I’d never heard of Jones when he was drafted, but thought “A Center from Vanderbilt? Cool, another Festus!”. LOL me.
He serves as a lesson that keeps getting unlearned about all draft picks, but especially when picking late 1st rounders and beyond; expecting/hoping a player’s “motor” (intensity/fire/competitiveness/effort) to increase at the next level is fools gold. By the time a player has played a season of college ball, we can see who they are in that regard, no matter how much we we love the “potential”.
Looking back at some of Jones’ scouting reports, they all comment on things like being a half step slow to react, a lack of intensity and effort. Those are red flags.
Whether it’s Draymond, Paschall or Brogdon, it seems like the “steals” are always guys whose size/athleticism aren’t ideal, but have a motor and what I call a “twinkle in the eye” that shows you that they “get it”.
My issue isn't so much as to the misses in relationship to a player like Brogdon (whom every other team Denver Toronto included) missed in the 1st round. My issue is that this team has had less and less depth since 2015 run and more and more reliance on heavy minutes for starters plus Iguodala, Livingston. That all caught up this last go around. Both Igloo and Livingston looked old. Then injuries to Durant and Thompson (albeit latter on a freak injury).
The FO has not done a good job of identifying depth for the back end of the rotation. The year we drafted McCaw and Jones should have been the year we should have had at least one player provide depth for Livingston and possibly Iguodala.
As much as I hate to say this, McCaw has as many rings as Steph, Klay, Dray, Andre, and Shaun. He's certainly managed to land on his feet (aside from the one gruesome injury).
Jones a pretty bad miss. He was a big man who didn't rebound in college, and he still doesn't rebound. The only thing that intrigued me coming out was he'd shown some ability to switch onto guards and really move on the perimeter. Neither that, nor even decent rim protection showed up on the D end.
McCaw was a good pick. The Raptors are arguably the best in the league when it comes to identifying late round guys, and developing them. They liked him and swooped on him, but he's really no better now than he was as a rookie. He just didn't have the right mindset to find his role and then grow from there.
Ruin the dynasty is a bit of a weird phrase. I don't think they ruined it by not taking Brogdon. But, Brogdon would be the perfect fit for the present roster and could have made a difference last year.
I give the front office more credit for the McCaw pick than "C+". His holdout for a bigger role was one of the most baffling (and, realistically, futile) contract negotiations in the NBA over the past few years. Anyone who expected that, I would accuse of having a time machine.
I’d never heard of Jones when he was drafted, but thought “A Center from Vanderbilt? Cool, another Festus!”. LOL me.
He serves as a lesson that keeps getting unlearned about all draft picks, but especially when picking late 1st rounders and beyond; expecting/hoping a player’s “motor” (intensity/fire/competitiveness/effort) to increase at the next level is fools gold. By the time a player has played a season of college ball, we can see who they are in that regard, no matter how much we we love the “potential”.
Looking back at some of Jones’ scouting reports, they all comment on things like being a half step slow to react, a lack of intensity and effort. Those are red flags.
Whether it’s Draymond, Paschall or Brogdon, it seems like the “steals” are always guys whose size/athleticism aren’t ideal, but have a motor and what I call a “twinkle in the eye” that shows you that they “get it”.
My issue isn't so much as to the misses in relationship to a player like Brogdon (whom every other team Denver Toronto included) missed in the 1st round. My issue is that this team has had less and less depth since 2015 run and more and more reliance on heavy minutes for starters plus Iguodala, Livingston. That all caught up this last go around. Both Igloo and Livingston looked old. Then injuries to Durant and Thompson (albeit latter on a freak injury).
The FO has not done a good job of identifying depth for the back end of the rotation. The year we drafted McCaw and Jones should have been the year we should have had at least one player provide depth for Livingston and possibly Iguodala.
As much as I hate to say this, McCaw has as many rings as Steph, Klay, Dray, Andre, and Shaun. He's certainly managed to land on his feet (aside from the one gruesome injury).
Jones a pretty bad miss. He was a big man who didn't rebound in college, and he still doesn't rebound. The only thing that intrigued me coming out was he'd shown some ability to switch onto guards and really move on the perimeter. Neither that, nor even decent rim protection showed up on the D end.
McCaw was a good pick. The Raptors are arguably the best in the league when it comes to identifying late round guys, and developing them. They liked him and swooped on him, but he's really no better now than he was as a rookie. He just didn't have the right mindset to find his role and then grow from there.
Ruin the dynasty is a bit of a weird phrase. I don't think they ruined it by not taking Brogdon. But, Brogdon would be the perfect fit for the present roster and could have made a difference last year.
I give the front office more credit for the McCaw pick than "C+". His holdout for a bigger role was one of the most baffling (and, realistically, futile) contract negotiations in the NBA over the past few years. Anyone who expected that, I would accuse of having a time machine.