Most of all I remember Chris Paul and the Wake Forest coming into Assembly Hall as the #1 overall team and then getting spanked by an Illinois who then became the #1 overall team led by Deron Williams in the 2004-05 CBB run.  The Illini were up 30 in that game.

Every player in the NBA is an athletic genius.  In IQ terms, a "genius" (at least, one who will be accepted as such by Mensa) is a person with an IQ in the top 2% of the population.  That's two out of a hundred.  Think of how many players around the world play basketball--how many of those actually get to the NBA?  I have no idea what that number is, but lets say it's conservatively 1 out of 1,000.  Maybe it's 1 out of 10,000, or even more; I don't know.  

What's clear is that right off the bat you're already dealing with people who are at the far edge of genius.  Now consider the few people from among that group whose talent is so exceptional they stand out from the crowd...and now realize that in order to win, you need to have at least one of these rarest of rare athletes on your team.  

And you need to pluck that talent from the draft--while the player is likely far from fully developed...because if you don't get it in the draft, barring the unlikeliest of circumstances, you won't be getting it, period.

So, Sports, I agree with you--and someone else here who recently contributed a great analysis of trading vs. making the pick--the draft is where it at.  Almost without exception, if you fail to identify the exceptional talent in the draft, you are doomed.

My thoughts parallel yours.  I thought Jordan chose a good school in a good conference where he could face challenges that would give him of the best environments in which to prove his abilities as a center.  What I came away with from this season and reading about his progress in high school was that he really envisions himself more as a 7'0 wing.

There seems to be a much greater fascination in playing a style similar to McGrady even when these kids are blessed with the genetics to develop into NBA bigs.

It’s rare, but it happens.

The consensus seems to be:

1. Rose
2. Beasley
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
3. Lopez
4. Mayo
5. Bayless
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
everyone else

And if you want Lopez, you’re going to have to get rid of at least one of our current bigs. Who would you dump? Gooden I guess?

Then you have a future of Lopez, Noah, Tyrus. Hopefully Gray is out of the picture. That would be pretty sweet, I guess.

an improvement. Illini15 said it best.

They just seem to have similar shot selection, and I would prefer that we don’t have two or more guys who continue to take off-balance jumpshots.

but why settle? Management is scared of entering the luxury tax, and with two guys playing similar spots, taking similar shots (Arenas and Hughes) I don’t want to be spending 24+ million on 2 players who play similar positions. If we’re a cost-conscious team, we should be getting rid of the bad contracts not trying to add players that right now we can’t really afford. We can keep searching for solutions for this train wreck, but I don’t see how Arenas will help us in the long run because he will not get us a championship.

I agree the Arenas is a very good player, but not an MVP caliber player. You honestly think that he’s going to beat out Lebron and Chris Paul in the future? Moreover, what in the past few years has caused people to fear Larry Hughes enough to guard him. Is it his plummeting fg%? His incredible assist numbers? Or, is it his incredibly durable nba body? I will love to take Arenas if we can get rid of Hughes, but don’t try to tell me that Larry Hughes is a better player than Kirk.

We could also get Grant Hill as the 6th man and maybe Ray Allen’s ankles. We could then change our name to the Chicago glassmen. Not that we would be a good rebounding team, but we could be the first team ever to simultaneously have every single player on IR with some sort of shattered body part.

Noah is going to be a decent starting center. He might not be able to post people up and score on them, but he will be one to run the court, get rebounds, finish, and play some solid defense for 48 minutes a night no matter how he physically feels. I think Aaron gray will be a decent backup for the bulls if he actually gets in some shape. I dont think he will be anything better then maybe luc longley, but longley could occaisionally get double doubles plus aaron gray is really a decent post presence at least offensively.

Drew gooden is gonna be a start next season, and i think its fine having him in with joakim. Gooden rebounds fairly well (compared to ben wallace at least) and has a nice array of post moves, his size and athleticism sort of get me but he is solid throughout. Tyrus i think, if he puts in the effort can easily be a starter near the end of the season. If d’antoni comes in to coach, the i see tyrus starting because he has the athleticism d’antoni would desire of a big man. Which leads me to the draft…

If we get an Avery or Thibedeau coach, then i wont mind NOT drafting a big, because we have enough to develop and plus free agency will probably have a few that we can get as backups. Other then brook lopez (and i even would question that pick) i dont see any big just worth having in this draft that wouldnt be a project. However, if we get d’antoni then we definetly would need someone who can take the spot for joakim or tyrus in the run and gun style of basketball. So just because we seem on the path to d’antoni i decided to look into bigs. IF new york gets him, then i really would say we should draft a sf first, a sg second (bg may be gone due to contract crap) and pg last (if push comes to shove resign duhon for another go and kirk really isnt that bad at the point.

Sf because i think noch, larry hughes, and ben gordon cannot all be on the same team. You have to keep two of those three (at the risk of a bad shot contest) and I would like to see noch go and get a sf instead. If ben gordons contract doesnt work then get another sg (E. Gordon seems like a good idea due to the similarities), as for larry hughes, i dont think paxson is good enough to get rid another craptastic contract.

I was shocked to see his defensive game. (I threw up.)