I mean, Devin Booker averaged 20 mpg. Don’t sleep on Cal making terrible line up decisions.
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Idk Cal has made lineup decisions based off recruiting promises (IIRC he even straight up admitted it in a postgame presser once) and NBA draft hype over winning in the past. Mini Peja has more obvious NBA upside due to the size advantage. Reed would probably have to outplay him by a considerable amount to get PT over him.
Don’t underestimate how much more Cal values the draft than any other college coach.
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I can’t think of another reason Brandon Boston played as much as he did.
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He wasn’t trying to take anybody’s heart away, obviously.
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I think a factor that rankings and scouts are unable to account for is that Jamie gets UVA. He understands what UVA is. He understands what UVA could do for him. He understands what is required for him to be successful if he came here. I think that alone boosts him 70 spots in the rankings if he ever gets on grounds as a Hoo.
@UVApride7 put it perfectly. In a vacuum he wouldn’t be my number 1 choice (I like long wingspan wings and 1-2 combo guards) but still a really solid option with that opportunity to be really special (Klay Thompson/Joe Harris/Johnny Davis special). But when you take into account where we are, what our roster will look like, the current college basketball climate, and our needs he’s a perfect fit. And I think it’s vice versa in that we are the perfect fit for his needs both athletically and academically.
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To top it off I’d rather have a bird in the hand early these days, rather than waiting and hoping for a late summer recruit to pop on the radar. We don’t need to be the bridesmaid anymore.
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Agreed, in part because that early commitment can be our best recruiter like Isaac M.
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I’m the resident Kaiser naysayer. Lacks the lateral quickness and has long shooting motion. Let’s pump the brakes on a player comp to a Top 76 All-Time NBA team guy.
I think he’s a fine addition. Just with the transfer portal the way it is, he’s got to be a day 1 contributor off the bench. Otherwise by Year 2 we’re looking in the portal for a piece that’s already developed or he’s looking elsewhere.
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I guess I would ask: who would you take instead that fits the role the staff likes that he fills?
Also I don’t think he’s a portal candidate because again he gets UVA
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Here’s an unpopular take. Almost nobody is good in college until they are actually good in college. It’s a basic take but it’s true. You can Be great in AAU and great in high school and still be mediocre in college or hardly play at all. So some guys are guaranteed to be awesome because of their skills and size - like Paolo Banchero or Zion or most 5 star guys. But we do t get those guys usually. And most guys have to prove it befor we should believe it. We all loved Jabri and Reece when they signed, and the reports of Igor and others. And sometimes you are good but the guy ahead of you is 5% better at what the coach wants out of that position so he plays a ton. It’s skill and size and “fit” for that particular season or that circumstance. It not linear. And dont forget injuries which we have been lucky to avoid the last two seasons- but they happen. And someone gets a chance and they either perform or they don’t. Every kid that comes to UVA is really really good- they may not get a chance, or they may not fit the need for that season. Just rambling but I am at a conference that isn’t that interesting so thought I would chime in.
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Always makes me remember first time I met/ got to know Ty’s dad @Marktykobe … He sincerely just hoped his son would carve out minutes at UVa over his 4 years. Number 11 turned HIMself into a dang pro…
Its really hard at that level to come in a be real immediately and not always 100 percent under the player’s control
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I don’t think you’re rambling at all. I think that’s a brilliant line. We talk way too much about recruitment and not nearly enough about development. What most players bring to college is potential. It doesn’t mean a damn thing if you can’t develop it.
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I think that we are lucky that it seems the 2022 guys “get it” and I get the feeling that Buchanan does also. Hopefully a year from now we will feel the same way about the entire 2023 class. I think that TB is taking that into consideration with his current recruiting and it seems Getter is excellent at establishing relationships with these guys.
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I’m pro-naysayer, and nay-prosayer so I support your stance, though I don’t really know enough to have much of a take. If he lacks latera quickness, that could be an issue, but I can’t really evaluate that well, tbh. My guess is the thought with Kaiser is he’s the type of solidly built athlete that Texas Tech has built their #1 defense around (McCullar, Shannon, Arms, etc.). They have like 5 athletic, aggressive 6’6" dudes flying around the court. So the floor seems like a real solid glue guy who could be very useful in the packline, and the shot gives him an upside.
And I’m sort of with you on the portal worry, but I think Kaiser comes with some portal insurance: in-state and has said UVa is his dream school. The portal risk is always there if guys don’t play, but it seems (perhaps) a bit less in his case.
I am not necessarily disagreeing – obviously hard work and development from age 17-20/21 or so made Ty a pro – but if you look at the NBPA mixtape from his junior summer, it’s mostly all there: the range, the craftiness in the lane, the nice height, etc. IMO, it’s (mostly) fixing the stuff that gets cut out of the mixtape that takes guys from potential pros to actual pros. Dre was roasting Miles Bridges and Josh Jackson in high school, too…
(also, warning - blasphemy incoming - I thought the Isaac squared just okay performance at NBPA made me ever so mildly nervous … edit: potential rebuttal material below for Isaac T. I can’t find one for Isaac M)
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New article on Maryland site that says Maryland is his dream offer.
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The kind of dream where you take too much and the floor becomes the ungraspable void of terror.
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Ha! Yeah, you can only put so much stock in this stuff. So cross out the “dream school” stuff in my post above and insert “great student”. It’s not a lot, but it’s still some portal insurance.
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We should stop recruiting him just for that blasphemy. Even Kevin Plank wishes he could’ve spent his college years somewhere that wasn’t College Park!
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