Jalen Smith is the worst crime as of yet attributable to James Jones’ experience-oriented draft policy. JJ only wants to bring in guys who are ready to contribute on day 1, typically older, polished prospects with defined skills and roles.

But passing up on Vassell and Haliburton for Jalen Smith bordered on negligence. Looks even worse now then it did then, and it looked plenty bad then.

Jones sort of lucked out with Cam Johnson in 2019, amid a pretty poor talent pool at the back end of the lottery.

As soon as the Suns Durant-era is over and we start drafting again, JJ is cooked.

Absolutely. People were going for Suns FO throats for trading Bridges and Cam motherfucking Johnson for Durant.

Bridges is a talented player and has more offensive potential than was allowed to show in PHX. Obviously, he’s a defensive ace and ironman. Not to mention, great locker room presence and fan favorite. He’s not a hard sell.

But I’d be shocked if he’s ever a top-20 player. There’s a real ceiling to his offensive game that will likely be hit this season, imo.

Ringer had him 33, which is a tad high. I’d certainly put Randle and Bane above Bridges, for example.

So, combination of some highly-underrated guys and post-megatrade hypetrain brought him to a degree of “overrated.”

Masai