Charles Matthews declares for NBA Draft without an agent

I’ll be very curious to see what JB’s comments are when it is announced

I doubt he says anything that can be construed as negative. But I doubt he is anywhere close to happy.

Deep down (and he would never admit it), there is no way in hell he can be supportive of this.

There is no information that suggests this is a good idea. In fact there is a mountain of evidence that says this is a horrible decision.

I guess I expected more and am baffled that his team of people behind him would think this is a good idea.

Also if there is some supposed second round guarantee (which seems laughable), just wait until other players that are overall better players falls in the draft and see how that guarantee stands up.

This whole thing sounds like he never was interested in coming back in general. Why not just announce with an agent and let the program move on. Now Michigan has likely missed the chance to get any grad transfers because of having to wait this long for a decision that was already made long ago.

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I wish him the best, hope he proves us wrong, and expect him to represent Michigan well professionally. I also won’t feel much sympathy if he (as expected) goes undrafted given that it really doesn’t make much sense career-wise.

The other early entry second round guys that were listed earlier in this thread I really think you can look back and say “eh, he probably had a maxed out value at that point anyways.” I very much don’t think this is the case with Matthews.

We’ll see what happens… nothing is final until it’s actually announced.

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I’m actually curious when people say “go make money playing basketball”. Outside of Charles, literally from an outside perspective in general, if you go undrafted, couldn’t you make the argument it’s actually worse for you financially?

You go from getting housing and food for free to paying for housing and food on a 40-50k salary? I would assume cost of living eats that up really quick depending where your g league affiliate is.

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On Villanova’s mixture of experience and talent

We’ve been able to get in that situation – like with Muhhamad-Ali, he was so underrated. Jay’s been able to do it with highly rated guys. And that’s something that – I think it’s every coach’s dream and there’s a bunch of redshirts out there.

And they saw a championship team two years ago. They said let’s just work and get better. So many young men are in a hurry to get out of the best years of their life. I think he recruits – escape from the best years of your life, that doesn’t make sense sometimes.

And Villanova has done a great job of getting the right kid who probably values that. And we try to as well. I mean, we’ve really done a good job, I think, doing that. But every situation is unique. We’ve had some guys go pro that I think, yes, you should go because this is a great thing for you right now. But others have stayed around. And those that stayed around are usually very happy they stayed around

These were some comments after the National Ttitle Game.

I interpreted that as some frustration with some of these decisions.

I’ll be disappointed if Matthews goes as a fan, but wholly supportive of him and his career choice, hoping to see him get drafted. I wouldn’t blame him one bit for trying to make a career out of playing basketball and I think the stuff he needs to work on, while would be developed well under Coach B here, of course, can also be done with a pro staff. I’m very excited to watch him progress as a player and person regardless of his decision.

Also if you believe there is value in getting a college education as I believe most of us do, there is that, too. Room, board and an invaluable, and frankly, world class education. But there is the lure and the allure of the NBA, and everyone seems to say, “You gotta do it now! You can’t wait one more year. You’ll be too old (at 21!). Strike while the iron is hot,” even when it really may not be hot enough right now.

The truth is, Charles is very confidant in his abilities and he will do what he does. No matter how much we think it may be in his best interests to come back for one more year, it really doesn’t matter. If HE believes it’s in his best interest and if he WANTS to come back, he will. If he doesn’t believe or want those things then it is probably best that he goes pro, and I’ll certainly wish him the best of luck with that. We’ll know soon enough. In about two more days.

As for JB, he certainly KNOWS in his heart that it’s best for Charles that he comes back, but if Charles doesn’t want to come back, then JB will wish him well, and he will then know in his heart that it’s best for Charles to go. JB wants kids at Michigan who WANT to be at Michigan. And believe me, there will not be one negative comment from JB. He’ll just go to work, as he always does.

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Oh absolutely. I 100% fully agree with your last paragraph as well.

My comment was more in general, using this case as an example. I just get tired of hearing the “can’t blame ‘player x’ if they want to go get paid to play” argument. I think that’s fully valid if a player is a lock to get drafted. I don’t think that comment makes sense if a player is at risk of going undrafted.

You’re not really getting paid if you’re a G Leaguer. You’d need the two way contract (like D Walt) to validate the money argument.

I fully support and root for whatever Charles Matthews or any Michigan player decides to do. In Charles case, I’m more in the “surprised” category if he does declare. Putting aside whatever is best for his NBA future, the financial aspect to it is even more risky if he declares.

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I think an important reference point for CM is Derrick Walton. Walton went undrafted but played well in a summer league. Then he ended up with the heat on a two-way contract which pays 100K or so (I believe, not sure). From CM’s perspective, that could be a decent outcome. And he probably believes that he’s a better player than DW, or at least a player with more upside. So maybe that’s the path that he sees for himself and perhaps a couple of teams have encouraged this.

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That’s fair, though they play different positions so it’s a tough comparison. I mean, certainly he’s far more athletic, but as a 6-6 wing player he has to be.

Derrick was playing at an All American level when he finished his college career. CM had a strong finish to the year, but wasn’t nearly at that level.

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plus Derick was invited to the combine

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Excellent segment on Sam’s show this morning on Michigan Insider on Sports Radio 1050 WTKA. I’m listening to the podcast right now. Two thirds of it was on Charles with nothing really new but just kind of a voice of reason on the whole thing. The remainder of the show is about other B1G players who have decisions to make. If you have 18-20 minutes and can get the podcast it’s worth a listen. If you only have 12 minutes or so, skip the ad for Suburban Chevrolet and just listen to the segment on Charles. I hope it’s OK for me to post this. If not, Dylan just delete it.

Unfortunately this has all played out in the way to most screw Michigan. Everyone presumed Matthews was coming back and now this late decision means we’re going to be left with two empty chairs with the grad transfer market dried up.

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Honestly, I’d rather go with what we have.

JB doesn’t play a big rotation anyway, and it takes time to learn our offense. Jaaron Simmons was supposed to step in and start at the point for us - obviously that didn’t happen, and we’re lucky he’s a high character kid, because his lack of playing time might have caused someone else to become upset and impact team chemistry.

You figure all of the following players will for sure be part of the rotation: Simpson, Poole, Iggy, Teske, Livers, and Johns. Between Castleton and Davis, at least one will see minutes at center. So now we’re up to 7, with DeJulius, Brooks and Nunez all unaccounted for. I would think at least two of them play, if not all three.

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2019-2020 National Champions!

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Not to mention, Ibi might have stuck it out if he knew that Matthews was leaving and there was an avenue to more playing time.

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I don’t even think me saying this is coming from being selfish as a fan of the team – Charles going pro is just not a good decision. To go pro when there is seemingly a low likelihood that he will be drafted isn’t wise. With that said, if he really wants to leave that badly and has his mind set on no longer being at Michigan, it is probably for the best that he does so.

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Today is the day, right? Charles has to decide?

Yeah, I don’t think it’s fans being selfish at all. I fully supported Darius Morris, Hardaway, Burke, Stauskas, McGary, GR3, Wilson and Wagner all going pro early. It made sense. They were all first round picks or early second round picks at worst. So I can’t ever fault someone who is going to be drafted for going out and making money. And for some of them, their stock would never be higher than it was at the time they left. It just made sense. Matthews is a completely different situation. His odds of being drafted are very low this year, but he has a lot of upside to improving his draft stock if he returns for another year and improves his shooting and ball handling.

You’re being selfish if you’re responding directly to his social media channels to tell him how you feel about his decision. If you are just personally frustrated than you are fine.

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Oh I agree. Nobody besides his family, coaches and advisors should be directly talking to him about this stuff. I never really understand the folks who message these kids directly with their opinions and criticisms. There is a difference between expressing frustrations and opinions on a message board versus directly messaging the player on social media

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