the flashiest offensive impact does have league-wide value on 1st and 2nd contracts though. If Trae Young and Morant were traded towards the end of their 1st or beginning of their 2nd contracts they would have been much more valuable.

- Nico Harrison

West NBA exec wants other execs to leave Darius Acuff on the board

Modern NBA is extremely harsh rn towards: 1. guards under 6’4(double that if they cant playmake) the classic SG in a PG body, 2. defensive first role players who are very anemic in the half court and dont get guarded in the playoffs.

Ok but in the last few years Luka and Hali have both made the finals so I don’t think it’s impossible 

If you have Tatum or SGA sure you’d rather have an offensively limited 2 way guard over a star 1 way guard.

Most teams picking in the lottery don’t have a franchise player and their best shot at making the playoffs is to draft the next Mitchell or Brunson, it likely won’t win them a ring but it makes them relevant and there is value in playing meaningful playoff games

I feel like the opinion isn’t wrong but that’s a weird group of players to cite because it doesn’t seem like any of their teams tried to build around them specifically?

At the same time, we see that even teams with elite guards like Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell still need ball handling and playmaking next to them and that’s still most easily found in smaller guards. The need is amplified if your forward is a Kawhi or Durant type.

Obviously the ideal is a playmaker with size and not a defensive liability but then you’re quickly into top 10 player in the league range if they’re actually good.

Haliburton, Luka, Brunson, Steph, Jamal Murray, Herro, and Trae Young have all made it to the conference finals or better over the last 5 years. They’re all offense first guards. Even SGA and Booker are much more important to the offense than the defense.

This is an NBA exec slated to draft in the mid lottery that really wants Acuff.

It’s the contract that gets traded…

Sure, Trae was traded for nothing. But he makes 3 times what Caruso makes, twice what White makes.

right. this isnt rocket science. dont draft cam johnson or trae young. draft shai. its easy

Im guessing Steph Curry beat this executive’s team sometime in the last 4 years

It’s so much easier to build a team with a good defensive star because then you can pretty much fill the rest of the team with anything

What does a small undersized guard making the max need, well he needs versatile large defensively good players who can shoot to give him space to operate. Guess what those guys are rare and cost a damn lot too

Murray SGA Hali Luka maxey Mitchell brunson have all had major success compared to draft position

Checks record for Bulls with Caruso and Portland with Jrue.

Checks record of Knicks with Brunson and Lakers with Luka.

Yeah im still drafting the next Luka over the next Caruso.

Step one - acquire MVP calibre wing/s or big

I get the point but none of those guys were top 2 players on a championship team. Valuable for sure. But we’ve seen them all on losing teams until getting to play with giannis or Tatum/brown or Lebron/SGA

One key part that is implied but missing is SMALL

Bigger PGs wont be as easy to beat on defense. Even if they cant defend a fellow PG well they can usually be hidden on a wing or forward.

Takes more work to hunt for the mismatch.

Rob Dillingham did not work out. For one example.

There will always be a need for quick, offense-first guards and most of those guys are like 6’0”-6’4”. However, I think those guys are just less likely to be 1st round picks these days. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to get drafted altogether. Microwave scorers who know their roles can always find minutes in the NBA. It’s still an offense-first league.

You can’t draft small offense-only guards. Obviously White, Holiday, and Caruso are fantastic players but you do need a go-to shot creator.

It makes sense. I mean, I can handle registering and cook bomb ass plates, so why hire one that can only good at one thing? It has never made sense.

Really hard to be a pure defensive liability in the modern game

If you aren’t an All-Star+ caliber offender, you’re not gonna be in a playoff rotation

I mean it’s not bad to have an offense only PG but the other multi-role PG’s do help a team a lot more. Having a guy like Davion Mitchell for the Heat being the defensive irritant lockdown type PG or someone like Alex Caruso or Derrick White where they can play both SG-PG are good options to have.

One of my favorite PG’s was Shaun Livingston, people couldn’t guard him and I wanna see another team get a PG like that.

Small scrawny guards are on the outs

I assume this is about Acuff.

If he’s drafted #1 overall and expected to be a legit franchise player, then that team will fail.

If some team gets him with the #8 overall pick? You do it.

The Derrick Whites and Alex Carusos and Jrue Holidays are who you pick up later in the draft or in free agency.

And, team situation matters a bit. “Derrick White leads to more winning than Ja or Trae.”

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Nico?

I mean Deaaron Fox is contributing just fine to winning basketball. Theres still a place for these type of players they just need to understand how to play ball and not be shotchuckers

Murray and Curry won in the last 4 years and they are bigger pieces of their team than White and Caruso.

That’s why Jaylen Brown is the MVP

Steph Curry in shambles.

Trae Young is a prime example of this.

NBA has been slowly shifting for decades to have 4-5 guys from 6’6-6’10 who can all handle, playmaker, shoot, and defend. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that it’s less about what you CAN do and more about what you CANT do.

A guy who can’t shoot gets picked apart in the half court, small guard gets switched and posted up, slow big gets in the pick and roll, etc.

NBA hunts matchups all day long so it’s better to be average at everything than great at one thing

The fact that Steph is an NBA champion + was the best player on his team as a 6’3 guard shows how improved he’s become on the defensive end & his offense is so impactful that it makes up for him not being an elite defensive player.

Truly a generational NBA player

I mean, he’s not really saying anything. There are offensive first guards like Steph, and there are offensive guards like Cam Thomas. You can win with the former and not the latter because the former is a world class offensive player while the latter is just above average.

Peterson was actually decent on D (granted at college level against smaller guys). He has quick hands. He anticipates and can get steals

He’s acting like the greatest guard of our generation wasn’t a barely 6’2 score first guard. It’s possible to win championships with them

It’s so crazy how lazy the takes of executives can be sometimes. Luka made the finals two years ago and Haliburton last year. The ECF had two guards bad on defense. Only one team gets to go to win the finals. If Haliburton didn’t get injured in game 7 of the NBA finals that entire narrative is ruined.

Also the word bad is subjective. If a guy doesn’t even try then he’s not going to make it in the NBA. That is bad. Lots of guards are bad on defense because of intentional decisions by coaches. If you are running an offense and small you won’t be locking in on defense during the regular season. When Steph was at his peak he was bad except when he had to lock in but he was never lazy about it

Yeah, but if you draft and offensive-focused guard that learns to play defense you’re set. It’s ridiculous to consider a 18, 19, 20 year old as a finished product. There are nuances to discussions like this and this person shouldn’t be an exec if they don’t see that.

Gonna go out on a limb and guess that anonymous West exec is not from the Damian Lillard Trailblazers.

Huh? Are Luka, Harden, Haliburton, D Mitch, etc. great defenders now?

Because its a switch hunting league

Good thing Patterson isn’t offense only.

except you don’t build around derrick white, jrue holiday, or alex caruso. Trae Young with the right team around him can get you to the conference finals. Luka can win you a championship.

There’s obviously exceptions to that rule.

Steph is far more successful than the guys this “exec” mentioned.

Who had more team success: Trae as the #1 guy in Atlanta or Jrue as the #2 guy in New Orleans?

This is so dumb.

This has been my hill to die on since I was a kid. I don’t want to have to fill in the gaps for hiding you on defense. Obviously you make use with what you got and sometimes the juice is worth the squeeze.

But being able to defend your position in somway is important to me.

Luka Doncic is a MVP candidate