I was going to make a point about good drafting, but that’s the one thing that Isiah was actually good at. Regardless, here goes….

Why a good GM is as valuable as a stud draft pick: a good GM will make the most of low draft picks

These are the players that fill out a roster as complimentary/tradable pieces. It’s easy to draft Oden/Durant/Rose/Beasley/LBJ at the top of the draft, but it’s not easy to nab the Wallaces, Hedos, Martins, etc late in the first round.

Who would you rather have:

• Jason Thompson, Brandon Rush (next player selected), or Anthony Randolph (the next big selected)?
• Spencer Hawes, Acie Law (the next player selected) or Julian Wright (the next big taken)?
• Quincy Douby, or . . . ok, I’ll give you that one.
• Francisco Garcia or Luther Head (the next player & guard selected)?
• Kevin Martin or Saša Vujačić (the next player & guard selected)?

Granted, with hindsight there are players we might rather have that were drafted lower (Maxiell/Lee over Garcia?), but almost all of these picks were at least a little bit of head-scratchers at the time.

Take a walk with me . . . to a time just after the glory years, in an alternate reality where GP left when the rebuilding started. Peja walks for nothing (no Greene, no Houston #1), no Martin, no Thompson?

Obviously we don’t know what would have happened, but the point that I think that TZ is making is that now we probably won’t have to play the “what if” game, because GP has used the same foresight and talent evaluation in “drafting” our next GM.

I don’t think that anyone would “trade Thompson, Martin, or even Hawes for Levien” . . . but we didn’t have to. To modify the hypothetical: Would you trade the Kings’ draft history for the Clippers’ draft history? What about [insert just about ANY other team here]’s draft history? Considering the picks GP’s had to work with, the Kings roster is looking pretty good (in comparison, Portland had #4 & #1 overall picks in consecutive years, and also traded for a #2 – thanks Isiah!).

And let’s not forget where the franchise was before GP either. Just sayin’.

In my crappy fanpost. (I would put them in the comments, but there is too many of them to put in a thread like this.)

I think it’s more important. Star’s can’t trade themselves, and players don’t find talent at the 12th overall pick. Regardless of how good Webber, Divac, Stojakovic, Bibby and others were for this franchise, Geoff Petrie meant more because he built the foundation for that success, and quite a few others with the Kings. Without Geoff Petrie I’m convinced the Kings would be in Nashville right now.

But it still isn’t exciting.