What this story shows, more than anything, is that fans greatly overvalue the first round picks as assets. The fact that two team passed should be definitive proof. Anything below the lottery is not very much. And while the New Jersey pick is a wild card, you probably take the known (at #9) over the unknown anyway. That pick could well be out of the lottery.
No choosing Kaminsky is another thing entirely.
I'd argue GMs worrying about their immediate job security undervalue 1st round picks far more than fans overvalue them.
Seriosuly, there's no way you can look at Charlotte's "we have to do this now" offseason and think it makes any sense from a basketball standpoint. They're trying to get good enough to sell some tickets, there is no path to contention there.
What this story shows, more than anything, is that fans greatly overvalue the first round picks as assets. The fact that two team passed should be definitive proof. Anything below the lottery is not very much. And while the New Jersey pick is a wild card, you probably take the known (at #9) over the unknown anyway. That pick could well be out of the lottery.
No choosing Kaminsky is another thing entirely.
I think it just shows that Charlotte under values them, probably because they have made such poor ones.
Something is worth what people will pay for it. Or in this case, the value of something can be judged by what others are willing to give you for it.
We know of the Charlotte scenario. And we can logically surmise that Miami also said (or would have said) no based on how much they valued Winslow. And how do we know that DA started with Charlotte and not earlier in the draft? So it very likely isn't just one team that said no.
And as I was saying before, non-lottery picks are simply a crap shoot and most often turn into very little. Take a look at our own team, which is full of mid first round picks and tell me whether you would package them for the chance at a star. How many lop-sided trade proposals am I going to read from Celtic fan that involves our collection of mediocore players for a star? Way too many. Our fans propose these because whether they want to admit it or not, they are lopsided in our favor.
So ultimately, we have no idea whether Winslow will become a star. But one star (or borderline star) is worth an infinite number of JAGs (Just Another Guy).