Y'all Ferry's Plan may have been better than we thought

[AHF]

I think Kobe was traded for. Drafted by the Hornets and traded for Divac.

 

Only in the way that the Mavs didn't actually draft Dirk.  It is a distinction without a difference.

[Guest]

I think Kobe was traded for. Drafted by the Hornets and traded for Divac.

That's semantics - Kobe played not a game for Charlotte just like Dirk and Kawhi Leonard.

[bird_dirt]

That's semantics - Kobe played not a game for Charlotte just like Dirk and Kawhi Leonard.

And Pau Gasol unfortunately. :(

[Guest]

And Pau Gasol unfortunately. :(

I hear ya buddy :-(. So many wasted lottery picks for the Hawks!! Edited October 16, 2014 by JayBirdHawk

[Duff_Man]

Only in the way that the Mavs didn't actually draft Dirk.  It is a distinction without a difference.

 

But it does kind of matter that it wasn't like they earned the #13 pick. They had to trade for it. All of the other examples are ones where a terrible team lucked out. That makes them different.

[Wretch]

But it does kind of matter that it wasn't like they earned the #13 pick. They had to trade for it. All of the other examples are ones where a terrible team lucked out. That makes them different.

 

You're absolutely right on the highlighted part.  They didn't tank/suck/rebuild to draft Kobe.  At the same time, it's such an anomaly that  you really have to consider them lucky.  Sure a team can trade into the lottery, but LA's trade was the equivalent of us giving up a slightly less productive Al Horford for the 13th pick and expecting Michael Jordan or Larry Bird out of it.  Yeah, that happens all the time!

 

Also...

 

It's easy to judge the trade in hindsight, but you can't ignore the context of the draft during that time period.  Scouting/evaluating High School was an inexact science (which is saying a lot considering how much of a crap shoot the lottery is anyway) and a lot of guys flew under the radar.  Had Kobe gone to college, no chance he would have fallen to 13.

 

It's hard enough finding an All Star beyond 13 or 14 (less than a 3% chance), but to land one of THE best players of all time?  There's zero chance we could expect to pull something like that off.  I'd call that luck too.