That’s awesome. Livers is a very bright, insightful guy to listen to. That will be cool to hear him interviewed by you guys.
FWIW, we as in the whole Michigan beat. Not we as in UM Hoops.
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Send the transcript to Stefanski, please.
Taking a step back, we all knew Livers was going to put his name out there for evaluation. So this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone!
With that said, I felt confident Isaiah was going to have a solid March, CRUSH the in-person interviews, and move confidently into the 2nd round on many teams’ boards. I don’t know how he does that now…
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Ah I thought he was making a special appearance on the next Moving Screen pod. Probably will be a little less insightful in a presser-type setting full of beat reporters. Still interesting nonetheless though
Yeah, I agree with you, the move makes sense for Livers. My personal guess is that he’s a 2nd rounder, but at the very least he should see what the official feedback is. If he’s a 2nd rounder like I am guessing than he just has to decide if now is the time or he wants to come back and improve his stock.
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Except the people who do it for a living 
Matthews (and maybe DJ?) was better. I think he would’ve been drafted in the 2nd round, if not for his ACL blowout.
Zoom press conference?
Just a teleconference.
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Happy for Livers he deserves a shot and will get one apparently. I think he’s first round all the way, another Michigan basketbal success story.
An all-time favorite M player, one of the most personable and positive guys we’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. It’s become commonplace, but I regret that we never get to see so many players hit their stride.
There may be silver linings for a guy like Isaiah if the NBA eval process is foreshortened. Few teams will worry about temperament or work ethic.
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I’m sure Livers has been getting plenty of feedback from Iggy, Poole, Moe and Duncan about the process and what it’s like in the G-League etc. If you put yourself in Livers’ shoes I think it’d be incredibly hard to watch your 4 buddies in the league making money and decide to come back to play another year of college basketball.
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I too am from the side that this has been in the works for awhile. I would love it if he came back though. I too believe that the interaction with Juwan when he came out of the game on senior night was a signal. Of course at that time they thought they had a post season to play.
Yeah, agreed. IMO though a good chunk of second-rounders get multi-year deals now. Even if he goes undrafted, you have to feel good about a 6-7 guy who shot 42% in college catching on with a team, save for the fact that there may not be summer league, in-person workouts, or any of the other offseason events that help you showcase yourself. I don’t know how that might impact things. It could be that for the end of the bench the NBA sticks with more proven commodities this year.
I used to get more worked up by these types of decisions because I wanted what I thought was best for the player and for Michigan. I started to learn that those two things are impossible to determine except for that individual. And even then you’ll probably never know. I still think Darius Morris made a mistake, but he hung around the NBA for a while and Burke played well as a freshman. I thought DJ, Poole, and Iggy left a year too early and yet they were all drafted and got decent contracts to start their careers.
I think Livers went into this season thinking he was headed to the NBA and he still hopes that to be true. It is easy to armchair QB and say that he’d benefit from coming back to captain a talented team, show he’s healthy, show he can be the 3-and-D the guy will use him as, and get some march headlines. But I’m sure he believes he’s good enough for the NBA and ready for some income.
Personally, the fact that overseas leagues may not be the safety net they were in past years, the draft process will be limited, and he has a chance to end his college career on a higher note next season - I’d advise him to return. But he didn’t ask me. And if he asks Poole, or Iggy, or DJ they probably would suggest he leave.
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That is True
Also, while I’ve no doubt that the best possible option at the 4 next year is senior Livers, it really helps to know that we have two really excellent candidates to soak up the minutes in Johns and Todd.
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We have the worst luck with this stuff, but damn this really should play out in our favor. Livers isn’t on anyone’s radar as a 1st round pick, he missed a ton of time due to injury and he’s not going to be able to improve his stock in workouts. Right now he’s a very good shooter who can’t guard at the NBA level. That was good enough for Duncan so maybe its good enough for Livers.
Would he have the same opportunities to shine on a more talented roster and no surefire player that creates shots for others?
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