Then we could have been the team to watch him go to Toronto to win a ring. We definitely didn't have the team around us like SA did to win much more than we did anyway.
He also couldnt shoot and Utah had a two big lineup and already had their SF in Hayward. Obviously a bad pick, but Burks was also a freak athlete who fit the team (theoretically) very well as they badly needed someone who could develop into a primary scorer (no one saw that coming for Kawhi). So while with hindsight it was awful, at the moment of the draft it was a defendable pick.
You never know. Kawhi could have been our alpha right from the start. We know he would have been the man over Gordon (who we eventually made the man before he left).
Oh he would have made us better, no doubt. But we did not have the pieces at the time that even the Clippers have now and he can't drag them to the title. We would have been better, still would not have been contenders. He would have eventually left for brighter lights anyway. Seems that is what he wanted all along.
We can always make any pick "defendable". Even Udoka at the time was defendable because he was viewed as Rudy off the bench and maybe even future Rudy.
2010 Drafted Hayward
Which I would understand. If you are drafting a center they need to be an elite rim protector or they need to do some of the center things while stretching the floor. It isn't just the position (though it should get less priority) but also the prospect. Doke was a better pick in a vacuum because at least he had ELITE measurables and was a good athlete for that size. But when you have already seen the issues we've had at backup center and are planning on throwing a big deal out there... then it makes no damn sense. If they had decided we will play Udoka right from the start then I would be slightly less negative on it... hell sign a minimum vet just in case. But throwing a 3 year MLE offer out at a center, when you already have a max player at center, sending a first out to take another center (none of which can shoot at all) is soooooo dumb.
Did you think Udoka was the future Gobert or are you just saying stupid **** to argue?
That's the thing about Doke though, he wasn elite lmao. He just flubbed his numbers to look elite and he had enough vertical pop to make it seem slightly believable. In reality the guy is actually a terrible athlete. Maybe it's just conditioning, but for a young dude he looks like he's pushing early 30's with the way he move. I'm guessing when the coaching staff got him in, they quickly saw that. DL just fell in love with a big lob target who had decent vertical ability and probably blindly fell hook line and sinker for his flubbed numbers.
I didn't think he was going to be that but people were defending the pick making claims that he had that potential. At the time of the pick, people weren't nearly as upset as they are now.
Yeah, after the pick was made. We both know as fans we do this thing called coping. Pre the pick everyone would have **** on the idea of drafting him.
