The Spurs should stop drafting bigs.

[picnroll]

Apparently they have little to no ability to draft and develop bigs, particularly in the late first round. They are very good at drafting and developing PGs.

Witness:
2016 Dejuante Murray
2015 Multinov, Lalanne
2014 Kyle Anderson, Dangubic
2013 Jean-Charles, Thomas
2012 None, Denmon
2011 Joseph, Hanga (effectively Leonard)
2010 James Anderson, Ryan Richards
2009 Dejuan Blair, Nando Decolo
2008 George Hill, Goran Dragic, James Gist
2007 Tiago Splitter, Marcus Williams, Giorgios Printezis
2006 None
2005 Ian Mahinmi
2004 Beno Udrih, Romain Sato
2003 Leandro Barbosa
2002 John Salmons, Louis Scola, Randy Holcomb
2001 Tony Parker, Roberto Javtokas
2000 Chris Carawell, Cory Hightower
1999Leon Smith, Manu Ginobilli, Bryan Bracey

[DPG21920]

Lots of solid NBA bigs on that list.

[picnroll]

Meh. None that had trade value that could have, used right, gotten the Spurs a high pick a la Hill. Spurs should cultivate PGs and wings and trade up with them instead of living in the late 20s in the draft. Teams value Spurs players for their professionalism and sound fundamentals.

[cd021]

Murray fell into the Spurs lap thanks to the crazy draft last year ( players projected as second rounders going in the lottery). Maybe the Spurs target another SG or a PF this year.

[Play Boban]

This team would be unstoppable with Dragic.

[K...]

uh bigs are hard to draft because:

There are less of them so there is more demand
They develop later so you don't know who is good as ages 18-22
The spurs always shitty draft picks since forever.


please run mock drafts for the last 10 yrs with full hindsight and tell me the great bigs we passed

[Mr. Body]

One thing is the Spurs don't really develop bigs well. Kinda ironic.

[picnroll]

uh bigs are hard to draft because:

There are less of them so there is more demand
They develop later so you don't know who is good as ages 18-22
The spurs always shitty draft picks since forever.


please run mock drafts for the last 10 yrs with full hindsight and tell me the great bigs we passed

That's kind of the whole point. Given the greater probability of drafting a good PG, SG or SF and the Spurs ability with there coaching staff and stable, professional atmosphere, compared to most teams where turmoil exists, the Spurs can bring up these players and at an optimum time trade some to move up in the draft a la acquiring Kawhi. All these bigs the Spurs have drafted, with the exception of a brief stint with Splitter, have accomplished nothing. For bigs the Spurs have lived off of free agency.

[Dingle Barry]

Scola thread!

[GSH]

Lots of solid NBA bigs on that list.


Stop it. You'll ruin the meme. :lol

Since they drafted Duncan - 19 years - the Spurs have mostly picked in one of the bottom three positions. In fact, for those 19 years, their first round picks have averaged out to 27th position. (And that doesn't even count the years they didn't have a first round pick.) During that same time period, there just haven't been that many players drafted that late who developed into top-notch big men. In other words, nobody else is developing late draft pick bigs consistently.

Look real close, and what you find is that the good bigs in the league weren't "developed". They were just drafted a lot higher than the Spurs' picks. And the few that came later were mostly missed draft opportunities, not the result of some development program on other teams.

The Spurs could have drafted and "developed" Mehmet Okur - but they would have had to pass on Tony Parker. Marc Gasol went late in the draft, but the Spurs took Tiago instead. Carlos Boozer, Marcin Gortat, guys like that. Yeah, they turned out to be better than expected. But not because some other team developed them.

So if you want to bitch about the Spurs inability to develop bigs, show me another team that is consistently taking low draft pick guys and turning them into top-tier big men. If they aren't doing it consistently, it's not a development program. It's just getting lucky with late draft picks.

It's also a lot harder to develop a big man, when you have some of the best big men in the game ahead of them. Just so many minutes to go around.

[DPG21920]

I mean, it would be nice to have had more drafted bigs that grew up in the system, but when you have DROB and Tim I mean...

[picnroll]

Stop it. You'll ruin the meme. :lol

Since they drafted Duncan - 19 years - the Spurs have mostly picked in one of the bottom three positions. In fact, for those 19 years, their first round picks have averaged out to 27th position. (And that doesn't even count the years they didn't have a first round pick.) During that same time period, there just haven't been that many players drafted that late who developed into top-notch big men. In other words, nobody else is developing late draft pick bigs consistently.

Look real close, and what you find is that the good bigs in the league weren't "developed". They were just drafted a lot higher than the Spurs' picks. And the few that came later were mostly missed draft opportunities, not the result of some development program on other teams.

The Spurs could have drafted and "developed" Mehmet Okur - but they would have had to pass on Tony Parker. Marc Gasol went late in the draft, but the Spurs took Tiago instead. Carlos Boozer, Marcin Gortat, guys like that. Yeah, they turned out to be better than expected. But not because some other team developed them.

So if you want to bitch about the Spurs inability to develop bigs, show me another team that is consistently taking low draft pick guys and turning them into top-tier big men. If they aren't doing it consistently, it's not a development program. It's just getting lucky with late draft picks.

It's also a lot harder to develop a big man, when you have some of the best big men in the game ahead of them. Just so many minutes to go around.
Someone's not getting it. The point is that they keep trying to draft bigs with a low probability of success instead of focusing on drafting smalls, developing them, trading some to move up in the draft. Hang in there, the concept is not the hard to comprehend

[alpha_HaZE]

two things, one; there are some really good NBA bigs on that list, and two; we drafted Timmy and Robinson!

Also correlation does not mean causation, but I am sure that doesn't really make much sense to you, does it?

[Spurtacular]

Duncan worked out, I'd say.

[picnroll]

If Spurs get s first round pick sure draft a big. Not at 26 to 30. Only big of the nine the Spurs drafted that contributed to a championship was Splitter. Only other big that was half way decent, and I'm including Blair, was Scola that would have gone earlier but many teams stayed away from because of his contract in Europe. Mahinmi was long gone before he showed anything wasting resources developing him for nothing

[cd98]

NBA draft has always favored drafting the most talented bigs early. I'd say right now, though, 6'8 or 6'9 swing men who can shoot, defend, and are athletic are the biggest rage in the NBA.

[sananspursfan21]

Duncan worked out, I'd say.

Who?

[sananspursfan21]

NBA draft has always favored drafting the most talented bigs early. I'd say right now, though, 6'8 or 6'9 swing men who can shoot, defend, and are athletic are the biggest rage in the NBA.

Yep. Because of this, you almost can't go wrong drafting a backcourt player at any point in the draft once the huge target names are gone. Productive guards and even swing men are kind of a dime a dozen. Getting an all-star is pretty elusive but you can get serviceable smaller guys that won't set your team on fire. Which is why it floors me some years where the Spurs have a weak backcourt. I'm still waiting on a team to call and offer me a GM job.

[Spurtacular]

Who?

I think he wore 50. Oh, no. That was the other big that worked out.

[BatManu20]

Spurs will likely go Euro this summer, as to save money for FA. A future SG to replace Danny or a SF to backup Kawhi would be ideal though. Won't be any good bigs available when we select.

[spurraider21]

why did we trade scola tbh?

[BillMc]

Nothing wrong with Tiago. Solid pick, a key player in the title and that 2012-2014 run. Injuries just cut his playing time.

Scola and Ian M. turned out to be good bigs, just for other teams. Blair was great value for a second rounder.

[DJR210]

Duncan worked out, I'd say.

That's arguable

[BillMc]

Scola thread!
:lol

[GSH]

Someone's not getting it. The point is that they keep trying to draft bigs with a low probability of success instead of focusing on drafting smalls, developing them, trading some to move up in the draft. Hang in there, the concept is not the hard to comprehend

LOL... I comprehend your concept, Opey. It's just stupid.

You've noticed that the Spurs are not getting star-caliber bigs with their late draft picks, so you want them to quit drafting bigs altogether. How am I doing so far?

Late draft picks are a crapshoot, Opey. You pays your money, you takes your chances. The biggest problem with your little theory is that other teams aren't getting starter-caliber bigs with their late-first and second-round picks. So if it makes sense for the Spurs to just quit drafting bigs, it just follows that ALL teams should stop drafting bigs outside of the lottery. The same logic you're applying to the Spurs should apply to all the other teams.

Or were you really saying that the Spurs are somehow at fault, but now you don't want to admit it?