Easy there...... this is not a Nolan bashing post, but a post about how the decision to draft him affected our season.

We came into the 2011 draft needing two things, a backup point guard and a backup power forward. We decided to draft Nolan believing that he could step right in and be that backup point guard and went out and signed a couple old guys to fill our needs at reserve big spot. Having both Wallace and Batum gave us flexibility at the four spot because they both needed minutes, so drafting Nolan made some sense there over Faried.

We picked up Crawford to give us some firepower off the bench and we were set. This was going to be an exciting season. Everything started fine, but in this lockout shortened season we were playing a pretty tight rotation and Crawford was playing the backup point guard. Where is Nolan? Well, it turns out that our Plug and play 4 yr player from Duke, wasn't as ready as we all imagined. In fact it seems he isn't ready at all!

This one miscalculation single handedly unraveled our season. Like the butterfly effect or a loose nut on a machine it had disastrous effects. Not having someone to guide our second unit led not only to abysmal bench production but to the worst statistical seasons ever for Crawford( playing out of position) and Mathews( never getting the ball in scoring position. See Crawford at PG) The pressure continued to build as performance spiraled. with losing comes blame and there was plenty of both. Eventually the dam broke and we found ourselves where we are today. A rebuilding franchise with a lot of hope but not much direction.

I can only imagine what this season would have been like had we drafted Faried and picked up a proven backup PG. I think it could have been a great season.