I ran across this article on ESPN.com from Ric Bucher.  I thought this was a great article as it lends perspective to draft strategy from a solid franchise.  A few things really stood out to me.  One is that mantra that San Antonio brass followed of "Character not characters", meaning to draft players with high character and intangibles rather than somebody who is more interested in their sponsors and brand.   The other is that franchises don't expect to hit a home run with every pick.  You want to be able to target and draft players who will have productive careers... you don't have to land a star every time... But with this rule, you do need to take full advantage of high lottery picks.

Portland has really been focusing on "Character not characters" since the KP era began.  Also, Portland has done a great job in drafting players with high lottery picks (Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden) and done a great job at finding solid contributors later in drafts (Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez, Nic Batum)... Portland now only really needs to add players who can contribute to team as a role player... of course they could always find that diamond in the rough too.  When you manuever in a draft to grab a player like Jerryd Bayless who is workout warrior gym rat type kid... you know your GM is working to find winners who want to work hard.  At this point, I am completely confident in Kevin Pritchard's team to improve the Blazers this offseason.

 Here is that article:

The San Antonio Spurs are proof that drafting well may be less about consistently identifying great talent than having the patience and persistence to develop whatever great talent you find.

 

 

Despite having had only four of their last 19 draft picks play significant minutes for the franchise, the Spurs are the best drafting team over the past 20 years, according to our analytical assessment. That's because those four draft picks were Tim Duncan (19.29 estimated wins added), Tony Parker (9.45 EWA), Manu Ginobili (6.93 EWA) and Beno Udrih (1.33 EWA), players taken over the widest draft spectrum imaginable -- from Duncan at No. 1 to Ginobili at No. 57. All four players exceeded the expected value of their draft slot. Only Udrih is no longer with the franchise, and that was after three seasons in which he contributed to two championships.

 

 

D. Clarke Evans/Getty ImagesThe Spurs' big three are a product of San Antonio's brilliant approach to the draft.

 

 

"What the Spurs' draft record demonstrates is that you can't hit a home run every time," says David Kahn, the Minnesota Timberwolves' newly hired GM. "And everybody hits one once in a while. What they've avoided is striking out with the bases loaded, as in making a mistake at the top of the draft."

 

 

Only twice in the past 20 years have the Spurs had a lottery pick, and they made good use of both. The Duncan pick in '97 was huge. And in 1989, they grabbed Sean Elliott. His 2.38 EWA didn't fulfill expectations for his draft slot, but it was far better than Pervis Ellison (1.61), who went first to the Kings and Danny Ferry (0.49), who went second to the Clippers. In fact, of the top 10 picks in that forgettable '89 draft, only Glen Rice (who went to Miami at No. 4) met the expected EWA for his slot, and Elliott's career was far more productive than the likes of J.R. Reid, Stacey King, George McCloud and Randy White who followed. In other words, in Elliott's case, a pick that looks like a disappointment based on our methodology still could have been much, much worse.

 

 

Ferry, now GM of the Cavaliers, played and worked under Spurs coach/VP Gregg Popovich before being tapped to run the Cleveland franchise. He credits San Antonio's emphasis of character over characters as a major factor in why their best draft choices have thrived. The Spurs have made incremental, rather than drastic, overhauls of the roster. They've also consistently had a core of no-nonsense veterans, from Terry Cummings to David Robinson to Avery Johnson, to demonstrate the necessary focus and work ethic to incoming rookies.

 

 

"You have to have fertile ground," says Ferry. "You can have great talent, but you put it among rocks and weeds, it's not going to develop. Being 20-something and trying to figure out the league is hard enough. Now you constantly put him in a different style with a different group of players around him, it makes it only harder."

 

 

A glance at top drafting teams over the past two decades reveals a common trait: stability in leadership and philosophy. Popovich and GM RC Buford have both been with the team since 1994, sharing the same slow-growth philosophy. The next-best drafting teams, the Lakers and Suns, are also on a Vatican timetable when it comes to leadership changes. The Lakers' Jerry West was succeeded by his longtime right-hand man, Mitch Kupchak; the Suns' Jerry Colangelo was succeeded by his son, Bryan.

 

 

If the Spurs haven't taken the dip the other two teams have in win-loss records, it's because they've had the same coach, Popovich, for 13 of the past 20 years. That means less guesswork about what kind of player will thrive in their system, which is the exact opposite of what the Clippers, the worst-drafting team, have dealt with.

 

 

"They know what kind of talent works for Pop," says Ferry.

 

 

The Spurs were also one of the first teams to explore and mine overseas talent. Parker was playing in France when San Antonio made him the 28th pick in 2001. Ginobili, who hails from Argentina, was also playing in Europe when the Spurs made him the next-to-last pick in the '99 draft.

 

 

"They were one of the first to see the value of European and South American players for their work ethic and experience from starting to play professionally at an early age," says Kahn. "They weren't alone, but they were on the front tier."

 

 

San Antonio was also patient. Ginobili stayed in Europe three more years, developing his game, before joining the Spurs in 2002 and instantly helping them to a championship.

 

 

For all that, there was some luck involved as well. The Spurs had the second-worst record in 1997 behind Boston but slipped past the Celtics in the lottery for the No. 1 pick to get Duncan. Ginobili was too raw in '99 for anyone to think he'd become one of the all-time top-five foreign players -- "They took a flier on him," says one source -- and the Spurs pursued free agent point guard Jason Kidd in 2003 and planned to deal Parker to make room. Kidd, however, chose to re-sign with New Jersey.

 

 

So, all in all, they've made sensible decisions at the top of the draft and did the necessary homework to get ahead of the curve on a couple of long shots. It's a philosophy that Ferry and Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti, both products of the San Antonio organization, are now implementing.

 

 

Which means San Antonio could have competition for the best draft record over the next 20 years.

 

 

Ric Bucher is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Insider.