Player The restricted-age video store section of Dylan Harper

Ding, ding, ding! Someone finally explained my reasoning on wondering why we drafted Harper. Of course the talent is there but the fit isn't at this moment. I think they made the pick knowing one of these guys will be used for trade bait eventually and nothing else. We had much bigger needs that we could've filled using the draft, yet we drafted another guard who plays the exact same way as the two in front of him. The point was made plenty of times before the draft that you can't play all of them together because of their shooting issues, so why draft him? Again this is not a knock on Harper, this is a knock on the organization not drafting to build a team properly. Someone made the argument that you don't draft for fit, you draft the talent lol. Well we'll have to trade one of this guys anyway to find a piece that fits better with helping Wemby with floor spacing, so in essence, you always look/draft for fit once you have your key pieces in place. Wemby, Fox and Castle were already in place, we just needed to upgrade the supporting pieces. The Harper pick only would've made since if we didn't already have Fox or Harper. Now there's chatter about trading one or sitting Castle because of the lack of playing time for Harper. I don't see under any circumstances where he'll ever leapfrog Fox or Castle for playing time until one is gone. You drafted a #2 pick to have him sitting on the bench not getting significant playing time. Wild.
The reasons for drafting Harper are so obvious they aren't really worth discussing...

The better discussion is why draft Harper *and* max out Fox *and* choose to make Castle your lead PG.

Doing any two of those three things is rational. Doing all three doesn't make any sense. (Actually doing both of the last two still don't make sense to me, regardless of the first, but that's another topic)
 
Castle in his rookie season averaged 12.2 FGA per game, and Jimmy Butler has averaged more than that for 10 consecutive seasons so i have no idea what you are talking about

and even if what you said is true... who cares? i'm actually advocating for Castle shooting the ball less by taking him off the ball, which would be closer to the lower number you think butler has

were you looking at rasual butler stats by any chance?
per 36... but i get you point, make castle a 3 and d player with occasional ballhandling.. all that he isn't.
 
per 36... but i get you point, make castle a 3 and d player with occasional ballhandling.. all that he isn't.
a) you said per game, not per 36

b) why did you use castle's rookie numbers and not this year's numbers? castle's FGA per 36 is down this year from his rookie season, and at a number that Butler has outpaced, per 36 minutes, 7 times in his career. and again, the entire premise of moving Castle off the point guard spot would be to decrease his volume

c) is that how you think jimmy butler plays? 3 and D with occasional ballhandling?
 
you said per game, not per 36.

and is that how you think jimmy butler plays? 3 and D with occasional ballhandling?
yes, my mistake.
I didn't say that's how he plays, i'm taking it as that is how you want castle to play. Am i wrong?
 
The reasons for drafting Harper are so obvious they aren't really worth discussing...

The better discussion is why draft Harper *and* max out Fox *and* choose to make Castle your lead PG.

Doing any two of those three things is rational. Doing all three doesn't make any sense. (Actually doing both of the last two still don't make sense to me, regardless of the first, but that's another topic)
if castle is stealth on the market in the offseason then hell yeah i play as lead guard to inflate his value or get a gauge if hes untouchable, of the three guards, castle is the easiest to trade given his league value . the spurs really had no option to turn down fox. Harper was most valuable on draft day. they have to develop him now.
 
Harper is an S-tier talent.
You always pick those players and figure it out later, even if it means suffering through bad fit for a season or two.
That's true but we have to stop pretending like he was the only one in that draft besides Flagg. The way it's starting out, a lot of these top 7 or 8 guys look like they may become legit stars.
 
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It is a coaching malpractice if Harpers is playing under 25 minutes especially when he is bringing this kind of defense to the table..Best playmaker & offensive orchestrator on the team at tender age of 19

It's a joke. He should be getting more minutes.
 
Harper is so good. I’m going to wait until after the trade deadline so as not to cause some terrible butterfly effect, but I think he’ll be my next Jersey
 
Alright, name all the 6'5+ natural point guards that are also good defenders.

Then name all the wings that can shoot the ball and all the off ball guards that can't really playmake.
He's great for what he is and what he does. What I'm saying is that we have to stop pretending like the players drafted after him don't have the ability to be really good or better than him in their respective positions. Queen, VJ, Kon, Bailey and Fears all have shown that they can can be just as good or better as Harper. We're acting like we juat know we drafted the next Jordan lol. All of these guys still have to prove it and their upsides are just as good as Harper's. That's all I'm pointing not.
 
He's great for what he is and what he does. What I'm saying is that we have to stop pretending like the players drafted after him don't have the ability to be better than him in their respective positions. Queen, VJ, Kon, Bailey and Fears all have shown that they can can be just as good or better as Harper. We're acting like we juat know we drafted the next Jordan lol. All of these guys still have to prove it and their upsides are just as good as Harper's. That's all I'm pointing not.
Naturally every draft has players drafted lower that are better than players draft before them. The point is, Harper as hands down the higher rated prospect, and you typically don’t want to pass on that. But of course that doesn’t mean someone might not be better.
 
He's great for what he is and what he does. What I'm saying is that we have to stop pretending like the players drafted after him don't have the ability to be better than him in their respective positions. Queen, VJ, Kon, Bailey and Fears all have shown that they can can be just as good or better as Harper. We're acting like we juat know we drafted the next Jordan lol. All of these guys still have to prove it and their upsides are just as good as Harper's. That's all I'm pointing not.
I'm asking again, how many elite two-way point guards are out there?
One of those is always more valuable than off ball players, unless they're MVP level.
 
I'm asking again, how many elite two-way point guards are out there?
One of those is always more valuable than off ball players, unless they're MVP level.
I don't consider Harper to be an elite 2-way guard if that's what you're trying to say. When he's shooting 25% from 3 and he's not a lock down defender, how can he be? He can definitely improve those things over time and has the tools but he's not that it right now. He's elite at creating space and driving to the basket and that's about it right now. For all we know, he's not a good floor general but again, he has time to prove just like all of these guys from this draft.
 
I don't consider Harper to be an elite 2-way guard when he's shooting 25% from 3 and he's not a lock down defender. He can definitely improve those things over time but he's not that it right now. He's elite at creating space and driving to the basket and that's about it right now. For all we know, he's not a good floor general but again, he has time to prove just like all of these guys from this draft.
We're talking about his potential which is obviously there, you're being dense for no reason.
You don't draft players based on their current ability, but potential.
 
We're talking about his potential which is obviously there, you're being dense for no reason.
You don't draft players based on their current ability, but potential.
You're being dense because that's what I've been saying to you the entire time. I'm talking about all of these players potential, yet you just seem to think Harper is the only one who has it and the rest won't improve. As I said before, some of these guys have the ability to be just as good or better than Harper but you seem to think not.
 
You're being dense because that's what I've been saying to you the entire time. I'm talking about all of these players potential, yet you just seem to think Harper is the only one who has it and the rest won't improve. As I said before, some of these guys have the ability to be just as good or better than Harper but you seem to think not.
The guys you mentioned are way more common archetypes than Harper.
Mobile rim protectors (being able to shoot is a bonus) and point guards that can defend are the most important thing in the playoffs as of late.
Unless those other players you mentioned get to top10 player in the league level, Harper will be more valuable. It's that simple.
 
Another wild stat is Wemby-Fox-Harper have only played 70 minutes together all season. That’s just bordering on malpractice.

Your max contract guy, your franchise guy, and your number 2 pick from the last draft.

For those not good at maths that averages out to about 1.5 minutes per game 😂

Something has to change this off season.
 
It is a coaching malpractice if Harpers is playing under 25 minutes especially when he is bringing this kind of defense to the table..Best playmaker & offensive orchestrator on the team at tender age of 19
I agree with the statement, but I think we're pretending a little bit when it comes the offensive orchestrator part. He hasn't orchestrated jack since the first few games. He just looks for space to penetrate or dumps the ball to the next guy. That's not being an orchestrator, that's just going through the motions. He should be asking for screens, passing to the roll man, demanding specific positioning from wemby, pushing the ball in transition and stopping when the situation doesn't allow speeding up. We haven't seen much of that from either him or castle. We have seen a little bit of it from fox. We all know he can do it, but he just hasn't, largely because this is how we play.
 
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