Also -- I'm interested in your own personal draft history -- which of you can legitimately claim to have a strong history with hits and relatively few misses? Which of you are more throwing darts at a board v. those who are students of the draft and have attained in-depth knowledge of these prospects?
One thing I have firmly believed for a few years now is that "hits and misses" end up being largely due to circumstance rather than being innately right or wrong about the player. Of course there are some players who probably would thrive or bust anywhere, but I think circumstance and luck play a big role.
Some examples:
1) I think Markelle Fultz would be at minimum a Ja Morant caliber player if he were drafted to almost any other team besides Philly.
2) Draymond Green probably would never have been an all-star NBA player had he not been drafted to GSW AND David Lee not gotten hurt.
3) I believed before the 2017 draft that Lonzo Ball could be a potential future HOF player IF he got drafted into the right situation and had the right kind of team constructed around him.
4) Would Clint Capela ever have developed into who he is today if he wasn't drafted to Houston?
5) Would Andrew Wiggins be an all-nba talent if he wasn't traded into a situation where he was rewarded with 36 minutes and a lion's share of fga per game regardless of how hard he tried?
So when people say "I KNEW Tatum was the better player than Fultz going into 2017!" I actually don't even know if that's absolutely true in a vacuum. I'm not sure that if Fultz and Tatum were both drafted by different teams, that Fultz might not be looking like the better player right now.