People forget that.

Thank you, your name is fitting.

On an unrelated note, David Stern recently retired ...

Except that it happened all the time, most notably above.

Ha, fair enough. I thought you meant just during the Process.

Re: Amare, I meant more that those Suns teams were contenders because they hit on him late in the lottery. Hell that whole team practically was late/mid lottery guys — Amare, Matrix, Nash, Joe Johnson.

That’s a good point about Giannis, and it’s funny, the one thing most modern great (or even contending) teams have in common is finding a superstar from like 8-15 (at least) in the draft: PG, Leonard, Klay, Kobe, Pierce, Dirk, Amare, etc.

When Hinkie resigned, I remember at least one article about how the Process involved a study by Hinkie that showed if you had a top 5 pick for at least 5 years, you had a very high chance of getting a franchise player.

They couldn’t even tank properly without fucking up, exactly.

Change “Tyreke Evans” to “Jaylen Brown” and you’ll be making the same post in five years :)

Even if Embiid has the impact of Anthony Davis or Boogie, they need at least one other guy to turn into a supertstar, or else they are the Pelicans or Kings.

My thing has always been — they should have too much talent to be the worst team in the league next season, but they still won’t be good, which basically fucks up the Process because you’re back to drafting in the mid-lottery.

Right — I can just as easily say the LA Clippers from 1983-2003 featured a number of top 5 lottery picks.

I think it’s an open question if he can shoot well enough to provide any spacing and if he’ll be able to defend 3s, which means you’ll have to split time between him, Okafor, Embiid, Noel and Saric (whose game is similar to Simmons, by all accounts) at the 4/5.

Which high 76ers draft pick, if healthy, do you think *isn’t* going to make a shit ton of money in restricted free agency?

I don’t think that’s how odds work.

Keyser Hinkie!

Which top 5 pick did the Warriors bottom out to draft? I mean, I know they have Bogut, but they traded a guy they picked in the 2nd round for him. Are we counting Livingston?

They are at least 3 seasons of player development and trades of redundant parts away from being good — good, like Atlanta Hawks good, which is what they wanted to avoid all along.

LeBron Clegane