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Official Draft Thread

At this stage, comparing Favors to Cousins is a bit apples and oranges. Favors is much more of a PF and Cousins much more of C. I can promise that while Cousins is relatively out of shape, he's much, much stronger than Favors is. Besides, he does weigh 50 pounds more. Considering how much more in shape he can be and that he's 300 lbs, he's actually impressively agile and fluid. And if he were to step on a floor today, he'd be able to abuse half of the starting centers in the league with his strength alone.

I actually disagree. I think Cousins may find the athleticism/speed of the game in the NBA a lot tougher for him and it difficult to guard solid 5's and get off the ground quickly enough to contest or block shots. Favors on the other hand is much quicker and can jump higher.

For me, if Cousins could lose 25 pounds to get to 275 and get his body fat from 15% to about 10%, holy ****, he'd be scary.
 
Did I truly hear him say "Duh-ron" Williams?

Really? Really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but how could you know a guy but not how to say his name?
 
This was a little intriguing to read from SLTRIB:
https://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_15339116


O'Connor likes drafting players who are oversized for their position, like a Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Nowitzki or Williams.

"When you look at it," he said, "those are the guys who have the best chance to be stars in this league."

Really, KOC? Is that why you were fighting for Chris Paul over Deron?
 
This was a little intriguing to read from SLTRIB:
https://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_15339116

I agreed with him when I first read it, its how the lakers/ Phil Jackson have won, but then I started thinking about KOC's acquisitions and had to wonder how much he believed it.

Boozer and Okur are both undersized for thier position, Mathews is probaly in the bottom half of shooting gaurds. 60% of your starting lineup is undersized.

It must not be the most important criteria.
 
This was a little intriguing to read from SLTRIB:
https://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_15339116

Really, KOC? Is that why you were fighting for Chris Paul over Deron?

Yeah, that article is mind blowing. Most of our players are ****ing undersized. KOC is speaking garbage. The lakers decided to take their team in the direction of being bigger rather than quicker than everyone else...and it basketball that works.
 
Yeah, that article is mind blowing. Most of our players are ****ing undersized. KOC is speaking garbage. The lakers decided to take their team in the direction of being bigger rather than quicker than everyone else...and it basketball that works.

Hey, their parade is today, you should join all the other *** hats and jump on the bandwagon.
 
Sorry if this is a bit off-topic.

Does anyone else out there feel like the entire NBA Draft talent evaluation process is a good case study of "groupthink"? From wikipedia:

Groupthink is a type of thought within a deeply cohesive in-group whose members try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. As defined by Janis, 1972 “A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action”. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness, as are the advantages of reasonable balance in choice and thought that might normally be obtained by making decisions as a group.

Sure, there are 30 different teams making picks, but everyone knows everyone else in the NBA. And the reporters and writers creating mock drafts are buddies with the teams as well. It seems like a pretty "cohesive" group to me.

During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. A variety of motives for this may exist such as a desire to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance.

Teams that make picks "outside the comfort zone" (like the Wolves picking three point guards last year) are often portrayed as "foolish" by the media, pundits, and fans (yeah, so it was deserved in that case; someone come up with a better example).

Looking back on past drafts, it is clear how difficult it is to accurately predict how successful a potential NBA player's career will be. And yet, the team draft boards and the various mocks out there are quite similar. Yes, there are a few differences here and there, but considering how hard it is to pick well and avoid busts, the differences don't seem to be significant.

Discuss (or not).
 
Love this stuff Rustbucket. And I think a lot of people cannot help but be swayed by the groupthink mentality. People tend to be insecure and don't want to look appear the fool so they just go along with whatever they perceive the popular opinion is. I think Dostoevsky said "Fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence."
 
Not off topic at all.

I think it's definitely plausible. That said, I think most of the players are a known quantity for the most part. I mean, they are so thoroughly dissected, both physically and mentally, there really isn't much else to discover...until they get into the game and then all bets are off. I don't know how much teams share with each other, but I'm sure it's a lot.

I think it's hard to predict who is or is not going to be a bust because in the end the teams are dealing with human beings who are, if anything, completely dynamic.
 
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