Should The Clippers Use The 2016 NBA Draft As A Powerball Ticket Or A Scratch Off?

The question posed in the title — do the Clippers want a powerball ticket or a scratch off — gets at the crux of their NBA draft strategy. At the backend of this year’s first round there are two types of players: rotation players and boom or bust picks. Brice Johnson, Taurean Prince, Malik Beasley, and DeAndre Bembry (who would also double the number of “DeAndres” on the team) are all roughly the same level of “solid”; they will, at the very least, contribute to an NBA franchise off the bench, but we shouldn’t expect them to do a lot more. On the other end of the spectrum there is Zhou Qi, Ivica Zubac, and Cheick Diallo. These foreign big men have varying degrees of footage readily available, are extremely raw, and have ideal physical foundations to become substantial NBA-level contributors — the question is whether or not they will ever build on those foundations and contribute.

…