meh.. I'll break my silence to comment here. This is an interesting topic. I like roster composition/draft strategy talks..
The Trey Lyles(Who's got 21 starts and counting) comments from OP are biased, he holds a grudge against Trey, who's 20...Let me repeat that again - He holds a grudge against Trey,
who's 20!!!! Hack's the Violet Beauregard of Jazzfanz. these type of threads and their tone, fall right in line...
To say Lyles doesn't have the potential for incremental advances, year-over-year, is the assessment of a fool. Obviously, it's too early to call definitively -
he's 9/23 from 3 on the season and still, he's not earned any slack from some here!?!?...
For now, he's shooting the NBA 3 better than the college 3... He's certainly far from
hopeless, it's absurd to even use that word when speaking on Lyles.. Big guys take longer to develop, Trey's certainly been showing better lately. He's great for the ball-movement, I don't think he's easily replaceable at-all,
certainly not at his pay grade.. That's not what I want to talk about though..
It's also worthy of note that the Jazz have had many lottery picks of late and usually players with notorious attitude issues aren't even in that range.. If they didn't take Lyles, I'd have wen't with Cameron Payne or Devin Booker, both of whom present themselves as good guys all the time, Payne's a gregarious southerner.
I do think the Jazz could use 2 or 3 rotation players with some serious attitude, and I do think they could take more fliers on risky players in the 2nd round, because of their glut of picks. Trevor Booker certainly fits this profile I'd say so does Rudy... I'd imagine that's what they were hoping for from lil Sap.. And now Chris Johnson, Raul Neto, maybe Favors or Withey...
I'm not sure if that type of 'nasty' attitude is something you want to pay a premium for in the NBA draft though, over time it'd prove to be misleading --
Thats what got Tyrus Thomas drafted so high..right?
Also I'd contend you can find those type of players in the 2nd round... Draygoon Green might ring a bell..
Now as far as the draft strategy, I think what their doing and have been doing, is pretty good, dunno how you could argue otherwise.. Maybe don't always grab the BPA,
who does though?!? They're certainly damn accurate,
which counts for plenty, Hood and Gobert are nothing less than grade A+ picks,
in the 20's..
Hayward has proven to be a great pick.. Neto looks like a damn serviceable 2nd round pick.. Trey Burke's recouping plenty of value in his pivotal 3rd season - A great sign.
Burks has been steadily improving, Dwayne Wade called him the most underrated player in the NBA the other day.. He's 36% from 3 for his career, and 38% in the last 2 seasons combined, how could anyone with reasonable standards argue he wasn't a good pick? Sure he wasn't the best possible pick, that doesn't mean he wasn't a good pick though..
It's too early to call the Exum pick. I think it will prove to be a worthy gamble though, they surely could've done much worse.
Kanter was certainly a good pick too...
They didn't get a good return for him, that doesn't mean he wasn't a good pick. He's currently the 17th highest paid player in the league and 23, 2 teams that weren't the one that drafted him appraised him to be worthy of that contract -- Which certainly justifies taking him 3rd overall..
When it comes to the Jazz and the draft recently. I'd equate it to hitting in baseball.. They're hitting at least .300 which is well above league average.. Which also means they've earned the benefit of the doubt.. Now also at the same time, they've stocked up extra picks, meaning any concerns could potentially be filled in any number of ways, AKA There's little reason to be concerned with anything Jazz/Draft related...
