Caleb Houstan to remain in NBA Draft

There must be some MSU Alum with decision making power in an NBA front office

I don’t know that lacks touch in the mid-range is entirely fair

He took a lot of them. Don’t think he made a lot of them

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Yep, and yet he’s still in the draft. I’m sorry but it just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m guessing there are a few others of us who share that view, too. I mean I hope he gets drafted but I really just don’t understand the urgency of the NBA to take him now when, according to almost all accounts, he’s just not ready, and according to the sound of this, may not be, at least for a while

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Thought parts of that were a bit unfair/jump to conclusions. Citing stats from a weekend of EYBL, for example. I’m almost positive there’s a bigger sample out there.

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I think citing EYBL is a bit unfair, but I have been sharing their general conclusion for some time.

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I kind of think it’s more like ā€œeverā€ to be honest.

Obviously he can improve, but right now he’s an effective catch and shoot spot up shooter, and that’s it. I can’t think of an NBA rotation player who has that offensive profile who is not also a defensive demon.

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I think it’s as simple as he’d rather be a professional basketball player than anything else. He went to Monteverde. He played for the Canadian team. He’s been preparing for this for a long time. Probably just wants to dedicate all his time to his craft. Hope it works out. Even if he’s out of the NBA in a few years, he will likely be getting paid to play basketball somewhere in the world over the next ten years.

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Lazy analysis gets a lazy comment :face_vomiting:

Latest projections for Thunder .

6/4

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Some interesting notes here from Michael Cohen. The stuff around Diabate’s financial situation is a huge factor. I posted some stories on his upbringing in another thread.

I’ll be fascinating to see where Houstan is picked. Despite the mom talk, he is working with a pretty notable agent which makes me think he has at least some valuable insight. I worry about guys who work with friend/relative type of agents a lot more.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2022/06/06/michigan-basketball-why-houstan-and-diabate-stayed-nba-draft/7525550001/

• His mother: A league source told the Free Press that Houstan’s mother, Andrea, was one of the driving forces behind his decision. The source said Andrea was glossing over feedback from people more qualified to make evaluations of Houstan’s draft stock — people who likely encouraged Houstan to return to school — and instead clung to the idea that her son was rated among the best high school players in the country before committing to Michigan. A source close to the U-M program who has been privy to Houstan’s decision-making process confirmed the account of overly heavy-handed guidance from his mother.

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I mean, from all the available evidence, seems like she’s going to be proven right about his draft stock (unless she’s expecting him to be a lottery pick).

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Agents are not in the business of advising basketball players to return to college.
There are a bunch of players who wash out, and the world keeps moving. And there really isn’t a negative to it because there is hardly any value in staying in school and getting a degree.
Coincidentally asked an agent what he thought of Houstan leaving just yesterday. This guy is representing a couple of projected draft picks
as well as a couple of current nba players. His comments:
ā€œ Lots of guys really rolling the dice.ā€
ā€œI blame the agents.ā€
ā€œ Kids and parents are so impatient now a days.ā€

I will never say it’s a bad decision for a player to leave school who has little interest in going to college.

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Definitely think this is true, especially in the tier of top-30 recruits who didn’t really light the world on fire. Houstan, Watson, Baldwin, Davison and Christie all fit in that tier for different reasons and are all mocked roughly in that 25-45 range.

Suspect they’ll still come off the board before a lot of guys who are a) clearly better basketball players right now but also b) a lot older.

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anybody that drafts caleb and defense is part of the reason should not be employed by an nba team

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I hope all of this works out and obviously returning to school isn’t necessarily a risk-free option either. Sadly, I see statements like the one about Houstan’s mom all the time even at lower-level travel athletics. There was a boy on my son’s first ever travel baseball team who left our program because his parents thought he was too talented for our level of play and they changed teams every year for four straight looking for the ā€œright fitā€ for his talent. Now he’s out of the sport because he both lost interest and wasn’t nearly as good as his parents thought he was.

We all do things for our kids to optimize their experiences and it is really hard with so many potential options these days that didn’t exist when I was a kid. With that being said, I’ve often tried to make sure that my kids will enjoy the experience as much as they will benefit from it. If they’re good enough, it will all work out. If they hate the experience, it won’t matter if they’re good enough because they won’t put in the effort.

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Can you give a quick summary of MD financial situation? Basically needs money and can’t get it from NIL? Some of us refuse to pay to get past the freep paywall :wink:

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Never had much of a place to live in Paris. Moved around a lot. Someone helped get him to the US and he bounced around prep schools. Don’t think he saw his family (or really anyone) during COVID, just stayed at IMG. Basically, a $500k two-way deal would be lifechanging for his family.

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Sure wish there was a way for NIL to get that done for him and his family (not just so he could stay at Michigan, but as a general concept for collegiate athletes that are making other people rich, and yes I know there are additional complications due to citizenship status).

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Yeah sure seems like this is exactly where NIL should be used. Too bad.

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