You still need top tier talent. Unless you get lucky and draft a Jokic or Giannis(and yes those teams absolutely got lucky) you aren’t going to be a contender.

My issue with what you’re saying is that you make it seem like there’s no difference drafting top 5 vs 15th…yes some top 5 picks don’t pan out and some 15th picks become MVPs, but you do realize way more 15th picks don’t pan out right? The draft isn’t a perfect science, even with the best talent evaluators, you’re going to have misses and at 15 your hits might just be ok.

Here’s the 15th picks since Giannis:

Adrian Payne, Kelly Oubre, Juancho Hernangomez, Justin Jackson, Troy Brown Jr, Sekou Demboya, Cole Anthony, Corey Kispert, Mark Williams, Kobe Bufkin

Not exactly great.

Here’s the 5th pick since Giannis:

Dante Exum, Mario Hezonja, Kris Dunn, De’Aaron Fox, Trae Young, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Jalen Suggs, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson.

Some misses, but way better players than the guys taken 15th. The 3 best are easily in that 5th pick group…Mark Williams is the only one at 15 I’d put in the top 8.

And the higher you go up, the better the hit rate gets.