Ch. 4
The draft started off with the Celtics taking the 76ers to the cleaners. Philly desperately wanted that franchise player, that 1st overall pick, and the Celtics gamely obliged by trading it to them but not without getting a nice return.
With Okafor manning the middle, the Celtics could move Olynk to the four and let the sharp-shooting big man reign down from outside. Offensively, the Celtics would be absolutely devastating. Philly got Simmons and thanked their lucky stars that Boston was so generous … the Celtics didn’t need to worry about the future thanks to how *ucked the Nets were.
Pick #2 went according to plan as the Bulls drafted Rose’s replacement in Kris Dunn. Dunn was an immediate starter and a major difference maker for the franchise, bittersweet as it was to see Rose shipped off. Dunn would bring some serious smarts to the role of floor general and he was a guy who got along with other guys — Jimmy Butler wouldn’t be butting heads with him, which was a big (unspoken) reason why Rose got the boot.
The Lakers grabbed Ingram at #3 and it went exactly to script. LA was going to forfeit their pick to Philly next season, but it didn’t matter; with Ingram, Russell, and Randle, the Lakers were set for the next few years, barring a disastrous injury, which I absolutely didn’t want to happen to any of those players.
Plane wrecks that took out ownership? Sure, that was fine. The less West Coast types in the world, the better in my opinion, but the players were just guys doing a job.
At #4, it was us. The Flight was in prime position to grab someone big, someone whom we could build around for years to come. The scouts were all saying we should go with Brown or Chriss, and I wasn’t against that. Both players had an appeal, both would fly through the air on our homecourt; the name “Flight” wasn’t chosen randomly, it was representative of how we wanted the team to conduct themselves.
But athleticism fades with age. It happens to everyone, even Jordan. It happened to Kobe and it left him a wreck his last season in the league. No, we needed someone who had more than just hops, we needed someone with skills and potential.
I overruled the scouting department, I called it in to our front office and they argued with me for a good three minutes as they tried to convince me to take Brown.
“You’re out of your mind, Brown is the pick! Take Brown, take him and let’s run away with this draft!” Our GM, Micah Graves said. Graves was an old scout, a grizzled guy in his 60s. He had worked his fair share of drafts and draft rooms, he was GM of the team in name, but he was a stubborn old *ss. The man had to have been reincarnated from a mule.
“Micah,” I told him, my tone leaving no room for misinterpretation, “draft Thon Maker or I swear to God I’ll kick you in the teeth till you ain’t got none left.”
Graves was old-school. When he heard you threatening violence, not seriously but with an edge, he got with the gameplan.
I’m happy to say we grabbed our guy that day.
Yeah, I know, Maker wasn’t expected to be much of anything coming out. He was expected to be raw, experts predicted he’d need at least a year on the pine to learn the NBA game, but the kid impressed me on the court. Off the court, he kept his head level and his nose clean; two qualities that can’t be underrated in an athlete.
With Maker on board, I watched the rest of the draft play out. It was pretty ho-hum, but there was certainly enough talent in this draft for us to get a solid player in the 2nd round and that’s when we selected Gbinije. Kid was a player and someone I believed could be a big presence for us in the next year or two. He led the Orange to an incredible Final Four run — a Final Four run they absolutely shocked people with. Hell, I didn’t think they’d get past their first game.
With those two guys on the roster, I was confident we had done earned a B on our first draft.
The next part of that offseason was a crucial one: free agency. That’s where things got really heated … where I was faced with the cold truth that being an expansion team meant we were lower than low.