https://youtu.be/nPsv_HpkS4s
With this video, I have now made a premium highlights package for each of the last three picks in last year’s draft: Paul Reed, Jalen Harris, and Sam Merrill. This is exactly the type of dorky thing I get excited for! Those dudes at the end of the draft, oft-mocked because of how cruddy they (supposedly) are, it’s fun to see them throw off the unearned shackles of their draft placement and have legitimately good games in the best basketball league in the world.
Man, I was getting SO TIRED of Robert Sacre jokes all the time. Just putting it out there. Lakers fans really do ruin everything.
Last year, the only one of the last three picks I managed to showcase was Miye Oni; Dewan Hernandez was a rare Raptors missed pick, and Vanja Marinkovic didn’t even come over from whatever random Euro team he’s on. 2018, I didn’t get any, either that very season or any subsequent season, and I don’t think I will, unless Kostas Antetokounmpo really steps up his game. 2017, Alpha Kaba was so hyped I remember and he still hasn’t played. at least I got to make a Jaron Blossogame vid that year.
So yeah, this is a rare occurrence. These days, with all the extra contract types and roster spots, it’s a lot easier for teams to keep around marginal talent and to sometimes get that marginal talent some real game reps in blowouts. In the old days, like the 60’s, the roster size limit was actually only 6 players: the five starters, and the 6th man. If they caught you with 7 players on your roster, they dissolved your team and distributed the players to other teams at random, except those other teams couldn’t sign them either because they were already at the 6-player limit. It really was a different time, we’ve come a long way.
Reed was the 58th pick, and he had a season befitting the 58th pick. Not much playing time, but he wasn’t totally worthless in the time he did get. The regular season finale is always the chance for a guy like this to really make his mark, and make it he did: 17 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists in only 23 minutes. That’s like a Russell Westbrook statline if Russell Westbrook was playing with a team full of Paul Reeds.