“The high stakes pressure of professional opportunity is a destructive force that looms over modern college basketball. The intersection of players, family, agents, coaches, trainers and social media is never more than an arm’s length away from even the best teams and programs. Every year, there is a graveyard of teams that felt talented enough to win the whole thing but never quite got there.”
If as fan you couldn’t see that Poole was done with college basketball the last half of this year …?
I’m assuming there’s no visibility into what specific teams chose? If so, what incentive is there for teams to provide honest feedback?
If I’m a scout for a team that only possesses a 2nd round pick, and there’s a player I really want to draft that is considering returning to school, wouldn’t I automatically give him as high of a grade as possible so that he feels more confident in his decision to go pro?
If I’m hoping a player with a first round grade might fall to the 2nd round, could I just give a bunch of fringe prospects 1st round grades in the hopes that more players remain in the draft so there’s more options for teams ahead of me?
I honestly can’t think of any reason a scout would give a player an “undraftable” grade other than just to be honest
There’s no visibility on the form. It’s not anonymous to the NBA office however and the whole point of the process is to provide honest feedback to the players.
Not sure what you’re implying, Chezaroo. I think he was pressing, not tanking or being lazy. Didn’t he want to impress the NBA scouts? What am I missing?
I think there’s lot of unfounded speculation here. I don’t think that JP or his father were negative in their comments, just explaining some of their thinking in regards to staying at Michigan for another year versus going pro. JP was extremely positive and classy in his goodbye comments. I see a kid who worked hard while here, making progress in some areas but with still some work to do. He had infectious enthusiasm and was a great team player, always rooting/cheering from the bench. There were some natural limitations based on the personnel and the college game which might have hampered his production and progress. He had a great career here and was probably the major reason Michigan made it to the Sweet Sixteen both years. Sure it could have gone even better but that’s usually the way it is. It’s a small sample size - he was only 5 or 6 threes from being a 40% 3 point shooter this year. It sounds like JP had a lot of feedback which impacted his decision and it’s presumptuous to second guess him. As he showed many times when taking over games, he clearly has NBA level talent although it needs refinement and consistency. I greatly enjoyed watching him at Michigan and look forward to rooting for him in the future. I, for one, think he will prove many of the doubters wrong.
Haha, I guess you are correct. My point is that many make grand pronouncements about whether somebody is a “great” 3 point shooter or a “so-so” 3 point shooter when the difference is just a few shots in a college season, statistically somewhat random. Anybody who has watched JP throughout his high school and college career would not conclude that he is a “so-so” 3 point shooter based on a handful of misses. But many have made this statement. He is an elite shooter with unusual range.
I wonder what Pooles 3 pt shooting average would have been if we take away the end of half prayers and those times he gets kicked the ball with fewer than 5 seconds on the shot clock.
Maybe its because I am a Poole fan but I seem to remember him taking a fair amount of half court shots at the buzzer and being the last resort very late in the shot clock.
In today’s piece about Poole in the Free Press, Orion Sang–guy who we know and love from umhoops–notes that Poole did “take a number of difficult shots.” Some of those were chuckers and poor choices; sometimes he had the ball late in the game clock and needed to make something happen.
The Sang piece, with Dylan’s, is a reminder to me that Poole remains a pretty darned promising player, and that–it’s true–a small pile more threes would have us seeing his season differently. Don’t think anyone has linked it yet:
I would say, rather, that Poole has an elite 3-point shot. I don’t disagree on that aspect of his game. Part of what constitutes a great shooter in my view is knowing when to shoot, i.e., the difference between a good shot and a bad. The best, most consistent 3-point shooters in college top 40% because they have the stroke and a high basketball IQ to match.
Jordan was often quite poor in his shot selection this year. If he improves his decision making with the ball, no doubt he can be an elite 3-point shooter in the NBA. I hope he does so. As I don’t follow the NBA, however, I won’t notice either way.
I wish my investments worked that way. If, on a hope and a prayer, I make a risky investment and it hits, well, of course I get to keep the gains. But if it fails miserably I get all my money back!
