Post#28 » by shi-woo » Sun Apr 28, 2024 8:06 am
How in the world is Sabonis leading this poll?
This thread shows how ring bias can really hinder discussions sometimes. I can understand making the argument for Jamal and Pascal over Brown, but not because they won rings. You guys are essentially saying that because Jokic and Kawhi performed better than Tatum against weaker competition (Herro KD Klay hurt) that Brown somehow is a worse 2nd option?
Brown averaged 23/7/3 on great shooting over 24 games that year, and that's been around what he's averaged every year since the Kyrie debacle, which is 100+ games on the big stage. He's also known as a clutch player, and is asked to be the #1 more than any other player in this draft outside of BI. If you are going to make the argument that those 2 are better, make it based on their talent, not on what they did in the playoffs.
Browns only weakness at this point is his shaky handle in traffic, but we've never seen a team where this was mitigated. We don't focus on Jamals size and athletic ability because he's on a team that is huge with a dominant center. We don't focus on Pascals shooting from the perimeter because he's on teams that light it up from deep. It's disengenuous to Brown, who's had to mold his game around others, to not acknowledge this. Nothing about his production or shooting would change if you put him on any other team, it would only get better in some circumstances.
If you are a bottom feeder with no other talent, Brown would certainly be my pick between those 3. He's the most complete player of the bunch, and the easiest to build around. Hes also shown to be an incredible #2, arguably the best in the NBA outside of the Superteam Era and Davis
I also think people are selling Ben Simmons really short here. His career was ruined by injuries physically and mentally, but he was still an incredible player. He was a stud defensively, can run your offense, and before Doc and the gang through him under the bus he was getting to the line, and hitting his FT's. Yall are buggin if you don't think Simmons would excel if he was drafted by a team that had him playing the Aaron Gordon role, or the early Giannis role. He's essentially the Defensive version of Sabonis but with more ball skills and less shooting. He would still be a high pick, and might even go Top 3 in a legit redraft.
BI is similar to Simmons as well. In a vacuum I think he's just as talented as Pascal, just got shafted early on, and then got traded to a team that doesn't really have direction or structure.
1. Brown
2, Pascal
3. Sabonis
4. BI
5. Jamal
6. Murray
7. Ben
8. Brogs
9. Jakob
10 Zu
Great draft, people saying it was n't are wrong. The Top 7 are all All-NBA level guys and could be on championship rosters
but even if you have hindsight and can pick Siakam or Sabonis or Jaylen, you trully can do much worse very very often even if you have a nimber one pick.
