Charles mathews

Have you no faith in the Eli Brooks phenomenon?

I’m not sure what to make of him or x. Both could be balling and ready to go. I just really like the roster and would hate to see it fall short
Cause of inexperienced guard play. Maybe they will be ready. But if there is a good grad transfer and no five star or elite recruit it might be something to think about

nbadraft.net has Charles Matthews and D.J. Wilson being drafted in 2018 2nd round at 46 and 49. Thoughts. Is this realistic and/or possible?

My thought: It is ridiculous to project the second round two years from now.

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I suppose when the website has pigeon-holed themselves into only talking about one event, they have to stretch the content as much as they can.

Speaking of which, when can we expect the Central Arkansas preview? :slight_smile:

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They are both NBA players. Where they get drafted is anybody’s guess, but they both will get the opportunity to show what they’ve got. If Matthews shows any type of a consistent jump shot to go along with his athleticism and defense, he will be drafted. D.J. has a longer way to go, but 6’10 guys who are athletic and can shoot don’t grow on trees. He needs to be much more consistent but he has the tools NBA teams love.

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I wouldn’t put any thought into NBADraft.net’s predictions. It’s way too early to predict…just to put things into perspective, at one point or another it had Zak Irvin going in first round of draft, Aubrey Dawkins end of 1st/early 2nd and now they are nowhere to be found on their top 60.

SKnight

“We need Charles ready to come in and play that Tim Hardaway, Caris LeVert role,” Beilein said. Asked if he thought Matthews would be able to do so, Beilein said, “Oh yeah, he’s going to be able to do that.”

It feels notable that he mentioned Hardaway and Levert as the comps. Both guards as opposed to mentioning someone like Stauskas who played wing.

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Hardaway played the wing early in his career, not sure that you can read that much into that.

Based on what I’ve seen from Matthews and Wilson, I wouldn’t project either being a second round pick next year.
Matthews hardly played last season and he won’t play at all this season. Suffice to say, he has much to prove.
Wilson… I dunno what to make of him. He’s not a freak athlete, and he not imposing physically. He can do some things, but I don’t see many DJ Wilson types playing in the NBA. I kind of see him maxing out as a good college player, and will be pleasantly surprised if he turns into a NBA draft pick

Now the caveat that it’s automatically generated and I’m not sure exactly how his algorithm works applies but kenpom listed Stauskas as our 2 for 2014. I can’t remember if that’s right or not but I really don’t think Beilein’s phrasing there is something to read into.

I think Caris and Tim would be the more natural comps for another two reasons - (1) while Tim and particularly Caris could shoot the 3, neither was the absolute lights out shooter that Nik was, and Matthews is not going to be either, and (2) Nik was the B1G player of the year and a lottery pick - while Matthews might reach that level, it’s a pretty high bar to set.

Nik had better guard skills in terms of ballhandling and passing than Caris and THJr.

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Matthews at the three seems to make sense to me. He can slash plenty there, but MAAR is probably going to be the starting two-guard as a senior.

If you slot Matthews into the three then you have him as the starter in Irvin’s place and Duncan backing up that spot.

Then slot Livers at the backup four, Poole at the backup two, Eli at the backup point guard. There are ways to potentially match these guys up like X with Poole or Eli with MAAR, etc. where you get one shooter and one slasher on the floor.

Don’t think Stauskas has better ball handling skills than Levert. I’m not even convinced on passing skills being in Stauskas favor.

Nik had the ball on a rope, while Caris, a fine dribbler, did not. Caris was quicker though which helped him in isolation sets.

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In that scenario, does Ibi redshirt next season?

Forgot about Ibi, but he’ll fit in there somewhere as well. He’s been playing the three this year and I’d expect he fits in that mix as well. Maybe with a year under his belt he can play 2 or 3?

KenPom determines the position you’re playing based on normal stat profiles + height/weight. All that means was that when Stauskas was playing his stat/body profile most matched the average shooting guard compared to the other players on the court. For comparison, for a lot of this season, it listed DJ Wilson as playing the plurality of Michigan’s minutes at center (down to 14% now), when I think he has only played maybe two total minutes at the center position all year?

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