Rodney Hood to Utah (#23 overall)

[hurleyfor3]

Second Duke pickup for the Jazz!

[Duvall]

Second Duke pickup for the Jazz!

#23.

[miramar]

I never saw him as a #15 pick as Bilas said, but this seems pretty good for him.

[Duvall]

I never saw him as a #15 pick as Bilas said, but this seems pretty good for him.

Kinda hated seeing Hood pass by two playoff teams, though.

[tbyers11]

Kinda hated seeing Hood pass by two playoff teams, though.

Yeah, seems like he would have been a great fit for OKC.

Good luck in Utah, Rodney!

[Newton_14]

Kinda hated seeing Hood pass by two playoff teams, though.

The Thunder are going to regret passing on Hood! McGary? PuhLeeze. Stupid move. Rodney would have been a great fit with the Thunder. Happy for him anyway. Went way to low but will prove that a mistake before all is said and done.

This draft has been crazy.

[brevity]

Mormon by association?

[Atldukie79]

The line I wanted to hear from Jalen Rose:

"As I sit here with Jay Bilas, watching Rodney Hood, who was selected to play for Quin Snyder, shaking hands with Adam Silver and proceeding towards Jay Williams for an interview... I feel surrounded by Dukies."

Living in Atlanta, I was hoping the Hawks would pick Hood. I was prepared to swap "Ferry" for "Snyder".

[diablesseblu]

The line I wanted to hear from Jalen Rose:

"As I sit here with Jay Bilas, watching Rodney Hood, who was selected to play for Quin Snyder, shaking hands with Adam Silver and proceeding towards Jay Williams for an interview... I feel surrounded by Dukies."

Living in Atlanta, I was hoping the Hawks would pick Hood. I was prepared to swap "Ferry" for "Snyder".

I loved that Jalen noticed this. Of course, he would.

[gep]

I guess the cream rises to the top... even at ESPN

[Henderson]

The Thunder are going to regret passing on Hood! McGary? PuhLeeze. Stupid move. Rodney would have been a great fit with the Thunder. Happy for him anyway. Went way to low but will prove that a mistake before all is said and done.

This draft has been crazy.

Can't disagree with any of that. But SLC is a much nicer place to live than OKC. Wishing Rodney all the best. He had a dream fulfilled tonight, and that's pretty cool.

[Edouble]

The Thunder are going to regret passing on Hood! McGary? PuhLeeze. Stupid move. Rodney would have been a great fit with the Thunder. Happy for him anyway. Went way to low but will prove that a mistake before all is said and done.

This draft has been crazy.

Uh, a lot of teams passed on Hood.

Lamb and Sefolosha are nothing to sniff at.

[tbyers11]

Uh, a lot of teams passed on Hood.

Lamb and Sefolosha are nothing to sniff at.

The same Sefolosha that got DNPs in the playoffs because his offensive game was so bad. OKC was forced to play Derek Fisher in important situations. Lamb showed some flashes but Rodney seemed to fit rather nicely OKC's most glaring need (a 2/3 with offensive skills, particularly an outside shooter) much better than Mitch McGary. McGary seems pretty redundant to Steven Adams.

[FerryFor50]

McGary seems pretty redundant to Steven Adams.

Yep. And Nick Collison.

[UrinalCake]

I know this sounds like sour grapes, but he should have stayed in school. I think a lot of times kids get it into their heads that they're going to go, and then it's really hard to back out once they've gotten into that mindset. Not just for Rodney, but for a lot of players. Sometime early in the season, maybe even before the season started, he heard that he was going to be a lottery pick, and make the decision to leave at the end of the season. It was pretty apparent, at least to me, that when the season ended he still had a lot to work on and was by no means a guaranteed lottery pick.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have had him play for us for one season, and I won't ever criticize a kid for choosing what he feels is best. But IMO he would have been better off financially had he stayed another year and gotten into the lottery range or better. Especially since next year would have been a weaker draft.

[Bluedog]

I know this sounds like sour grapes, but he should have stayed in school. I think a lot of times kids get it into their heads that they're going to go, and then it's really hard to back out once they've gotten into that mindset. Not just for Rodney, but for a lot of players. Sometime early in the season, maybe even before the season started, he heard that he was going to be a lottery pick, and make the decision to leave at the end of the season. It was pretty apparent, at least to me, that when the season ended he still had a lot to work on and was by no means a guaranteed lottery pick.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have had him play for us for one season, and I won't ever criticize a kid for choosing what he feels is best. But IMO he would have been better off financially had he stayed another year and gotten into the lottery range or better. Especially since next year would have been a weaker draft.

Or his deficiencies would come further to light and teams would see even less "potential" drafting a 22 year old, and he could fall to the second round, not make the team, and earn $0 in his NBA career. At least this year, he guaranteed himself a contract and millions of dollars. Just ask JMM (or McGary...) how going back to school worked out for him. You just never know. (I'm not saying it was the best financial decision or not - I have no idea to know and neither does anybody else. There are no sure things.)

[Des Esseintes]

Or his deficiencies would come further to light and teams would see even less "potential" drafting a 22 year old, and he could fall to the second round, not make the team, and earn $0 in his NBA career. At least this year, he guaranteed himself a contract and millions of dollars. Just ask JMM (or McGary...) how going back to school worked out for him. You just never know. (I'm not saying it was the best financial decision or not - I have no idea to know and neither does anybody else. There are no sure things.)

Yes. Plus, the money difference between going low-20s versus, say, #12 is not enough to offset a whole year of lost earnings AND a further year's deferral of the second contract. People can stay in school for lots of reasons, financial ones almost never being among those lots.

[Newton_14]

I know this sounds like sour grapes, but he should have stayed in school. I think a lot of times kids get it into their heads that they're going to go, and then it's really hard to back out once they've gotten into that mindset. Not just for Rodney, but for a lot of players. Sometime early in the season, maybe even before the season started, he heard that he was going to be a lottery pick, and make the decision to leave at the end of the season. It was pretty apparent, at least to me, that when the season ended he still had a lot to work on and was by no means a guaranteed lottery pick.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have had him play for us for one season, and I won't ever criticize a kid for choosing what he feels is best. But IMO he would have been better off financially had he stayed another year and gotten into the lottery range or better. Especially since next year would have been a weaker draft.

I can't disagree. I know Bluedog and Des make good points too, but it actually can work both ways. Hood can play. It is certainly possible that had he come back, he could have benefited greatly, improving his game and skillset, and then come out next season and go mid to maybe even slightly early lottery. He's not JMM by any means. I also think a core of Rasheed, T Jones, Okafor, Amile, & Quinn, surrounding Rodney would have meshed better than this past season's guys. Not talking chemistry or liking each other there, strictly talking about skillsets complementing one another better.

We will never know of course, and Rodney went in the first round, gets to play for a Duke guy in a good organization and realize his dream of playing in the NBA with guaranteed money. Congrats to him and I wish him the very best. I do not begrudge him at all for going, and certainly don't feel he made a bad decision to go.

I just understand your overall point that some players do lock in on the decision to go way early in the process and make it more difficult to decide maybe its a better idea to stay in college ball one more season to improve, once the time comes to make the final decision.

[ncexnyc]

Based on a couple of reports that were posted I thought Rodney would have went in the late teens, however once you throw in all these kids from overseas he slipped several notches.

It doesn't really matter though. Rodney will get to prove just how good he is and he'll make a nice living for himself.

[Edouble]

Based on a couple of reports that were posted I thought Rodney would have went in the late teens, however once you throw in all these kids from overseas he slipped several notches.

It doesn't really matter though. Rodney will get to prove just how good he is and he'll make a nice living for himself.

That wasn't my take on it at all.

Exum and Saric had been projected to go ahead of Hood for a while. Bruno Caboclo was certainly a shocker, but quite a few of the mock drafts had Jusuf Nurkic going ahead of or right around where Rodney was "supposed" to go, in the mid/late teens.

I thought it was American college players that caused Hood to fall. Zach LaVine shot up like a rocket recently. I also did not expect Jordan Adams, Tyler Ennis, Mitch McGary, Gary Harris, and Adreian Payne to all go ahead of Hood. I thought of those six guys that maybe two would get picked before Hood. Several of those guys were not even in the Green Room.