BRIGGS wrote:We took Larry Hughes because (with the eighth pick) because we thought we had a need," he said. "But the reason we took Larry is I promised him when we interviewed him -- we knew we were getting the eighth pick -- I promised him if he was there at (No.) 8 we would take him."Pierce, of course, went to Boston with the 10th pick and became a 10-time NBA All-Star. Imagine if he had spent his early years with Allen Iverson, on a 76ers squad that had all types of defense, with Larry Brown as the coach, irritating his stars while coaxing so much out of them.
Despite what could have been, Brown said he feels "good that we honored our commitment," and believes Hughes would have "worked out great" for the 76ers if he had been more patient with playing time early in his career. Still, Philadelphia passed on a future Hall of Famer -- who, in the year 2015, is still inspiring a playoff team and infuriating opposing fan bases -- for a long-armed journeyman who shot just a tick greater than 40 percent for his career. To further rankle 76ers fans, Dallas drafted Dirk Nowitzki immediately after Hughes.
Ultimately, the ill-advised promise changed Brown's draft strategy.
"I always think you should take the very best player," he said. "Whatever we wrote on the board, we used to write by position during the draft the best players, then we would write needs, and then we would write the best players period. And I always used to tell our staff, we've gotta go for the best player period and not even think about our needs, unless they were very, very close."
Wisely, the coach added, "I would never do that again."
Mentioned this as a response to you once before...
Who decides who the BPA is? You have guys around here who at once time or another have thrown out Towns, OK4, Russell, and Mudiay as being worthy of the top pick.
You've had experts making their evaluations and "consensus number one" tags have been put on Towns and OK4 during the second half of the season, yet players like Winston and Kaminsky were as good as anyone in the tournament.
You probably have a number of guys worthy of being a top 1-3 pick (Anywhere from 5-9, in my opinion), and who knows which player ends up being the best player in this group 5 years down the line.
By the way, your story is as much about personal commitment as need, IMO.
Maybe Phil feels he has to take Russell because he's already made a $25,000 "commitment" to him?
EnySpree: Can we agree to agree not to mention Phil Jackson and triangle for the rest of our lives?
