Lamond Murray Talks Raptors: "Siberia" of the NBA?

[C-Low]

OKC would be in this exact same situation were it not for them to strike gold. The drafting game is 80% luck and 20% scouting.

correct.

[LBF]

It's funny how people view that as a model, eh?

The "Oklahoma" model or the "Pittsburgh" model.

Give me a break. You don't think every single other team has tried that long before there was oklahoma. In fact, pittsburgh has got lucky quite a few times.

Lemeiux(best player in league) Jagr(?), Crosby(best player in league) Malkin, Staal, Fleury.

Think about how bad and long they had to suck to get those guys. It's no model. Luck has just turned for those franchises.

[Apollo]

Well the Spurs have won Championships with it. It's good management without depending heavily on free agency.

[Nilanka]

One can argue that the Spurs "lucked" into Duncan, which is essentially what LBF was eluding to. Had the Spurs not won the lottery, and had to pick 2nd instead, I don't think they would've won any championships with Keith Van Horn leading the way.

[Apollo]

You don't know that Van Horn would go second. Maybe it would have been Billups, who was the instrumental driving force on that championship Pistons squad. The Spurs draft well no matter where they draft. They won a championships after the Admiral retired because of the guys they took in the late part of drafts. They've maintained largely through the draft and finding diamonds in the rough. There are lots of hall-of-famers who never win anything, like Karl Malone.

All that being said, we can't grant ownership for building from within to the Spurs or Thunder. Building from within is an old idea. Stealing other team's talent via free agency is a new age philosophy. It could not have come about without a mutual lack of loyalty/trust which has developed in the Owner/player relationship in the past couple decades. It's grown more and more prevalent. Fingers crossed on it all being a cycle and a golden age of ball is just around the corner again.

[Nilanka]

I think this "new age" speaks largely about society in general. Nobody really has any patience for anything these days, whether in sports, or in every day life.

[Jclaw]

Kind of a misleading title for our fragile psyches, no? Makes it seem like he's saying we are siberia (as opposed to the just slightly warmer part of northern russia we are now). I think as long as we don't get espn here, we'll be a step behind but once the players get here are realize there are a couple of good restaurants and clubs between the igloos...we come off okay,

[golden]

One can argue that the Spurs "lucked" into Duncan, which is essentially what LBF was eluding to. Had the Spurs not won the lottery, and had to pick 2nd instead, I don't think they would've won any championships with Keith Van Horn leading the way.

Not even an argument - Spurs sheer luck is a fact. Spurs were coming off a 50 win season and then the Admiral went down and also another top scorer (can't recall his name right now) in the Duncan draft year. You never want your top players to get injured, but that's like an absolute perfect storm. Without Duncan, it doesn't matter how well the Spurs draft in the following years - they don't win 4 championships - especially after Robinson retires.