CRHeel94 wrote:Cook was a slight reach
Maybe by 3-4 slots if you just look at mock drafts, which mean absolutely nothing.
But I can't understand how getting a 19-year-old at #20 who comes in and
right away starts lighting up defenses is considered a "reach". To me, that defines a "steal".
But somehow in this bizarro anti-Riley world we now live in, it's a "reach" drafting that type of player (D. Cook) at #20
I guess we should have drafted Derrick Byars or Zabian Dowell like this board was demanding! LOL ...
Wright was a big reach
Maybe 3-4 slots again, going by Joe Schmoe Website mock drafts, which mean nothing. But Ainge was gonna be all over Wright just a few slots later. So it's hardly a reach getting a kid with that much natural talent at #20 in a weak draft, especially when it's pretty well-known he was gonna be drafted just a couple slots later.
The track record with second round picks is abysmal (I believe Rasual Butler is the only Riley second rounder to play meaningful minutes for the Heat),
Whose track record in Round 2
isn't abysmal? There's about a 20% success rate there on average. Is Riley's record much different?
It's not like he's been drafting at the top of round 2 to find the occasional Boozer and Arenas at #32 that come along once every 4 years, but I guess we expect him to find all-stars anyway at #50, right?
Looking at the facts ... Out of all the second-round picks Riley has made and not traded since 2000, 40% of them are still NBA players in rotations of playoff teams (Eddie House, Rasual Butler).
Is a 40% success rate in the 2nd round reason to consider Riley a "huge reacher" on draft day? Ridiculous.
but that really doesn't cripple a team (nice upside yes, but not cripple). That is greatly offset by all the guys he hast salvaged from the scrap heap (Crotty, Murdock, Lenard, Porter, Austin, James, Carter, Haslem, etc).
Good point.
Look, I'll be the first to say he has failed miserably putting together the veteran rotation needed to play his style this season. And that he should be given no free pass when it comes to being accountable for it. But calling him a "huge reacher" with draft picks is just not accurate.
