+1 manifesto

You seem to be confused about what “I’m not saying he’s better than Jordan” means.

He only played 35 minutes in at least two of those 50 pt games this year, and he’s never taken nearly as many shots or played nearly as many minutes as Jordan, and he’s played on much more balanced scoring teams.

Not to do the advanced stats thing, but when you factor in how he bends the defense and the opportunities he creates for the rest of his team, I think it’s closer than you’re giving him credit.

I’m a huge Jordan fan, but in the sense that his ability to score in acrobatic ways basically whenever he wanted was unprecedented (grainy Elgin Baylor tape aside), I’ve never seen anything like Curry’s combination of range, quick release and accuracy. I just don’t know how you guard a guy who hits backbreaking 3s…

I think another comparison is Marino, throwing for 48 TDs in ‘84, two years after the league leader was 17 TD, and no one had ever thrown for more than 36. That must have been absolutely mystifying.

Bird?

It would have taken a tremendous amount of things going right in order for them to be competitive in Year 5, let alone contending — the odds of them getting two high picks this year, and those picks panning out, and Embiid coming back and being a force, and getting Saric to come over next season, and dealing all of…

I keep making this point, but — they didn’t mess up when they drafted Nerlens, Embiid or Saric.

Yeah, but now they will always have “The Process would have worked!” I would have preferred giving it a full decade of misery.

Drafted KP.

+1 with sympathy for second-guessing how well you’ve mitigated it (you probably have though, really!)

To wit, Portland only has Dame because the Nets thought there were only three good players in that draft ...

It’s also an open question if how he treated agents, other GMs, free agents, etc. was a factor.

To be fair, the Clippers are a genuinely cursed team, and if both Manning and Harper don’t blow out their knees things might have gone differently.

Yes, thank you for this! There was a column earlier this year comparing him to the guys in The Big Short, which was reeeeeaaaalllyy off base.

Right — there are plenty of franchise players taken after the top 2 picks who were the product of scouting and development: PG, Lillard, Steph/Klay, Kawahi, Dirk, Wade, etc.

The thing is, that from the Process POV, drafting competently only gets you a competent 30-40 win team. You have to draft terribly until you hit the lottery.

Then won again when he was the Dubs consolation prize for missing out on FA Dwight!

Well, that was part of the process though — you can’t draft guys who will make you marginally better in the short term. You have to stay terrible until you draft a guy who will make you great, and you do that by spending draft picks on guys who aren’t actually going to play. Otherwise you’re Utah or Orlando.