since this is the whitmore thread, i'd like to remind people that the teams that passed on him didn't do it because they thought he sucked. they (including us) did it for either or both of two reasons: injury concerns and character issues. if he balls out for his rookie year then has career-long knee issues, no one will care that he balled out his rookie year. draft picks aren't made for rookie impact. if he has a long healthy career in which he's a star and pillar of the community, all this hand wringing will be warranted. but it's just incredibly premature. i can easily imagine a future wherein jhs is looked at as a better player than whitmore, podziemski, and jacquez 5 years from now. i can also imagine a future in which things just continue to go this less desirable way. but i'm not going to act like you can know that now. most importantly, none of these dudes would fix what's wrong with us this season. i guess maybe podziemski could have helped, but he hasn't helped gs.
What exactly has his injury “history” been? I did a quick lazy search and a few articles mention concern over it but all I ever see mentioned is having surgery on his thumb his freshman year, like this one below. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba...lide-pick-rockets-20/j1hdshye21p0kmwb9bxn1voy Where’s the knee or whatever physical concerns coming from?
supposedly something in the "medicals" that teams see in the pre-draft process, iirc. whatever, could end up being nothing. just saying that everyone knew he was a good shooter and fantastic athlete. it's not like the scouts for 15 teams just missed on this.
Happy that JHS is getting playing time and opportunity. That's what a young player needs the most to improve their game and their confidence.
Completely disagree and that's rare for me to disagree with you. We absolutely missed on Whitmore. And JHS isn't going to be good anywhere bro...get real! Podz most certainly HAS helped GS and he's played veryw ell for them, if anything, he's now a nice trade chip for them if they wanted to dangle him, whereas JHS is pure caca and ISNT a trade asset for us (nobody values him). Whitmore is now a rotation player for a team that's vying for the play-in when everybody expected them to be the worst team in the western conference. Ditto for Podz, and ditto for Jacquez. Literally all 3 players woulda helped us A LOT this year esp given our roster construction and Gabe Vincent going down early. JHS we completely MISSED on - one of our worst draft picks maybe ever.
yeah, i'm not going to repeat myself, but i disagree on almost every point. we'll see. i'm not making these kinds of proclamations 40 games into 19 year olds' careers. jhs has played 92 minutes total. pod and jaquez have been net negatives on the floor, btw. jacquez greatly so.
Man, nobody predicted Houston would be bottom of the West, they signed FVV and Brooks. That says a lot about your take tbh And yes, I'm great at making draft boards 6 months after the draft. We had a (planned) 12-man deep roster going to the season and chose a project instead of a player who could help us now. We are closing LeBron's window and you don't draft for the present. Of course it would be great to have chosen one of those guys, they look better at the moment. But that's pure hindsight rationale. At the time, it made sense this approach. Nearly half the league passed on Cam, so I don't know why are you so mad against our FO when 12 teams' FO made the same decision. I trust them more than you lol JHS has a build that can succeed in the NBA. Not now though. And that's fine. I'm not killing this dude 6 months in his career
A couple of points: JHS was neither a great shooter in college nor a great finisher Hard to criticize folks like me of having hindsight bias who actually watched summer league and came away thoroughly unimpressed with him. A dude whose stats don't woah you and film doesn't impress isn't a good combo. This was the case before the draft you can't teach athleticism and there are folks whose jumpers just come naturally to them more than others (i.e. Whitmore) A lot riding on he's big and young but from what everyone has said he killed his interview with the Lakers. That worries me as research has consistently shown the interview for job performance whether you're going for Google or the NBA doesn't predict outcomes well.
It was a horrible choice even in terms of need which was shooting and athleticism. The Buss boys went with non basketball aspect on this one. He nailed the interview and he has a fad diet.
you’re better than this. BPA was what guys are asking for… there was no way that the Buss boys thought JHS was better than a top 5 prospect for most of the scouting process and is not worth the gamble.My goodness this s*** is not even close talentwise.
it wasn't close between michael beasley and a large number of players, either. talent isn't everything, and that's been part of our very successful scouting strategy, i think. when austin reaves was 20, he was an unimpressive bench player for wichita state. when tyreke evans was 19, he was supposed to be oscar robertson or something. my issue is people acting like this is over and decided. it's not, and it's incredibly silly to keep insisting upon this. you may be right in the end that missing on whitmore was a huge blunder, but you don't get to just declare the future and whine about it. and if any of the concerns about whitmore end up coming true, or if jhs ends up being a solid nba player, do i get to just litter this thread with reiterations of these takes? edit: and the irony here is that i was RIGHT THERE with everyone on draft night. i didn't like jhs from film or scouting reports. i DID like podziemski (check the pre-draft receipts), and i DID want us to take whitmore when he slipped. i'm not ready to say I was right about any of it, though.
The Lakers have never taken a guy I picked outside of like DLO so I wasn't really surprised on draft night. I also wasn't too invested in the pick as I didn't think there was a guy who would step in and help us right away. I'm not confident any of the guys who have looked good would be doing the same here. I will be honest and say that I don't know what we saw in JHS lol. But I will give him some time.
