I think it’s best to wait until the middle of the season at least.
I agree, but that didn't stop all the strong opinions against the trade before either player even wore a jersey. That said, if the draft were redone today I would strongly doubt Fultz is still #1 on too many boards.
Oh, yes, how dare anyone conduct draft evaluations? The audacity of some people.
Wait, so what you're saying is it's okay to have strong convictions prior to the draft, but it's premature to have an opinion based on actual NBA footage? It's fluid, but in that fluidity it's safe to say right now, October 22, 2017, Tatum is clearly the better player, has the most longterm potential between the two (Tatum vs Fultz), and Ainge was undoubtedly correct.
Yes, I think drawing conclusions from a season of college basketball is more reasonable than from 3 games of NBA basketball. I do not believe this is a hot take.
Really? So based on that I assume you believe that despite all the evidence we have on Fultz during summer league, preseason, the 3 regular season games, the footage on his FT shooting in scrimmages, and Brown being pretty concerned about his mechanics, you would still take those 25 college games, and draft him #1. Is that correct?
Edit:
I mean Derek Bodner, Sixers beat writer, who RARELY says a negative word on team recently said something to the effect of - The Sixers traded up to draft a Rondo, without the passing, at #1.
Yes, given the information I have access to, I'd still take him #1 overall. However, I'm now open to the possibility that Danny had access to information that justified the trade. As for Bodner, you added a fair amount of your own flavor to what he actually said:
https://twitter.com/DerekBodnerNBA/status/921953346973519872
Given the info I had prior to the draft, Id take Fultz #1 all day long, but I dont think Id take him #1 now. This is a legitimate and serious issue. He has either has a serious injury he should not be playing through, or he has a serious mental problem.
That's fine. I prefer to stick to my prior evaluation for longer, but Fultz looks like a different player now (for the worse). If you think that's who he is and not the special player we saw at Washington, then I would hope you wouldn't take him #1. I'm not pretending that I'm not concerned. What Fultz has shown is terrifying, but at Washington, he was truly special, and as bad as he's been, he's still shown some of that incredible herky jerky game that made him so unstoppable. I'm giving him time, and a lot of it, before I write him off.
I was on the Fultz train prior to the trade as much as you, Max, but I had Tatum ranked 2nd behind Fultz for us, which made me a little more accepting of the trade than you I think. The only two things that worried me about Fultz were his knees (non-issue so far) and his "go with the flow"/shaky mentality, which I think is primarily responsible for his terrible shot and start to the season.
Initially, I thought we could've extracted a bit more out of Philly, but I'm completely satisfied with the trade at this point, since it seems pretty clear that Danny was going to take Tatum first all along, meaning the extra pick is just gravy for us.
So a couple questions for you, Max. First, does the mentality thing not worry you now given his shot and how he's started? Given that this was a concern of mine prior to the draft (and I think I remember you mentioning being moderately concerned about this), this is a pretty major red flag for me. Second, do you think the fact that he was playing on a terrible Washington team has any relevance to his struggles so far? It does make you wonder if the lower expectations on a terrible team allowed him to succeed, especially given the concerns regarding his mentality,