OKC might do the Philly thing keep trading /drafting top four picks till you hit the best three. I can’t remember all the top recruits Philly drafted and destroyed while tanking to finally land Simmons and Embiid and actually start playing ball. At some point you realize that these guys are going to be paid and you can only keep 3-4 of them any significant length of time. You can draft 6 Lebrons , but you can only afford to keep 2-3 long term.
That's because there weren't any. The Sixers only had 4 top four picks: Embiid, Okafor, Simmons and Fultz during their tanking period. They also drafted or acquired via draft day trades: Noel, Michael Carter Williams and Saric in the lottery during their tanking period.
All of those players are still in the league. Sixers didn't destroy any of them. Note that Fultz screwed up his shot before he joined the Sixers.
I think it is fair to say the Sixers hurt Noel and Okafor's development (if we are ever going to say a team hurt a player's development at least). Also saying Okafor is still in the league is a pretty low bar. He is on a minimum contract and appeared in 27 games last year averaging 13 minutes for one of the worst teams in the league. He was their third string center behind plumlee and isiah stewart. That is absolutely awful for a 25 year old that was a number 3 pick in draft.
Adding some more on to this because this is such a ludicrous take. If we are going to say players are going to be who they are regardless of coaching, their teammates, training practices etc. Is the NBA and every other basketball league just wasting billions of dollars every year investing in developing players and development leagues?
Here are just a few of the ways that the 76ers could have impacted okafor and noel's development.
1) Impacting confidence. Players across every sport have talked about how not knowing role or having a consistent playing situation has impacted them on the field or court. While they weren't always healthy at the same time they had what were viewed as three starting quality NBA centers on their roster for a consistent period of time. Maybe guys that were young and had some confidence issues to begin with were impacted by this situation and tried less hard in practice. Tried less hard in the gym. Maybe they received less attention and reps from the coaching staff then they would have in a different situation. Does this matter for a superstar talent like Lebron. No. But I am sure it can make the difference between a young player developing into a servicable rotation player compared to a complete fringe nba player like Okafor has.
2) Playing time. Obviously every team in the NBA believes playing time helps young players develop. Okafor was receiving DNP coaching decisions as a 22 year old when Noel and Embid were healthy. This could certainly have hurt him and also can be connected back to number 1.
3) Mismanagement of injuries. The 76ers medical staff has kind of been a laughing stock of the NBA for years. Okafor had what was supposed to be a 6 week recovery from a knee injury and it was still bothering him over a year later. Did they botch the surgery? Was he misdiagnosed? This obviously could significantly hurt his development.
4) Coaching. A lot of people associated with the NBA say Pitino and to a lesser extent Carr really hurt Walkers development by just giving him free reign to launch threes. He got away from some of the incredible gifts he had as an interior player and driver and there were no repercussions. Okafor was allowed to just get his points and was not pulled for some completely horrible defensive play. In fact he was receiving accolades like all rookie first team because the team wanted to lose and was not pulling him for this kind of play. Perhaps if he is drafted by the Spurs (who I guess according to you just always magically get the guys that were going to turn out good) and pops says you are not going to play if you don't improve the effort defense he becomes at least a slightly above horrible defender. Maybe they force him to develop a three point shot.
5) Very limited/no veteran leadership. Here is a great story on why veterans are important from a few years back (it is also interesting that beasely has developed into a pretty good player)
Speaking of those two guys [Malik Beasley, Hernangomaez] actually, and we'll close on this: people have wondered why a guy like Mike Miller is still in the league, he basically hasn't played all season. And I gotta little window into that very early on; I got to the game [Nuggets @ Warriors on January 2nd] early, about 5 o'clock, for the 7:30 game. And there was a 3 on 3 game - Miller, Beasley, Hernangomez, Alonzo Gee, and then a couple of the Nuggets assistant coaches, I think Steven Graham was one of em... [he's a] former NBA player... and then another guy I didn't recognize. So they're playing 3 on 3 hard; they played for like 45 minutes, I caught the last 20 minutes of it. They had been playing full court for a time, then they had to switch to half court when some of the Warriors players came out to start shooting. Jauncho [Hernangomez] and Beasley were exhausted... and Mike Miller is sill running around, still in great shape, draining 3s for game point in this 3 on 3 game... ya know talking it up all the time, like, Gee is posting up on Beasley, he's got a size advantage, and he [Mike Miller] is telling Beasley "he's going right shoulder, he's going right shoulder." Just yelling, talking, teaching these guys about the game. Being a great vet. Then afterwards these guys are completely exhausted and Mike Miller's like "hey you guys wanna run some sprints with me?" [Nate chuckles] And makes these guys run sprints with him after they're already just like totally out of gas. And, ya know, they weren't gonna play and that's how you keep those guys in shape, keep their skills sharp, teach those guys on the end of the bench to work. And that's why Mike Miller is still around."
Okafor obviously had maturity issues. He got in a street fight in boston outside a bar in the wee hours. He was driving a 100mph on a bridge in philly. His conditioning did not seem very good early in his career. Maybe a mike miller on the team helps his development a little?
There is even more than this, but the idea that a young player like Okafor and nba players in general are just who they are and cant be hampered by a situation, staff or coaching is behind ludicrous. Okafor is kind of a poster buy what if because he had so many of these things working against him. I don't think he was ever going to be a superstar but to say it was impossible for him to even have a servicable role player career if he developed in a different system is beyond ludicrous.
Topic: Who is most likely getting stuck like Ainge did? (Read 7127 times)