You didn't answer my questions at all. He was sixth pick in a much crappier draft, and Winslow fell hard due to poor decision-making. Why do you think Smart will be better? And what makes you think he will be able to attack in the league?
Edit: Building? What are we building? We build through trades, not draft or FA.. and we failed to do that again this year. Next year will be the exact same situation. We will soon be regressing, not rebuilding.
Last year's draft was not considered crappy. Wiggins / Parker / Embiid were all considered potential franchise players. Gordon and Exum were both highly rated. Then came Smart.
After his freshman year, Smart likely would have gone #2 overall until he went back to school.
I like Winslow too, but Smart is a similarly rated prospect. As a rookie he played outstanding defense, and may have been playing most of the year severely hampered by his ankle.
As a freshman, Smart averaged 15-6-4-3 and got to the line for 6.5 FTA.
Winslow was around 13-6-2-1 with 4 FTA.
I agree Winslow should have gone higher, but higher than Smart did? And was the draft really stronger? All very debatable.
And then you have to consider, are you suggesting we should have traded Smart AND picks for the rights to Winslow?