I don’t see how it matters. They clearly thought much more of Reed than the did Bell. Thus if they were hearing chatter that Reed would get picked soon after their pick than I don’t see the problem with just taking the player you prefer at that spot.
Also I would point out that we haven’t gotten a fair chance to see what Reed is capable of yet. Let’s see what we have over the next year or two before we make the determination that we made the wrong pick.
Not too long ago there were people calling Jackson a bust and saying we should have taken Markennan, Fox or DSJ over him. However now I think it is fair to say that there are far less of those people now that Jackson is starting to come along. Bottom line is we need to be patient with these young guys.
We are talking about second round picks here, not early first round picks.
My thoughts were the Suns should have picked BPA at #32 in the the 2017 draft. I guess it can be argued that Reed was just that, but the scouting services did not have him going there. Also he had problems with his knee in college. I think this should have pushed him further back in the second round with high potential candidates still available.
The point I was trying to make, I believe the Suns might be overly influenced by what other teams are thinking. Of course this is only opinion but if it were true, this might be an explanation why Ennis and Reed were drafted where they were. It's only a theory.
Let me be clear, I want Reed to be successful. I just didn't think it was the right strategy to draft him this early in the second round. Hopefully he overcomes the physical and mental hurdles of coming back from another injury to his left knee.
