Time to play "defense" with the Bobby Jones pick. I felt like I had the luxury of this essentially being my fifth rounder, so I should pick the guy I absolutely want and fits my team. I'll break it into four parts:
Offense: Bobby Jones is never going to be Peja Stojakovic (also under consideration for me!) but he's going to fit in really nicely into our system. Like the others on my team, he's an effective passer for the position averaging 3-4 assists per game. He's a great finisher with both hands who scored 15 points per game consistently and more like 18 per 36, so he's no slouch. He did that 58% shooting his last season in Denver and had a nice close-to-midrange jump shot with 75% free throw shooting. So I don't want to pigeon hole him as a defensive stopper who couldn't do anything else. He was an effective team basketball player who is a third-ish option on a championship-level team and the advanced stats support extreme efficiency. He did that by constantly moving without the basketball, finding the right opportunities, and finishing them. This team -- with Penny, Westphal, Gasol -- is going to be a back-cut party for Bobby Jones. He's going to love playing off that type of dynamic perimeter threat and passing ability.
Defense: I'm not sure I need to explain much here. Four time All-Star primarily because of his defense. Eight (8!!) time first-team All-Defense and once second team. He didn't even play that many years. He only didn't win DPOY because the award didn't exist. He could guard literally 1-5. For now, he'll slot in guarding the forward positions depending on the matchup. But if there's a particularly challenging matchup on the wing or guard position, I wouldn't hesitate to put him on someone like that. He's that good at defense.
Mitch Kupchak had a nice thing to say about his raw athleticism with that long of a frame: "No matter who you are in the NBA -- you could've been a 6-foot-2 guard, or a 6-foot-7 or a 6-foot-8 small forward, and the best athlete in the NBA, you could not get an athletic advantage on him.”
Leadership and Impact on Winning: Bobby Jones played on good teams...but Bobby Jones qualified for the playoffs every single year of his career. He's one of those guys that just elevates your team because he relishes at doing every little thing extraordinarily well, and then still gives you offensive production. You can't lose with a guy like Bobby Jones. The conversation for him to move to coming off the bench took 30 seconds -- he's happy with whatever needs to happen for the team. Heck, he was the first 6MOY.
Charles Barkley famously said "if everyone in the world was like Bobby Jones, the world wouldn't have any problems." He never complained, he always smiled. Sidney Moncrief said this: “[Jones] didn’t complain very much, he just went out there and did his job. He was a great teammate. It would be hard to find anybody that played with Bobby Jones that would say anything negative about him as a person, and also as a teammate."
Flat out, he's a guy you want on the team.
Fit with Raptors: We'll see! This is the gamble. I honestly didn't see anyone else I was in love with because there was a center or two I liked and a slew of combo guards, but I didn't need either of those. I thought about Peja or another power forward but they just didn't sit right. Bobby provides me the flexibility to get a just-another-scoring-power-forward later if I feel like I need one, or a reasonable two-way wing later too. We'll see what happens. He could start at power forward, small forward, or come off the bench.
Topic: 2023 CS Historic Draft Thread - Results in OP! (Read 136775 times)