draft best player available or position of need?

[RaptorsFan4Life]

The fascination with Bismack is baffling. I prefer Faried over him any day and not as the 5th pick of course. Personally, the team needs to draft either player that is expected to be at the five spot in the draft (Kanter or Valanciunas).

Why? Bismack is younger, more athletic, better blocker, has a bigger standing reach and wingspan and is taller. The only think Faried can probably do better is rebound but I doubt he's much better than Bismack.

[Balls of Steel]

Why? Bismack is younger, more athletic, better blocker, has a bigger standing reach and wingspan and is taller. The only think Faried can probably do better is rebound but I doubt he's much better than Bismack.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...rebound-in-nba

[GarbageTime]

??? I'm not sure I get what you're saying. I do know that some people in this forum are obsessed with Biyombo because they're hoping that he becomes Bargs' rebounding mule at center while Andrea enjoys his perimeter game as a PF. Such fascination is so short-sighted and narrow. Fine, let's try and get Biyombo and move AB to the 4-spot. Oh, what about Davis and Amir? Oh let's trade them since they're redundant. The new defensive regime spells the end of any player who thinks they do more complicated things than defend. Biyombo is a late first-rounder for a reason.

I was saying that 99% of the time a team should draft for talent not fit. There are always exceptions (based on unique situations) the Raps are not an exception

As for Bargnani, I was saying that whatever position he plays will be a hole. Raps have a hole at C right now... if they draft a C and move Bargs to PF, then now have a hole at PF.

[10 000 Hours]

Another reason to draft for talent is because Toronto is probably going to be in the lottery again next season unless one of their current players develops into a stud, which could happen, but even then, I guess the Raptors will be fighting just to get a whiff of the 8th seed.

So, by the time it's the summer of 2012 the raps will have one more chance to draft a strong player then make any necessary trades to get the pieces that fit best.

[ezz_bee]

BPA 99.9 times out of 100. This draft is not 0.1 time.

[octothorp]

BPA if there's a clear BPA, but if it's a choice between several players on the same tier, then factor organizational fit into it. Note that I said fit, not need. Drafting for need means taking a SF because that's the position we lack most (bad strategy); drafting for fit means taking a PG, SF, or C because any of those positions could be upgraded and we'd have no problem finding playing time for such a draft pick. Fortunately, it's easy this year because there are no PFs or SGs on the board at the #5 pick, so it's BPA all the way.