There are maybe 1-2 people here who hate Exum. The rest of us would rather move on, which people view the same as hating, I guess. It's not Exum himself. It's that with the current dynamics he represents an opportunity cost and we're continuing down this path because of a
sunk cost fallacy.
Look, I wasn't huge on the Exum draft. I saw him as someone who was quick and athletic but didn't seem to have specific skill, which JFC gets really excited about any time they see it (Saer Sene, Jeremy Evans, etc.). Despite that, I have no beef with the pick, and it was the obvious pick. When we moved back from 3 to 5 our destiny was sealed. It was looking like we'd get Aaron Gordon, who I also wasn't excited about but whatever. It is what it is. Then Orlando took Gordon and Exum was the obvious choice. Not exactly the way we saw all our tanking efforts ending. We closed his rookie season strong and he started and played good D, so I was hopeful. Then he was injured. Then he came back and wasn't getting burn. We passed on picking up DWill off waivers to "clear the path" for Exum, then he was being benched for Mack, who sucked, and I disagreed with that. If we were going to pass on DWill to give Exum burn, don't play Mack. He would have occasional flashes where he'd drive the lane, but this was few and far between. He didn't get burn (I think we should have given more burn to prevent us from being in this exact situation we're in), and he kept being injured. Obviously that's not his fault. He's shown some flashes of really good D on very limited sample sizes in the playoffs against Harden. People are knocking guys like Caruso for getting hyped by their limited sample size while at the same time rationalizing continued sunk cost when Exum's highs seriously have similar sample sizes.
The truth is, IDGAF about Mudiay. Very meh signing for me. But I think there's a very important lesson to be had here. Mudiay was a #7 pick. He had a lot of hype. He averaged 12 ppg as a rookie and 11 ppg as a sophomore. Despite that, Denver traded him for Devin Harris and a second round pick. He averaged 15 ppg last year. Despite that, NYK didn't look at him and say "he was drafted 7th and he's still got untapped potential." No. They let him walk. Nobody around the league is looking at him and seeing #7 pick and potential after four seasons. Literally nobody. He just got a minimum contract. That's where his value is. Does this sound familiar? The Jazz are taking a very different approach with Exum when NBA history is riddled with these cases. Because of a
familiarity bias we are prone to overvalue Exum far above and beyond what anybody else would. We certainly don't overvalue the Exum of other teams because we don't have that same familiarity. If Exum were waived today, what's his market? Nobody here is clamoring for Elfrid Payton or even Mudiay, yet those are two guys who have done more than Exum has thus far and are very similar players.
Jabari Parker was drafted second the same year Exum was drafted. He's also had unfortunate injuries that have limited his career. He's a former 20 ppg scorer. For as good as Exum is on defense, Jabari is as good on offense, and for as bad as Jabari is on defense, Exum is as bad on offense. Despite investing a #2 draft pick in him, Milwaukee let him sign elsewhere. The Wizards aren't factoring in that he's a former #2 pick when they're going to let him sign elsewhere. How much money is he going to get in free agency this year? My guess is that it nowhere approximates $20M over two years.
So, really, I have two questions:
1) Is it irrational for people to consider this an opportunity cost and want to move on at this point?
2) If people are wanting to move on, does that equate to hate?