, if his father leaving his coaching job to move in with Jaxson this season didn't do it, if getting benched by Willie Green for an extended period after SVG had to bench him for an extended period hasn't helped him to get it ... then why would being forced to play in China do it?

As I said before the season, Jaxson's potential was to be Giannis, but with a better shot. But I don't think that he's ever going to amount to much, because he doesn't have for the game, he doesn't have the drive to succeed, and because, as you said, he's the bratty kid consumed with entitlement.

Honestly, though, I don't think that Jaxson will end up in China. He's just too athletically gifted. He'll end up as an NBA rotational player in a year or two, but I don't think that he'll ever be a regular starter.

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….Jesus these picks were a disaster.

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Eh. As poorly as NAW has played compared to our expectations before the season, his production and value is about what you expect from the #17 pick. It's not fair to judge him against the value of the #4 pick.

Jaxson is a bust. He's an absolute, total bust. He's just as bad as if we'd kept the #4 pick and used it to take Culver, which is what we were going to do if we kept that pick. The two biggest busts of that draft are the guy that we took, and the guy that we almost took---an absolute failure of scouting.

But none of that is Nickeil's fault.

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He all but asks for a trade. Good. As far as I'm concerned, Griffin can't trade him fast enough. What a pathetic human being he is, to say nothing of him as a basketball player.

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I didn't read it like that at all. He seemed honest. I personally agree with him that minutes will help him grow. A few weeks ago Jaxson got like 15 points in like 10 minutes or so. 3/3 from deep. It was nice to see. He got like 4-5 DNP coaches decision following that. He's right, you can't get in a rhythm like that. I love Billy, and he's a good guy and a great teammate, but I'd rather Jaxson get the minutes.

Hated to hear the part about fans screaming negative stuff at Zion. This whole time, I honestly never gave any thought to that. That's got to suck. Hopefully he doesn't get that in N.O.

It's not that bad. He's kinda frustrated that he's not playing regularly but he's not trashing anybody or demanding a trade.

He doesn’t have it mentally. Won’t be shocked if he’s out of the league in 3 years.

Let me guess, you’d trade Brandon Ingram for him too and he was your favorite prospect lol?

A moderately athletic two year slashing guard that can’t shoot, definitely trends for why our FO would like that, but it’s not hard to see why he would struggle at the next level and why someone like Garland or Hunter would be more likely to find success with the skill sets they were bringing to the table.

The draft is, to a great degree, a crapshoot. There's really no way to know how players will turn out.

If there were a re-do of last year's draft, Herb Jones would be taken in the top ten. Everyone missed his potential, but we succeeded in getting a gem in the 2nd round because we missed it less than everyone else. That's a scouting success.

The night of the 2019 draft, what was reported was that we had Culver and Hayes rated almost equally for the #4 pick. David Griffin looked carefully and the teams picking 5-7 and concluded that one of the two would still be available at #8, which is why we made the trade.

If that was the case, then the trade was a "success" in that our front office still got who they wanted at #8 and picked up NAW and Didi for free.

So, for all the people here who bash the trade, I say that the trade made sense and continues to make sense, based on our draft board that night.

The problem wasn't the trade---it was the scouting. Just as our front office deserves credit for figuring out this year that Herb Jones might better than everyone else thought, they deserve blame for failing to realize that Hayes and Culver would be busts. If course, all the mock drafts had Culver in the top 7, and Jaxson wasn't going to last past #11 or #12, even if we didn't pick him, because there were indeed analytics that showed Culver and Hayes as equal value with RJ Barrett for the #3 pick. I think that using analytics is important, but they can't measure love of the game, attitude, or work ethic---that's stuff that only good scouting can tell you. The construction of our draft board prior to the 2019 draft is the biggest failure of the Griffin administration.

There have, obviously, been other significant failures, such as signing Nicole Melli and losing Christian Wood in the process, the Redick dustup, the expectation that Bledsoe could be a good starter for us, and the Adams trade and extension.

[Edit: forgot the hiring of SVG]

[Edit again, because I forgot the Lonzo trade.]

I said before the season that, if we fail to make the playoffs, Griff should be fired. Even without Zion for most of the season, I still think that he should go if we don't make the play-in, because the West is so weak.

But if our acquisitions of Herb Jones and Jonas Valanciunas and the resigning if Josh Hart (when most of this board thought that Naji would be just as good for less money) help us to make it to the play-in, then I have to give the front office credit for those decisions.

It works both ways.

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If that was the case, then the trade was a "success" in that our front office still got who they wanted at #8 and picked up NAW and Didi for free.

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Because you identified shite and were able to move back and still get shite doesn’t make something a success…I mean I guess from an organizational perspective if what you wanted was shite, but from an objective view, all you did was get shite

As GOP stated above, analytics showed differently from your idea of BPA.

Also, one could argue without a scoring department you attempt to trade up for what you know is a sure thing, which they tried to do to get Ja, or trade down to take more bites at the apple.

Lastly, I don't get the fascination with Hunter, dude has missed more games than Zion.

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Scouting in 2019 I really can't give a whole lot of fault there also, we didn't really have a scouting department in place, and the scout that we did have was a holdover from Demps IIRC.


There wasn't a whole lot of time to get a scouting department in place and fix that aspect of the organization, but that has changed since then.

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No, David Griffin had time to get scouts in place. That's BS. You can't use that as an excuse.

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Garland was not judged as BPA at that time. Shading it that way is revisionist.

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Yes he was, on many boards

LINK
4, Hunter, 5, Garland

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4.) Darius Garland, 5.) Hunter

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4.) Hunter, 5.) Garland

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4.) Garland

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4.) Garland

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4.) Hunter, 5.) Garland

Me: after the pick

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Yep. Griff really fricked this up. I’m shocked we didn’t take Garland. Even if we want to keep Lonzo and Jrue, let Garland be our sixth man guard just like CJ was initially for Portland. Darius could have played alongside Lonzo or Jrue in the backcourt for stretches and it would have worked.

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I'd even accept taking Hunter, as you don't know what Ingram will be or whether he can even stay healthy.

Yeah, I feel completely at odds with the rest of the board because I think this was Griffin's first swing and miss and it is a doozy, and it seriously makes me concerned with how he will utilize those incredible assets he received in the Lakers trade.

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And you can check the receipts, I was shouting at the rooftops about Garland before the draft and how his offensive skillset perfectly compliments Zion and the modern game, you could even argue with his pull up shooting and ability to be an off-ball chaos shooter, a more natural fit than Morant. If we didnt have out scouts in place, then it made ZERO sense to not just take BPA.

As a side note you'll notice Jaxson Hayes often around 10.

It just blows my mind the defenders still popping up for that move.