Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
It seemed like it was a perfect fit for Cleveland as they could selll the drafting of Irving for immediate results for fans and take the gamble on Valanciunas coming through in the future. Not sure that taking a guy that will have a real hard time scoring in the top 5 is a great pick.
Knight didn't seem like a good fit, especially with Derozen on the team already. That is two athletic, dumb players with selfish streaks. To me that doesn't seem like a recipe for success, but really any combination of Derozen and player X is going to be a bad backcourt.
Once again the Raptors were in a tough spot in the draft with there really being no good fit for them as there wasn't a true PG, wasn't a scoring wing and wasn't a tough Center to help them out. It seemed like most of the guys available were a lot of what they already had.
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Yeah, it's really perplexing that Cleveland passed on him. There were rumours that they had a trade in the works (possibly with Charlotte involving Thompson and the #7 pick). Irving is a great pick-and-roll PG. Valanciunas is a great P&R center. That could have been a really deadly combination.
On that note, I think one of the best things Bayless can do is really work on developing his pick-and-roll game, and convince management that he can mesh perfectly with Valanciunas. He's definitely got the finishing ability, but his passing, court-vision and decision-making aren't there yet.