Will Sacramento Regret Passing on Mudiay?

[Moranis]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

Porzingis has shown a lot of flashes of greatness.  I think that is a pretty solid pick.

[hpantazo]

Sidenote: I got to meet WCS and Mudiay here in NYC around the draft. Mudiay was one of the nicest draft prospects/NBA players I've ever met and WCS was kind of a d***. No idea who will be better, but I certainly hope it's Mudiay.

That's great. Then WCS is going to fit in wonderfully with Rondo and Cousins. Vlade must be building the all-NBA **** team up there in Sacramento.

[max215]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

I don't know about that. He has the potential to be a GREAT player.

[Rondo9]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

Porzingis has shown a lot of flashes of greatness.  I think that is a pretty solid pick.

I like what he's shown, but it's in summer league. Let's wait until the regular season.

[BDeCosta26]

I love the WCS and Cousins combo. I do think they needed a different PG not Rondo. I would have gotten CJ one year to back up Collison and just wait for Conley. Conley, McLemore, Rudy, WCS, Cousins are a very good starting five.

Why would Conley go to Sacramento? Wes Matthews took less money to go to Dallas over Sacto and reaffirmed that even after the DeAndre thing. Conley will be a top FA next year with 10-20 teams interested in him. He probably ain't picking the Kings.

Do you really like the WCS-Cousins combo? I kind of like it defensively, but offensively I think it's gonna be a disaster. In today's NBA, at least one of your three or four main bigs must be able to shoot the three well enough to be respected and at least one of your starters needs to be a knock-down shooter from the mid-range. I don't think either of those guys are, and with a PG like Rondo who can't shoot at all and who needs the ball in his hands every possession to be effective the spacing is gonna cause problems. They better be a dang good defensive team because it's gonna be up to Cousins and Gay to do the vast majority of the scoring.

That team has so many question marks it's not even funny, both schematically and in the locker room. That's the most troubling thing. If things don't go well out of the gate, they have all the makings of a toxic situation that gets ugly VERY quickly.

Yep. I'm of the belief that Sacramento is going to be a disaster and descend into madness fairly quickly. Great news for us if Cousins publicly demands a trade.

It sure is. Honestly, it seems almost certain that they blow up in epic fashion. Karl went behind Ranadive and Divac's back trying to move Cousins before the draft and it all became public. Cousins and Karl obviously didn't get along before that, so imagine the bad blood in that locker room now. And better yet, to appease Cousins after that whole fiasco they went out and got some guys Cousins wanted to play with (WCS, Rondo, tried for Matthews) but those guys don't fit at all. You always hear "Once the coach loses the locker room it's all done". Well, Karl never had that locker room. Everyone hates each other. None of the parts fit, and they have a handful of known malcontents playing legit minutes. I think it's gonna get real ugly pretty fast.

Hopefully not too fast though. I'm thinking that by the time the deadline is coming up and that Kings team blows up, we'll be somewhere in the 4-8 range in the East while Brooklyn has shown they're easily a bottom 5 or 10 team and Dallas is right where we need them. So they could be fairly certain it's at least a top 10-12 lottery pick with potential to be much better. Then we trade them: Bradley, Young, Sullinger, the 2016 Brooklyn 1st (Unprotected), the 2016 Minny 1st (1-12) and the 2018 Boston 1st (Top 3 protected) for Cousins and filler.

That leaves us with:
Smart/Thomas/Rozier
Rozier/Hunter/Crowder
Crowder/Jones III/Jerebko
Olynyk/Johnson/Jerebko/Mickey
Cousins/Zeller/Olynyk/Mickey

That assumes we move Lee in a separate trade and choose Jones over Turner (who could be traded) after camp. We'd still have the Dallas and our pick this year, the Brooklyn swap next year, and the Brooklyn 1st in 18, plus the Memphis pick and most of our 2nds. Then we look to sign or trade for another impact guy in the summer. A pipe dream you say? Perhaps. But I think there's a fairly decent chance a similar scenario plays out this year.

[loco_91]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

I don't know about that. He has the potential to be a GREAT player.

So do a lot of guys, and the pick might end up looking fine if he develops the right way. But Porzingis has meh skill level and coordination right now, so he has way more bust potential than WCS, Winslow, Mudiay or Porzingis, all of whom are significantly more skilled.

Porzingis could become Chris Bosh lite if he develops well, or he could be merely a solid rotation player if his 3pt shot never becomes lethal, he doesn't learn to score in other ways, and his frail frame keeps him from making a big defensive impact.

[max215]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

I don't know about that. He has the potential to be a GREAT player.

So do a lot of guys, and the pick might end up looking fine if he develops the right way. But Porzingis has meh skill level and coordination right now, so he has way more bust potential than WCS, Winslow, Mudiay or Porzingis, all of whom are significantly more skilled.

Porzingis could become Chris Bosh lite if he develops well, or he could be merely a solid rotation player if his 3pt shot never becomes lethal, he doesn't learn to score in other ways, and his frail frame keeps him from making a big defensive impact.

I personally have no problem with taking the guy with the most upside though, even if he's high risk. The Draft had three top tier players followed by a second tier of guys with potential to be superstars (Mudiay, Winslow, Hezonja, Porzingis), but more bust potential than the top tier guys IMO. With those four second tier players, it's really a matter of personal preference, and I cannot knock the Knicks for taking the guy they thought was best, even though I prefer Hezonja and Mudiay to Porzingis. However, I feel it is fair to criticize the Knicks for taking the biggest project of the second tier guys when the face of their franchise is an aging star.

[Forza Juventus]

Sacramento picked WCS because Cousins wants to play more power forward. They also got Koufos so Cousins won't be playing much center this year. I would have probably picked Mudiay but they decided to get Rondo, Koufos and WCS. I don't know. There roster looks like something that the computer would make on 2k lol

[Forza Juventus]

Sidenote: I got to meet WCS and Mudiay here in NYC around the draft. Mudiay was one of the nicest draft prospects/NBA players I've ever met and WCS was kind of a d***. No idea who will be better, but I certainly hope it's Mudiay.

Can you please explain? Was he mean? Rude? And how did you meet these guys?

[Birdman]

Mudiay will be great in Denver..perfect place for him

[Moranis]

Another terrible decision by a terrible franchise. The fit with Cousins and Rondo is poor, as Cousins needs space to be his dominant self. WCS is a great prospect, and the pick wasn't as egregious as NY taking Porzingis #4, though.

I don't know about that. He has the potential to be a GREAT player.

So do a lot of guys, and the pick might end up looking fine if he develops the right way. But Porzingis has meh skill level and coordination right now, so he has way more bust potential than WCS, Winslow, Mudiay or Porzingis, all of whom are significantly more skilled.

Porzingis could become Chris Bosh lite if he develops well, or he could be merely a solid rotation player if his 3pt shot never becomes lethal, he doesn't learn to score in other ways, and his frail frame keeps him from making a big defensive impact.

you seem to be watching different players than I am because I see none of what you are talking about with Porzingis with respect to his skill level.

[PhoSita]

I think Mudiay will be a good player.

The flip side to this argument is that even if Mudiay turns into a borderline All-Star at the point, while WCS turns into a solid starter somewhere on the Robin Lopez - Tyson Chandler spectrum, WCS would be the more "valuable" player in the sense that he'd be harder to replace. 

The league is just so saturated with productive point guards.


I think you have to get a perennial All-Star, or else a guy who can defend the 2 and function as a quality combo guard (e.g. Smart) in order for it to make sense picking a point guard prospect at the top of the draft.