2014 Draft Prospects Thread

[mrknowitall215]

Embiid staying is a good news. It is a long shot, but if he does and Detroit keeps their pick, we would have an outside shot at either him or Okafor through the Detroit (top 1 protected) pick.

The longer Detroit hold onto Greg Monroe, diminishing his trade value as well as ruining their very own chemistry as a ill-fitting roster, the more that protected 1st rounder owed to Charlotte glimmers, for the Hornets that is

[doc.end]

Yeah and the good thing is some teams worst than them (in standings) will have a better change to get a franchise prospect potentially making them better than the lineup Dumars could assemble next year.

[LamarMatic7]

Joel Embiid 'Strongly Considering' Returning To Kansas For Sophomore Season
http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/23 ... ore-Season

Attaboy. I'd like to see way more raw prospects stay at school for at least one more year. And the crazy part is that Embiid isn't even that raw. Of course, the funny part would be some of the tanking teams now missing out on him.

He could definitely benefit from a development standpoint but when you're guaranteed top 3, its foolish to take the risk and return to school.

Hell, if you're even guaranteed lottery, its generally foolish to take the risk.

Chris Marcus, the center from Western Kentucky (hailing locally from Charlotte no less) is the biggest cautionary tale. About 10-12 year back, he led the nation in rebounding and mocks universally had him going 8-15. He went back to school to work on his game for one more year and sustained a devastating foot injury which derailed his professional career before it ever started.

Now he's back in Charlotte living pay check to pay check working at a grocery store.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3742592

Contrast Marcus' situation to Standford Center Curtis Borchardt who declared for the draft around roughly the same time in 2002 and was drafted 18th overall. He got injured and missed his entire rookie season and was never the same. He washed out of the league but collected the $5.5 million owed to him over the duration of his rookie contract. Even assuming he only netted $2mil of that after taxes, agent etc, thats more than most people earn in a lifetime working any conventional profession.

I'm talking more in the sense of a basketball fan than a human being.

[Diop]

Yeah I don't get why you would return to school if you are guaranteed in the top 10.

Freak injuries are always a risk.

One question I've always wondered - why would you develop better in the College than the NBA?

[Eoghan]

Yeah I don't get why you would return to school if you are guaranteed in the top 10.

Freak injuries are always a risk.

One question I've always wondered - why would you develop better in the College than the NBA?

I don't think you do, honestly. I feel that is a myth perpetrated by the Vitales of the world trying to protect their business. Think about it, how many good coaching staffs are in the NBA, really? Something like 9 head coaches got hired last year in the NBA coaching carousel and that's in the world's best professional league.

Compare that to college where Calipari is considered one of the best coaches in the country. Coach Cal is happy if he just gets his players to shoot on the right baskets and pass to the guys in the right jerseys and play some defense. Enes Kanter played professionally in Turkey and spent an entire year practicing with UK and he isn't fulfilling the hype yet. Bill Self is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in college, had Ben McLemore (someone Larry Brown glowed over, called him "a natural") for two years and he's looking pretty raw, not to mention the long list of Kansas guys that don't do anything in the NBA. Same thing for Duke, they put a good number of players in the NBA but how many stars really?

A lot if not most of these guys could spend 10 years in college and it wouldn't do them any good. College is too different a game to really develop good pros. In football people are aware of the benefits of taking players from schools using pro-style offenses but for some reason in basketball we still think guys drilled in Boeheim's matchup zone or the Princeton offense are just going to magically adjust to the NBA.

[LamarMatic7]

Yeah I don't get why you would return to school if you are guaranteed in the top 10.

Freak injuries are always a risk.

One question I've always wondered - why would you develop better in the College than the NBA?

Because there isn't that much time for day-to-day practice in the pros. You would mostly go through your plays and have shoot-arounds during the regular season, while obviously in college there's much more time to work on each player's own game.

I know it sounds like a generalization and is the easy point to make. But I do believe that it is the case with players who come in the league and for some reason (lack of height or speed, rawness, etc.) can't get adjusted to the game. In hindsight, they would have improved more as basketball players if they stayed at the college game and developed their games, not had all their confidence destroyed at the pros.

I think it's a legit argument you can make about one-and-done guys who are in over their heads during their first years in the league.

I'm all for making it compulsory to stay two years at college. There have been too many Tyrus Thomas's in the league in the 2000s.

[dmutombo321]

I do miss the days of being able to draft all star ready rookies in the first several picks of each draft (seasoned college guys like Alonzo Mourning who were 20/10 contributors from day 1).

Now it seems like teams are lucky to find even one of those guys every couple years and more often than not are instead forced to choose from MKG type project players instead.