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Drafting/Recruiting

citygriz

Well-known member
I don't have to tell you how important the draft is to an NBA franchise. On the magnitude of, "make or break."
Break: Trailblazers. In 1984, they passed on Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie, and in 2007 passed on Kevin Durant for Greg Oden.
Break: Timberwolves: In 2009 they needed a point guard, and had two high draft choices to get him. But at five, they picked Ricky Rubio; at six, Johnny Flynn. Oops! The seventh pick turned out to be Steph Curry.
Make: The Warriors. Of some players fueling their present run, Green was drafted at 35th, Looney at 30th, and Jordan Poole at 28th.
So what? So this: Recruiting is to college basketball what drafting is to pro basketball.
And therein lies the story for our Griz.
DeCuire's first recruit was Michael Oguine. How did that work out? Great! Next--though he had to sit out a redshirt year--Ahmaad Rorie. Also great! Oh, and the next year they brought in Syeed Pridgett. All told, three of the best basketball players in the history of Montana basketball.
But the ensuing years? Not so great. Yes, Timmy Falls was good. Then we recruited Eddie Egun, Kyle Ownes, DCH, Robbie Beasely and Johnny Braggs. Yes, some talent among them all, but certainly not at the level of Oguine-Rorie-Pridgett, and sadly, now all out of the program.
Not to mention our misses among the bigs.
Have we remedied the situation with the off-season changes this year?
Frankly, I'm excited about the potential of the newcomers. Of course, I was excited about the potential of Egan (the legendary story of his recruitment), DCH (freshman of the year in the Big Sky), Beasley (still think the kid is ultra-good), Owens and Braggs.
But as the Blazers and Timberwolves will tell you, you just never know, and neither do we.
 
citay said:
I don't have to tell you how important the draft is to an NBA franchise. On the magnitude of, "make or break."
Break: Trailblazers. In 1984, they passed on Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie, and in 2007 passed on Kevin Durant for Greg Oden.
Break: Timberwolves: In 2009 they needed a point guard, and had two high draft choices to get him. But at five, they picked Ricky Rubio; at six, Johnny Flynn. Oops! The seventh pick turned out to be Steph Curry.
Make: The Warriors. Of some players fueling their present run, Green was drafted at 35th, Looney at 30th, and Jordan Poole at 28th.
So what? So this: Recruiting is to college basketball what drafting is to pro basketball.
And therein lies to story for our Griz.
DeCuire's first recruit was Michael Oguine. How did that work out? Great! Next--though he had to sit out a redshirt year--Ahmaad Rorie. Also great! Oh, and the next year they brought in Syeed Pridgett. All told, three of the best basketball players in the history of Montana basketball.
But the ensuing years? Not so great. Yes, Timmy Falls was good. Then we recruited Eddie Egun, Kyle Ownes, DCH, Robbie Beasely and Johnny Braggs. Yes, some talent among them all, but certainly not at the level of Oguine-Rorie-Pridgett, and sadly, now all out of the program.
Not to mention our misses among the bigs.
Have we remedied the situation with the off-season changes this year?
Frankly, I'm excited about the potential of the newcomers. Of course, I was excited about the potential of Egan (the legendary story of his recruitment), DCH (freshman of the year in the Big Sky), Beasley (still think the kid is ultra-good), Owens and Braggs.
But as the Blazers and Timberwolves will tell you, you just never know, and neither do we.

I like this point, but I think now days it is more analogous to Free Agency, because even if you draft well (HS/JUCO recruiting), there is a strong likelihood that you will lose that player to Free Agency (portal). You can still make some mistakes in the draft (recruiting) and fix them through Free Agency (portal). Then it comes down to getting better free agents than you lost.

Drafting well is important to teams like the Blazers and Timberwolves because no one wants to live in those cities, so their ability to get Free Agents and overcome bad drafts is pretty limited . Drafting well is not as important to the Lakers because it is a franchise and city that players want to be a part of.
 
citay said:
I don't have to tell you how important the draft is to an NBA franchise. On the magnitude of, "make or break."
Break: Trailblazers. In 1984, they passed on Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie, and in 2007 passed on Kevin Durant for Greg Oden.
Break: Timberwolves: In 2009 they needed a point guard, and had two high draft choices to get him. But at five, they picked Ricky Rubio; at six, Johnny Flynn. Oops! The seventh pick turned out to be Steph Curry.
Make: The Warriors. Of some players fueling their present run, Green was drafted at 35th, Looney at 30th, and Jordan Poole at 28th.
So what? So this: Recruiting is to college basketball what drafting is to pro basketball.
And therein lies the story for our Griz.
DeCuire's first recruit was Michael Oguine. How did that work out? Great! Next--though he had to sit out a redshirt year--Ahmaad Rorie. Also great! Oh, and the next year they brought in Syeed Pridgett. All told, three of the best basketball players in the history of Montana basketball.
But the ensuing years? Not so great. Yes, Timmy Falls was good. Then we recruited Eddie Egun, Kyle Ownes, DCH, Robbie Beasely and Johnny Braggs. Yes, some talent among them all, but certainly not at the level of Oguine-Rorie-Pridgett, and sadly, now all out of the program.
Not to mention our misses among the bigs.
Have we remedied the situation with the off-season changes this year?
Frankly, I'm excited about the potential of the newcomers. Of course, I was excited about the potential of Egan (the legendary story of his recruitment), DCH (freshman of the year in the Big Sky), Beasley (still think the kid is ultra-good), Owens and Braggs.
But as the Blazers and Timberwolves will tell you, you just never know, and neither do we.

Add to that Markell Fultz and Lonzo Ball chosen before Jayson Tatum. Ouch!
 
GrizBall said:
citay said:
I don't have to tell you how important the draft is to an NBA franchise. On the magnitude of, "make or break."
Break: Trailblazers. In 1984, they passed on Michael Jordan for Sam Bowie, and in 2007 passed on Kevin Durant for Greg Oden.
Break: Timberwolves: In 2009 they needed a point guard, and had two high draft choices to get him. But at five, they picked Ricky Rubio; at six, Johnny Flynn. Oops! The seventh pick turned out to be Steph Curry.
Make: The Warriors. Of some players fueling their present run, Green was drafted at 35th, Looney at 30th, and Jordan Poole at 28th.
So what? So this: Recruiting is to college basketball what drafting is to pro basketball.
And therein lies to story for our Griz.
DeCuire's first recruit was Michael Oguine. How did that work out? Great! Next--though he had to sit out a redshirt year--Ahmaad Rorie. Also great! Oh, and the next year they brought in Syeed Pridgett. All told, three of the best basketball players in the history of Montana basketball.
But the ensuing years? Not so great. Yes, Timmy Falls was good. Then we recruited Eddie Egun, Kyle Ownes, DCH, Robbie Beasely and Johnny Braggs. Yes, some talent among them all, but certainly not at the level of Oguine-Rorie-Pridgett, and sadly, now all out of the program.
Not to mention our misses among the bigs.
Have we remedied the situation with the off-season changes this year?
Frankly, I'm excited about the potential of the newcomers. Of course, I was excited about the potential of Egan (the legendary story of his recruitment), DCH (freshman of the year in the Big Sky), Beasley (still think the kid is ultra-good), Owens and Braggs.
But as the Blazers and Timberwolves will tell you, you just never know, and neither do we.

I like this point, but I think now days it is more analogous to Free Agency, because even if you draft well (HS/JUCO recruiting), there is a strong likelihood that you will lose that player to Free Agency (portal). You can still make some mistakes in the draft (recruiting) and fix them through Free Agency (portal). Then it comes down to getting better free agents than you lost.

Drafting well is important to teams like the Blazers and Timberwolves because no one wants to live in those cities, so their ability to get Free Agents and overcome bad drafts is pretty limited . Drafting well is not as important to the Lakers because it is a franchise and city that players want to be a part of.

Absolutely analogous to free agency, complete with competing financial offers. Also true players want to play where the action is, to a lesser extent in College as coach and program visibiity are less locationcentric than the NBA. You have to add that a lot of free agents are busts which can hobble a small market team more than the Lakers who have revenues aplenty to allow cap penalties and still dish out big contracts to replace big contract busts. Even with unlimited film of players from an early age and lots of esoteric stats it remains a nebulous formula to synthesize all the info into a team that works the way coaches and management have in mind. We've all seen 1 bad personnel move disrupt our favorite team. My list is miles long going back to the 60's, lol. It's hard to stay on top.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
AZGrizFan said:
Rorie wasn’t a recruit. Didn’t he come from Oregon? Or Oregon state?

So a coach doesn't have to recruit a transfer?

Not what I’m saying at all….i guess I thought equating recruiting to drafting meant HS (especially when every other Griz player he mentioned WAS a HS signee….Rorie would be more like a “sign and trade”. :lol:
 
AZGrizFan said:
HelenaHandBasket said:
So a coach doesn't have to recruit a transfer?

Not what I’m saying at all….i guess I thought equating recruiting to drafting meant HS (especially when every other Griz player he mentioned WAS a HS signee….Rorie would be more like a “sign and trade”. :lol:

I see it more as a FA situation. Rorie could have gone anywhere just like all those HS kids.
 
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