Loaded 2014 Draft = Blow It Up

[BballTim]

I agree with tanking for the possibility of the number 1 pick, but at the same time i don't want to be bored to death watching the team. At the end of the day, basketball is entertainment and i want to be entertained watching these guys play. I enjoy watching Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger, so as long as they are both on the roster i won't mind moving everyone else for draft picks.

  Green would probably cease to be entertaining to watch if he was trying to be the main offensive player for a bad team.

[D Dub]

Going from Tank to Title is such a long shot.
 
it's happened what, like 3 times in the last 40 years where a team drafts a guy top 5 who leads them to at title within 5 years?
 
Other than Magic, Bird, & Duncan, has any rookie really led that kind of turnaround?

Even if we do luck into a #1 pick with terrible play, chances are that rook would only lead us right back where we started -- mediocrity.

I'd rather control of our own destiny & take advantage of the Rondo cycle by parlaying the young assets we do have
(and we have many:  Green, Bradley, Sully, Crawford, Lee, Melo, TWill, Shav, #16) ...into an established talent like Love, Aldridge or Cousins. 

[Moranis]

Going from Tank to Title is such a long shot.
 
it's happened what, like 3 times in the last 40 years where a team drafts a guy top 5 who leads them to at title within 5 years?
 
Other than Magic, Bird, & Duncan, has any rookie really led that kind of turnaround?

Even if we do luck into a #1 pick with terrible play, chances are that rook would only lead us right back where we started -- mediocrity.

I'd rather control of our own destiny & take advantage of the Rondo cycle by parlaying the young assets we do have
(and we have many:  Green, Bradley, Sully, Crawford, Lee, Melo, TWill, Shav, #16) ...into an established talent like Love, Aldridge or Cousins.

none of that crap is going to get you an established talent.  To do that sort of trade you need a real legit prospect like an Al Jefferson or a top 5 pick.  Boston has none of that on the roster.

[Spicoli]

I agree with tanking for the possibility of the number 1 pick, but at the same time i don't want to be bored to death watching the team. At the end of the day, basketball is entertainment and i want to be entertained watching these guys play. I enjoy watching Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger, so as long as they are both on the roster i won't mind moving everyone else for draft picks.

  Green would probably cease to be entertaining to watch if he was trying to be the main offensive player for a bad team.

Green could be a 20+ PPG scorer on a bad team. If James Harden can average 25 points by doing nothing other than step back 3's and free throws, i'm sure Green can average 20+. Watching a guy score 20 a game is always pretty entertaining.

[More Banners]

How did the last leaded, do bad, draft work for the Celtics? 



Thank goodness two players like Ray and KG wanted out of their teams so bad.

Actually, neither of them wanted to be traded; both, in fact, protested the trades before they happened.  Ray was coming off of injury wanted to make a run health with Durant and the guy that was overpaid by Orlando.  KG refused to extend with us at first, killing the draft day trade.

So that's what the #5 gets from a rebuilding team:  An allstar coming off of injury looking at the tail of his career.

[CelticConcourse]

I agree with tanking for the possibility of the number 1 pick, but at the same time i don't want to be bored to death watching the team. At the end of the day, basketball is entertainment and i want to be entertained watching these guys play. I enjoy watching Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger, so as long as they are both on the roster i won't mind moving everyone else for draft picks.

  Green would probably cease to be entertaining to watch if he was trying to be the main offensive player for a bad team.

Green could be a 20+ PPG scorer on a bad team. If James Harden can average 25 points by doing nothing other than step back 3's and free throws, i'm sure Green can average 20+. Watching a guy score 20 a game is always pretty entertaining.

I would be entertained every night with Rondo/Green/Sully for sure. I'd be so excited if we averaged 100ppg.

[nickagneta]

How did the last leaded, do bad, draft work for the Celtics? 



Thank goodness two players like Ray and KG wanted out of their teams so bad.

Actually, neither of them wanted to be traded; both, in fact, protested the trades before they happened.  Ray was coming off of injury wanted to make a run health with Durant and the guy that was overpaid by Orlando.  KG refused to extend with us at first, killing the draft day trade.

So that's what the #5 gets from a rebuilding team:  An allstar coming off of injury looking at the tail of his career.

Real history.

Garnett HATED Wally Szczerbiak who was a Celtic until being dealt from the Celtics for Ray Allen. Once Allen and Pierce were here and Wally gone, Garnett desperately wanted to come here rather than staying in Minny or being dealt to the Lakers, who, at the time were the other team deep in the KG negotiations.

[BballTim]

How did the last leaded, do bad, draft work for the Celtics? 



Thank goodness two players like Ray and KG wanted out of their teams so bad.

Actually, neither of them wanted to be traded; both, in fact, protested the trades before they happened.  Ray was coming off of injury wanted to make a run health with Durant and the guy that was overpaid by Orlando.  KG refused to extend with us at first, killing the draft day trade.

So that's what the #5 gets from a rebuilding team:  An allstar coming off of injury looking at the tail of his career.

  Pretty sure that Lewis went to Orlando before the Ray trade.

[LarBrd33]

Question... if you were assured that the 2014 draft was equal to the 2003 draft... would you change your opinion on tanking?  Because that's the premise of this thread.

#1 - LeBron
#2 - Darko
#3 - Melo
#4 - Bosh
#5 - Wade

... I do it... especially when the alternative is another 5-10 years of mediocrity.

The last time we tanked, we won a championship the next year.  Fact.

  Even if you look only at the top 5 from the 2003 draft you have one sure-fire franchise player, one great player who's only contended for a title when another superstar has been on the team, one guy who will never be the best player on a contender (Bosh), a bust, and Melo, who falls somewhere in between Bosh and Wade and needed to face a depleted Celts team to get out of the 1st round for the 2nd time in 10 trips to the playoffs. In other words, with one of the best (at the top) drafts ever you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a real franchise player and a 1 in 5 shot at getting a "1A" franchise player (meaning you need a "1B" or better).

Lebrons, as much as I can't stand him, only come around every 10-20 years.  He's better than most HOF inductees even.  Let's not count him as a "normal" #1 pick.  Most drafts don't have Lebrons.

Looking at his level of team achievement, though...  Many players made the Finals carrying their teams, i.e. Iverson and Dwight.

And not many superstars win it alone.  Jordan didn't win by himself (though he doesn't believe that).  Neither did anyone else.

So I don't knock players like Wade, who was a champion in his 2nd year, or Bosh, who carried a terrible Toronto team for years, or Melo, who dominated Olympic and international play and is a true world champion.

It takes more than one star to win these days.  I'll take any of those guys (except Lebron, who I can't stand).

  Nobody said anything about LeBron being a normal #1 pick.

And Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be the greatest prospect since LeBron. 

[nickagneta]

Question... if you were assured that the 2014 draft was equal to the 2003 draft... would you change your opinion on tanking?  Because that's the premise of this thread.

#1 - LeBron
#2 - Darko
#3 - Melo
#4 - Bosh
#5 - Wade

... I do it... especially when the alternative is another 5-10 years of mediocrity.

The last time we tanked, we won a championship the next year.  Fact.

  Even if you look only at the top 5 from the 2003 draft you have one sure-fire franchise player, one great player who's only contended for a title when another superstar has been on the team, one guy who will never be the best player on a contender (Bosh), a bust, and Melo, who falls somewhere in between Bosh and Wade and needed to face a depleted Celts team to get out of the 1st round for the 2nd time in 10 trips to the playoffs. In other words, with one of the best (at the top) drafts ever you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a real franchise player and a 1 in 5 shot at getting a "1A" franchise player (meaning you need a "1B" or better).

Lebrons, as much as I can't stand him, only come around every 10-20 years.  He's better than most HOF inductees even.  Let's not count him as a "normal" #1 pick.  Most drafts don't have Lebrons.

Looking at his level of team achievement, though...  Many players made the Finals carrying their teams, i.e. Iverson and Dwight.

And not many superstars win it alone.  Jordan didn't win by himself (though he doesn't believe that).  Neither did anyone else.

So I don't knock players like Wade, who was a champion in his 2nd year, or Bosh, who carried a terrible Toronto team for years, or Melo, who dominated Olympic and international play and is a true world champion.

It takes more than one star to win these days.  I'll take any of those guys (except Lebron, who I can't stand).

  Nobody said anything about LeBron being a normal #1 pick.

And Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be the greatest prospect since LeBron.

So this kid is guaranteed to be better than Durant? Let's see if he can dominate in college like Durant did before crowning him the next anything.

[lightspeed5]

this draft has 2 certified future all-stars, and a bunch of potential stars in the top 10.

wiggins is being compared to a mix of lebron and scottie pippen type, while jabari parker is a mirror image of carmelo anthony. the harrison twins, dakari johnson, randle, aaron gordon, young, etc. will all be excellent nba players.

[JBcat]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if if we did blow it up, and tank for the 2014 draft.  What's to say if we landed a franchise player that player would want to stay with us long term.  Look at how Lebron, Melo, and Chris Paul forced their original team's hands for a trade.  Only Denver really remained a playoff team.   

I'd rather ride this out to the end, and do what we have been doing retooling on the fly with the likes of Green, Sully, Bradley, and Rondo.  Maybe a couple more legit young pieces in the next couple years  along with expiring deals such as Lee and Bass we'll have much more flexibility for trades to aquire players we really want.

[bfrombleacher]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if if we did blow it up, and tank for the 2014 draft.  What's to say if we landed a franchise player that player would want to stay with us long term.  Look at how Lebron, Melo, and Chris Paul forced their original team's hands for a trade.  Only Denver really remained a playoff team.   

I'd rather ride this out to the end, and do what we have been doing retooling on the fly with the likes of Green, Sully, Bradley, and Rondo.  Maybe a couple more legit young pieces in the next couple years  along with expiring deals such as Lee and Bass we'll have much more flexibility for trades to aquire players we really want.

This point has indeed been mentioned. Quite a lot in this thread.

*Not ticked off, just saying has since you asked*

[BballTim]

Question... if you were assured that the 2014 draft was equal to the 2003 draft... would you change your opinion on tanking?  Because that's the premise of this thread.

#1 - LeBron
#2 - Darko
#3 - Melo
#4 - Bosh
#5 - Wade

... I do it... especially when the alternative is another 5-10 years of mediocrity.

The last time we tanked, we won a championship the next year.  Fact.

  Even if you look only at the top 5 from the 2003 draft you have one sure-fire franchise player, one great player who's only contended for a title when another superstar has been on the team, one guy who will never be the best player on a contender (Bosh), a bust, and Melo, who falls somewhere in between Bosh and Wade and needed to face a depleted Celts team to get out of the 1st round for the 2nd time in 10 trips to the playoffs. In other words, with one of the best (at the top) drafts ever you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a real franchise player and a 1 in 5 shot at getting a "1A" franchise player (meaning you need a "1B" or better).

Lebrons, as much as I can't stand him, only come around every 10-20 years.  He's better than most HOF inductees even.  Let's not count him as a "normal" #1 pick.  Most drafts don't have Lebrons.

Looking at his level of team achievement, though...  Many players made the Finals carrying their teams, i.e. Iverson and Dwight.

And not many superstars win it alone.  Jordan didn't win by himself (though he doesn't believe that).  Neither did anyone else.

So I don't knock players like Wade, who was a champion in his 2nd year, or Bosh, who carried a terrible Toronto team for years, or Melo, who dominated Olympic and international play and is a true world champion.

It takes more than one star to win these days.  I'll take any of those guys (except Lebron, who I can't stand).

  Nobody said anything about LeBron being a normal #1 pick.

And Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be the greatest prospect since LeBron.

  And Avery Bradley was the highest (or close to the highest) rated player in his high school class. Saying that people expect him to be great isn't really a guarantee, especially if you're trying to assure me that he'll be better than every player that's come into the league since LeBron (including KD). But your point wasn't that that draft was worth tanking for just because of LeBron but because of the other talent at the top of that draft. Out of that top 5 players you had LeBron, a bust, a player who can help you win a title if you pair him with a "true franchise player", someone that will probably never be the best player on a contending team (Bosh) and a player (Melo) who's never led a team to much postseason success but could eventually get a title under the right circumstances (like Dirk).

  The only player in that group that won a title for the team who drafted him was Wade, who needed a Shaq/LeBron type of player to be added to his team. So even in your historically good draft teams with top 5 picks had a 20% chance of winning a title with their draft pick, and that team needed lightning to strike twice in order to win. So you're right that it's easier to add a great player with a top 3 pick in the draft than otherwise, tanking is still very unlikely to take you to the promised land.