+1
I hope he has a fantastic year and this is a topic at the end of the season. I can't imagine him having that kind of season without us having a big year at the same time. So I'm all for it.
Getting to the NCAA Tournament and putting players in the NBA is what it's all about for any program. Those are huge selling points for our program. We haven't done either in 10+ years. Eddie Griffin and Sam Dalembert were 14 years ago and 11 for Andre Barrett; when the current recruits were little kids.
I don't begrudge any college player who leaves to pursue a professional career. College will always be there. Yes, I know it's free while on scholarship, but if they do leave and are successful overseas or wherever, the cost of eventually completing the balance of their degree shouldn't be a big deal at all. The whole idea is to make money to live, so whichever way you do that, God bless you.
He does need to be judicious in which avenue he pursues though.
nba first round selections are proven failures by gms and team executives; just look at lottery selections from 00-present let alone the rest of the first round, a lot of these dudes don't see 2nd and 3rd contracts with escalated years and salary because they never should have been picked in the inflated drafts to begin with...look at someone like shane larkin, drafted middle of the first round, came out early, undersized can't defend bigger guards and can't do any one thing exceptionally well on the offensive end, rookie deal runs out i really thought he was going to have to go to europe or china but then nets offered 2 years at 3 mil total
as for the shu guys from pirates past, eddie yeah most def was top 3-6 talent in that draft class maybe with the most upside highest ceiling and personal demons and crisis got the best of him and unfortunately is longer with us, sam def maximized is nba longevity with that second deal with the sixers which they had to give him at that time period given the climate of that cba window, great back end of the first round value with immediate defensive impact and anything on offense was gravy, he was an in demand guy
dre proved he totally could play when he had that 04-05 run with the rockets when two of their contracted guards were out with injuries, he really got the shaft on not getting a fair shake after that and i thought he was more deserving than his other cups of coffee with raptors and magic, remember that draft class portland took telfair high and someone as accomplished as jameer nelson fell to 20s, and wasn't he top finalists for all the players of the year in college awards that season?
recently look at guys like jimmer fredette, def not lottery talent, team makes a pick and now he is nbdl, 15/16 guy on an nba roster
look back at 2001 nba draft, of the top 28 picks (all first round) only 5 were at least one all-star team plus one all-nba team and they are still active (pau, joe johnson, z randolph, chandler and tony parker) only one other player was at least a one-time all-star gerald wallace then you have the group that had serviceable careers - sammy d, r jefferson, j richardson, shane battier, troy murphy, jamaal tinsley, jason collins, haywood
so 50 percent was the success rate
let's go to 2007 draft which was the draft of the gators that won back-to-back (first team since duke in 90s) of 30 first round picks 3 players have been at least one nba all-star selection plus one all-nba team and out of the 60 picks in the draft total you can tack on a 4th who was picked in middle of 2nd round (marc gasol) after that you have some current rotation players, a few role guys, one guy in jail and the rest in d league overseas or not playing ball professionally
