Brian Keeps Getting It Wright

[024]

Spurs draft picks have missed the mark between 2017 and the Wembenyama era in the sense that only Sochan looks to have a future role on this team. How large would depend on his shooting development. Tre Jones was a decent pick as well and could have served as a backup PG if not for Fox trade and the Spurs landing the 2nd pick. The rest either busted out or never fully rounded out to viably fill a role.

But is this a problem with drafting or player development? I'd argue it's more on player development. Vassell, Sochan, Wesley, and Branham were all decent picks at the time for their draft positions. Primo was the only huge question mark. Something went wrong in the player development process during this time. Could also be just not having enough vets on a tanking team where bad habits are continually formed.

[exstatic]

Spurs draft picks have missed the mark between 2017 and the Wembenyama era in the sense that only Sochan looks to have a future role on this team. How large would depend on his shooting development. Tre Jones was a decent pick as well and could have served as a backup PG if not for Fox trade and the Spurs landing the 2nd pick. The rest either busted out or never fully rounded out to viably fill a role.

But is this a problem with drafting or player development? I'd argue it's more on player development. Vassell, Sochan, Wesley, and Branham were all decent picks at the time for their draft positions. Primo was the only huge question mark. Something went wrong in the player development process during this time. Could also be just not having enough vets on a tanking team where bad habits are continually formed.

When you’re drafting ~10 or later, and you don’t have your franchise player, you swing from the heels. You don’t draft a support piece or the safe pick. That will definitely bite into your hit rate. At that position in the draft, taking a swing is a boom or bust proposition.

I would also argue that Blake and Malaki are busts. When you draft players in a range where most guys never see their second contract, and some don’t even get the later options picked up, their outcomes are well within norms.

[CGD]

So far Wright's proven himself to be good at:

- flipping assets for draft picks (Dejounte, Derozan, etc.)
- getting free assets by playing facilitator (Barnes)
- not overpaying in trades for star players (Fox)
- winning the margins by signing FAs/trades for cheap that fit within the overall vision (Kornet, Olynyk)
- recruiting solid coaches to support the team (Sweeney, Williamson)

Looking at the above, if you just look at his moves in the last calendar year, this is a very good GM who's at minimum above average, probably top 10 which may be enough with the Spurs' ridiculous lottery luck

Two major things that he has to really prove himself on:
- Non-top 4 pick drafting - high level GMs like Presti and Kleiman all have at least 1 elite mid-round draft pull (J-Dub) or a string of second round / undrafted hits (basically half the Grizzlies/Thunder roster). They've missed plenty, but these guys all have multiple hits playing crucial roles for their existing teams

- managing extensions for his own players - how Wright manages Sochan's contract and whether he's able to accurate gauge / predict his present and future value will be a huge test to see if he can make it into the next tier of GMs. In the future, whether he has the stones to trade his own high draft picks early (including Castle or Harper if the situation calls for it) if they don't deliver anticipated surplus value on their contracts.

From what drafts on would you consider it Brian’s draft team?

[CGD]

When you’re drafting ~10 or later, and you don’t have your franchise player, you swing from the heels. You don’t draft a support piece or the safe pick. That will definitely bite into your hit rate. At that position in the draft, taking a swing is a boom or bust proposition.

I would also argue that Blake and Malaki are busts. When you draft players in a range where most guys never see their second contract, and some don’t even get the later options picked up, their outcomes are well within norms.

Blake and Malaki outcomes are the norm as you say for picks 20-30, so I don’t think you can also consider them “busts.” Had they not had their 1st option picked up then maybe. I don’t think that’s an indictment of Brian poor drafting.

In contrast, Tre reaching a second contract while being productive and value in a trade that lead to Fox, is a “hit.”

[SpursBills]

From what drafts on would you consider it Brian’s draft team?

He became GM in 2019 after the draft, so I'd say from 2020 onwards

[OldMan88]

If you look at Pop’s tenure as coach, he went from being a real hard-ass when it was needed, like pulling starters that screwed up their assignments or going Serbian on the team when it was needed. Towards the end, he seemed much more mellow overall and saved his temper for political commentary. Current coaches seem to feel that this new generation of NBA players don’t respond well to getting yelled at, but it seems to me this is more of a result of many draft picks only have one year of college ball and few Bobby Knights still coaching. Maybe yanking some of the prima donnas when they blow defensive assignments (yes, even Wemby) may produce a winning team. I’d sure cheer this action.

[CGD]

He became GM in 2019 after the draft, so I'd say from 2020 onwards

We'll never know, but I suspect RC was still pretty hands on that first year. In any case, these are the players drafted since 2020:

FIRST ROUND
- Harper + Bryant ---> TBD
- Castle ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Wembs ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Jeremy Sochan ---> 9th pick; jury still out
- Malaki Branham ---> Modal outcome for typical 20th pick
- Blake Wesley ---> Modal outcome for typical 26th pick
- Joshua Primo ---> oof
- Devin Vassell ---> Top 10 in a 2020 redrafted

SECOND ROUND
- Juan Nunez ---> meh; favor to agent?
- Sidy Cissoko ---> used in Fox trade
- Kennedy Chandler ---> became Harrison Ingram + $1M
- Joe Wieskamp ---> roster crunch cut
- Tre Jones ---> used in Fox trade; got to third contract

Pretty damn good track record in my view.

[LeBowen]

He became GM in 2019 after the draft, so I'd say from 2020 onwards

But how much of it is on Wright?
You summed up his tenure nicely, I'm just not sure subpar drafting with mid to late first rounders can be on GM unless we know how current Spurs front office operates.

There are so many things GM is in charge of and the scouting department for college and overseas obviously follows those players more closely than Wright.
Then it's about if he should trust his instincts more than what the scouts recommend.

I'm not saying '22 draft wasn't Wright's doing, maybe he was the one pushing for those players to be selected, but we can't really know if it was on him or he trusted his scouting team.

[RC_Drunkford]

as far as I know the Spurs always put their heads together with their entire team, that is Wright, RC, Scouts and coaches to come up with the draft board. I don't think it's Wright's lone decision who to pick. Spurs scouting department might have lost some of it's competence too.

[Ariel]

- Devin Vassell ---> Top 10 in a 2020 redrafted

Vassell is slipping though. Other players in his class include:

1. Anthony Edwards
2. Tyrese Haliburton
3. Tyrese Maxey
4. Desmond Bane
5. Lamelo Ball
6. Deni Avdija
7. Jaden McDaniels
8. Aaron Nesmith
9. Immanuel Quickley
10. Onyeka Okongwu
11. Payton Pritchard

You can make a case for Vassell at 9-11, but I think the top 8 are more valuable than him. TBH other than the last 3 drafts which most of us would have done no worse, the drafting since 2018 has left a lot to be desired, with the 2nd round being particularly awful. Spurs are probably comfortably among the worst 2nd round drafting teams in the league.

[SpursFan86]

We'll never know, but I suspect RC was still pretty hands on that first year. In any case, these are the players drafted since 2020:

FIRST ROUND
- Harper + Bryant ---> TBD
- Castle ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Wembs ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Jeremy Sochan ---> 9th pick; jury still out
- Malaki Branham ---> Modal outcome for typical 20th pick
- Blake Wesley ---> Modal outcome for typical 26th pick
- Joshua Primo ---> oof
- Devin Vassell ---> Top 10 in a 2020 redrafted

SECOND ROUND
- Juan Nunez ---> meh; favor to agent?
- Sidy Cissoko ---> used in Fox trade
- Kennedy Chandler ---> became Harrison Ingram + $1M
- Joe Wieskamp ---> roster crunch cut
- Tre Jones ---> used in Fox trade; got to third contract

Pretty damn good track record in my view.

This is an incredibly generous way of viewing things.

Harper and Wemby were unanimous choices at those picks and damn near every GM (in the case of Wemby, every GM) would pick them.

Castle wasn’t the same degree of unanimous but it was still a fairly clear choice. Admittedly this is speculation, but I’d probably estimate at least half the GMs out there pick him there. It’s not like he got a steal in the late lottery.

Casually dismissing the Sochan/Wesley/Branham trio is pretty wild. We took 3 first round swings in one draft, and there’s a real chance we went 0/3 (I still like Sochan fwiw, but as you said he’s no guarantee). Saying that Branham/Wesley are the median outcomes for that range doesn’t make Wright a good GM By definition it’d mean he’s more like an average one.

For the second round, it again seems like you’re dancing around things. The point is that in 4 or 5 drafts, we have only found one actual NBA player despite having tons of opportunities. Yes, second round picks aren’t supposed to be all-stars..but again, I don’t see how Wright going 1 for 6 in the second round means he has a “damn good track record”.

The draft is actually where I’m most critical of him. Until he can prove that he’s able to consistently find those hidden gems it’s just hard for me to act like he’s a top GM in the league.

[poopbox]

We'll never know, but I suspect RC was still pretty hands on that first year. In any case, these are the players drafted since 2020:

FIRST ROUND
- Harper + Bryant ---> TBD
- Castle ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Wembs ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Jeremy Sochan ---> 9th pick; jury still out
- Malaki Branham ---> Modal outcome for typical 20th pick
- Blake Wesley ---> Modal outcome for typical 26th pick
- Joshua Primo ---> oof
- Devin Vassell ---> Top 10 in a 2020 redrafted

SECOND ROUND
- Juan Nunez ---> meh; favor to agent?
- Sidy Cissoko ---> used in Fox trade
- Kennedy Chandler ---> became Harrison Ingram + $1M
- Joe Wieskamp ---> roster crunch cut
- Tre Jones ---> used in Fox trade; got to third contract

Pretty damn good track record in my view.

This is a trainwreck of a draft resume

You get no credit for Victor for obvious reasons. You don't get credit for castle since literally the 3 players who would have been taken before him...were taken before him. Castle was a de facto pick. The jury isn't out on Sochan. He is a tweener forward who can't shoot, pass, or dribble. Devin is most certainly NOT a top 10 player in that draft, impossible when you are as bad as him defensively, missed as much time as he has due to injury, and never once contributed to winning. Giving him credit for like "used in a fox trade" is meh you can insert literally any player on any team in that deal and it get's done, it aint like the bulls said "give us tre jones or the whole deal is off"

All this list shows is that when it's not an absolute easy auto decision to make, Wright tends to it up.

[rankingtear]

BWrong is drafter tbh but is the lottery luck god. keep trading for unprotected swaps BWrong. Better to be lucky than good tbh.

[CGD]

This is a trainwreck of a draft resume

You get no credit for Victor for obvious reasons. You don't get credit for castle since literally the 3 players who would have been taken before him...were taken before him. Castle was a de facto pick. The jury isn't out on Sochan. He is a tweener forward who can't shoot, pass, or dribble. Devin is most certainly NOT a top 10 player in that draft, impossible when you are as bad as him defensively, missed as much time as he has due to injury, and never once contributed to winning. Giving him credit for like "used in a fox trade" is meh you can insert literally any player on any team in that deal and it get's done, it aint like the bulls said "give us tre jones or the whole deal is off"

All this list shows is that when it's not an absolute easy auto decision to make, Wright tends to it up.

Bro, I get it. You hate Jeremy.

[Mr. Body]

We'll never know, but I suspect RC was still pretty hands on that first year. In any case, these are the players drafted since 2020:

FIRST ROUND
- Harper + Bryant ---> TBD
- Castle ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Wembs ---> Top 5 pick; ROY
- Jeremy Sochan ---> 9th pick; jury still out
- Malaki Branham ---> Modal outcome for typical 20th pick
- Blake Wesley ---> Modal outcome for typical 26th pick
- Joshua Primo ---> oof
- Devin Vassell ---> Top 10 in a 2020 redrafted

SECOND ROUND
- Juan Nunez ---> meh; favor to agent?
- Sidy Cissoko ---> used in Fox trade
- Kennedy Chandler ---> became Harrison Ingram + $1M
- Joe Wieskamp ---> roster crunch cut
- Tre Jones ---> used in Fox trade; got to third contract

Pretty damn good track record in my view.

Yes but have you accounted for the fact that people want to be mad?

[Mr. Body]

This is an incredibly generous way of viewing things.

Harper and Wemby were unanimous choices at those picks and damn near every GM (in the case of Wemby, every GM) would pick them.

Castle wasn’t the same degree of unanimous but it was still a fairly clear choice. Admittedly this is speculation, but I’d probably estimate at least half the GMs out there pick him there. It’s not like he got a steal in the late lottery.

Casually dismissing the Sochan/Wesley/Branham trio is pretty wild. We took 3 first round swings in one draft, and there’s a real chance we went 0/3 (I still like Sochan fwiw, but as you said he’s no guarantee). Saying that Branham/Wesley are the median outcomes for that range doesn’t make Wright a good GM By definition it’d mean he’s more like an average one.

For the second round, it again seems like you’re dancing around things. The point is that in 4 or 5 drafts, we have only found one actual NBA player despite having tons of opportunities. Yes, second round picks aren’t supposed to be all-stars..but again, I don’t see how Wright going 1 for 6 in the second round means he has a “damn good track record”.

The draft is actually where I’m most critical of him. Until he can prove that he’s able to consistently find those hidden gems it’s just hard for me to act like he’s a top GM in the league.

The second round sucks bro. Barely any players ever come out of there.

And I continually remind ppl that they need to actually take a look at the year Branham and Wesley were selected. Yeah there were hits after them but that's almost completely luck and they were taking bigger swings because that is what we needed then.

I have to laugh at the dumb fans. Go play video games.

[CGD]

This is an incredibly generous way of viewing things.

Harper and Wemby were unanimous choices at those picks and damn near every GM (in the case of Wemby, every GM) would pick them.

Castle wasn’t the same degree of unanimous but it was still a fairly clear choice. Admittedly this is speculation, but I’d probably estimate at least half the GMs out there pick him there. It’s not like he got a steal in the late lottery.

Casually dismissing the Sochan/Wesley/Branham trio is pretty wild. We took 3 first round swings in one draft, and there’s a real chance we went 0/3 (I still like Sochan fwiw, but as you said he’s no guarantee). Saying that Branham/Wesley are the median outcomes for that range doesn’t make Wright a good GM By definition it’d mean he’s more like an average one.

For the second round, it again seems like you’re dancing around things. The point is that in 4 or 5 drafts, we have only found one actual NBA player despite having tons of opportunities. Yes, second round picks aren’t supposed to be all-stars..but again, I don’t see how Wright going 1 for 6 in the second round means he has a “damn good track record”.

The draft is actually where I’m most critical of him. Until he can prove that he’s able to consistently find those hidden gems it’s just hard for me to act like he’s a top GM in the league.

Basically, your take comes down on how you view the 2022 draft. I'm not gonna ding Wright for picks made at 20 and 26. It's a damn crapshoot at that point. For every Tony Parker there are like 60 Malakis, and you only have wants left on the board in front of you (unless you want to argue that he should have been more aggressive trading up).

You ask a lot of SRPs as players contributors (Tre was btw) as opposed to just seeing those as asset, where I think record there is pretty good. I think most of the NBA sees SRPs with the latter approach in mind.

[SpursFan86]

The second round sucks bro. Barely any players ever come out of there.

And I continually remind ppl that they need to actually take a look at the year Branham and Wesley were selected. Yeah there were hits after them but that's almost completely luck and they were taking bigger swings because that is what we needed then.

I have to laugh at the dumb fans. Go play video games.

I've already said I think Wright is a solid GM. He's above average. I do not think he's proven himself to be one of the best, and I certainly don't think his draft-related moves are anything to write home about. If that makes me a "dumb fan" then so be it

[poopbox]

Bro, I get it. You hate Jeremy.

It's actually not that I hate Jeremy. If you go to the early pages in his draft thread I was happy we drafted him. Thought he would be a good at most things but not great at anything glue guy. It's just that I don't like players who are barely big enough to play their position (tweener) and can't dribble, shoot, or pass. These are the most useless players in the nba. If you look across the league almost all teams have culled these types of players from their roster, and the only ones who haven't are teams that are routinely bad to average ( the bulls with Patrick Williams ).

From a pure basketball perspective it makes playing offensive extremely difficult when you have a guy the other team can completely ignore. If you watch the spurs play their is so many times Jeremy's man just walks away from him to go double or pre switch onto what should be an open shooter when the ball starts moving.

And I don't even completely blame Jeremy for his lack of progress. He was the tank commander his rookie year. Pop stupidly had him out there playing point guard his second year when he has exactly no point guard skills. And now we have Fox, Castle, and Harper, what a complete waste of a season for him learning to be a "point guard". He will effectively have a year and half to play his real actual position.

[spurraider21]

chad BWright stopping for a pic after virgins Mitch and Buford quickly walked away. even hunched over to keep kiddo in the frame

[rankingtear]

It's actually not that I hate Jeremy. If you go to the early pages in his draft thread I was happy we drafted him. Thought he would be a good at most things but not great at anything glue guy. It's just that I don't like players who are barely big enough to play their position (tweener) and can't dribble, shoot, or pass. These are the most useless players in the nba. If you look across the league almost all teams have culled these types of players from their roster, and the only ones who haven't are teams that are routinely bad to average ( the bulls with Patrick Williams ).

From a pure basketball perspective it makes playing offensive extremely difficult when you have a guy the other team can completely ignore. If you watch the spurs play their is so many times Jeremy's man just walks away from him to go double or pre switch onto what should be an open shooter when the ball starts moving.

And I don't even completely blame Jeremy for his lack of progress. He was the tank commander his rookie year. Pop stupidly had him out there playing point guard his second year when he has exactly no point guard skills. And now we have Fox, Castle, and Harper, what a complete waste of a season for him learning to be a "point guard". He will effectively have a year and half to play his real actual position.

You should blame Jeremy he has been lazy before this offseason tbh.

[poopbox]

You should blame Jeremy he has been lazy before this offseason tbh.

Eh. The coaches spent a year and a half playing him out of position trying to tank.

[Mr. Body]

You should blame Jeremy he has been lazy before this offseason tbh.

lol wut

[cutewizard]

[TD 21]

The Danny Ainge System: Ranking every NBA shot-caller from worst to first (No. 1 is a shocker!) - Yahoo Sports