29- Tim McCormick
25- Bill Buntin
4- Wayman Britt
0- Jon Teske (0-1 shooting, in 3 games)
1 Like
24- Oliver Darden
I finally figured out that you can click on MICHIGAN on basketball reference and it lists all NBA players who played at Michigan. Thatās a lot faster than trying to think up guys and then typing in their name on the Search Bar.
Oops!
There are some more guys who Iāve never heard of but I donāt think we missed any guys who made some noise in the NBA. I think my biggest surprise was seeing that Chris Hunter had a 22 point game.
I hope Bufkin at least gets a double-figure game this season.
3 Likes
That Chris Hunter number was definitely the biggest surprise to me of all of the ones listed. Especially since you posted it right next to tractor trailers career high, which I guess I assumed would have been higher.
The other thing thatās interesting is where Caris falls on this list. If you were to ask a random Michigan fan to name the best NBA players from Michigan, they would probably list all of the guys who have scored over 40 in a game except Caris who sits among those elites, despite being more of a solid NBA player rather than a star.
Chris Hunter and Tractor Traylor having the same NBA career high is mind boggling
2 Likes
Didnāt Manny Harris score 100 in some weird league
Or 60 in the G League or something
You made me check out his playing history. Dudeās been all over. He is currently playing in the Egyptian basketball league, which I didnāt know existed. His team is in Alexandria and is known as the powerhouse of the Egyptian Basketball Premier League
Leagues heās played in: Greece, Turkey, Taiwan, China, Phillipines, Israel.
In his prime he was a great GLeague guy and played in Turkey and Greece for a while. Now just making the rounds
1 Like
Guest - 44 in a rec league
You didnāt specify that it has to be a professional league. Iām a Michigan alum and this is my career high. CHECKMATE!
6 Likes
I remember looking up Courtney Sims international career and also guys like Laval Blanchard, Josh Asselin, and Graham Brown. Pretty wild to see some of the leagues and countries those guys played in for a long time just trying to make basketball a career.
https://x.com/bijan_todd/status/1747702084823114014?s=46&t=SywsRwjImAPP0DFzyXGjwg
Respectfully, Isaiah, you shouldnāt focus on expanding your game. You should focus on actually making 3s. Thatās your ticket to stay in the league and if you canāt do that, nothing else matters.
12 Likes
lol I have to admire the balls in discussing his next step when heās spread-eagled on the floor after falling over from his first step
Yeah, thatās the thing about making the jump from college to the NBA. Unless youāre a superstar high usage guy, figure out the 1-2 things you need to do for a role in the NBA and do them well. Be the best version of a 3-and-D guy Livers! Youāll get paid and hang around the league forever!!
Sure, Duncan has finally started to add to his game this year, but that was only because he got to be so dang good at hitting threes that he was the top of the scouting report and had to diversify. Hit threes, play good positional defense, make millions. Be the best of who you are - not try to be something youāre not.
5 Likes
OK!
-
Kobe Bufkin is still in the G League and has not played.
-
Ditto Jett Howard.
-
Ditto Moussa Diabate
-
With, still, a number of injuries (most significantly Franz Wagner, Joe Ingles) Caleb Houstan has had the most run heās ever had in his career. Since our last update, he has played 235 minutes, or close to 1/5th of his career total. So, howād it look? His good game was well publicized here - on 1/7 he knocked down 7 of 14 threes en route to 24 points. The overall profile of his game has been about what youād think - in the 9 games, he attempted 78 shots and 73 of those were 3ās. Heās had 1.4 assists per game (he played over 26 mpg in this stretch), and about 2 rebounds, hasnāt blocked a shot, and has 2 stealsā¦so heās basically shooting threes. Howād that go? He made 26 of them, for 35.6%. His volume is really high, so Iāll go ahead and call this ākind of fineā. For a guy who is only shooting threes, I guess youād like better than this, but heās shooting them fine, and doing so at a large volume (11 per 36 minutes is very very high). He certainly hasnāt established himself as a starter or big rotation player, but he hasnāt fallen on his face here either.
-
Speaking of falling on their faceā¦(I love Isaiah Livers, he is my favorite Michigan basketball player) Isaiah Livers! In all honesty, his last 2+ weeks havenāt been as poor, but heās clearly pulled back on how often he shoots, which begs the question of what a 3 and D guy who doesnāt shoot is? Anyway, he took 17 3ās in 6 games and made 7 (41.2%) which is totally fine, but the volume is clearly something of an issue. As has been stated here - without a deal for next season, his season-closing stretch in DC will be determinative of his NBA future at least in the short term. Without a marked improvement, the G League or Europe would appear to be his next step. Weāve seen this before - itās not dissimilar from where Mo Wagner was when he showed up in Orlando.
-
I jinxed Franz Wagner! Right after noting his extreme durability, he left Orlandoās game after 5 minutes with an ankle sprain (he did score 25 on 18 shots in the first game of this window). My bad, everyone!
-
Jordan Poole averaged 15.4 ppg on 43%/33% shooting - the shooting is sort of just conventionally poor rather than laughably. His playmaking (3.2 assist per game) is still really lagging his GS tenure, but to the positive he only had exactly 1 turnover per game in this stretch of play. His game this year is really just leaking from every angle - if you consider two years ago to be his first as a full rotation player, this season, of his three at such status is his lowest TS% by 50 points, his lowerst 2pt% by 30, his lowest 3pt% by 20, his lowest 3 point attempt rate by 58 points, his lowest free throw rate by 34 points, and his lowest assist rate by 3%, and heās commiting nearly 1 more foul per 36 mintues (his best turnover rate though!). Rough!
-
A REALLY rough situation for Mo Wagner is developing. FIRST - heās played pretty well, scoring 13 ppg, and averaging 6 rebounds in about 24 minutes across the 7 games he played of Orlandoās 9, shooting a totally fine 57% in the process. The rough part is the past two, which marked the return of Wendell Carter from injury. Carter and Goga Bitadze have gotten 24 minutes apiece in each of these two games, leaving Wagner the odd man out. Heās often gotten PF minutes, but with Banchero as one of the few usable offensive weapons without Franz, there isnāt a ton of space for him there (Isaac been the primary backup). In other words - Mo just isnāt in the rotation right now. Carter and Isaac have shown themselves to be more than a little injury prone, so Iād guess there is another opportunity here, but this is something of an unfortunate turn of events. Mo has an $8 million team option next year, and with Carter already signed, the team will need to choose between picking that up or seeing if Bitadze would be cheaper (my guess is that he would). In other words - it wouldnāt shock me to see Mo on the move this off-season. The good news is that heās re-established his value in Orlando and has, in my opinion, shown heās a viable rotation center.
-
As always, Caris Levert is doing a lot! 16 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds per game, hitting 44% of 34 3 point attempts in the process, all off the bench while Cleveland has won 6 straight. On the season, heās been pretty much the guy heās always been - a solid volume but not terribly efficient scorer, quality option as a secondary playmaker, adequate defense. Thereās value to that, and while I think the consensus in the NBA has always been āheād be great cast as the second guardā, this is basically the first time heās gotten to do that - he was a lead guard for starting groups, lead guard for bench groups, a floor spacing small forwardā¦now he finally gets to play mostly next to Garland or Mitchell (better with Mitchell), but also leads a bizarro lineup of random guys (Sam Merrill, Tristan Thompson, Craig Porter, Georges Niang) toā¦+54 in 50 minutes?
-
Scoring 41 points on 23 shots got most of the focus for Tim Hardaway Jr., but heās pretty much been pouring it in all season and continues to do so. He scored 20.4 ppg in this period of time, canning 40.9% of this threes. We hit the (negative) superlatives for Jordan, but Tim is showing some major career highs. Indexing 3 point volume and accuracy this is the best shooting heās ever had (second best accuracy mark on 2 more attempts per game), and his 2nd best two-point season, making this his best offensive season, and firmly planted (with Caris!) in the race for 6th man.
-
BUT!
-
Heās not there yet, but it wouldnāt shock me, as he doesnāt start since Herroās return, to see Duncan Robinson enter the 6th man conversation. It wasnāt his best stretch - he scored 11.3 ppg, but shot only 29% from beyond the arc. but a cool 60% inside the arc and handed out 4 assists per game. Soā¦his primary skill eroded a little in this period, but his new additions - passing, two point scoring - kept the enterprise afloat.
9 Likes
Did you pay for dinner?
this was supposed to be about bernard robinson jr, no idea what happened on that quote
Sad, but fair. First things first.
These are incredible posts, thanks for doing them. Iāve watched a lot of Poole and heās definitely not having his best year, and I donāt want to speak too soon but the past month or so I feel heās playing a lot better, maybe starting to find a groove with the Wizards. A lot of things that donāt always show up on the stat sheet like attitude, effort, better decision making, sharing the ball, actually trying on defense lol, seem to be improving relatively. Crossing my fingers but hoping heās starting to better buy in to what it takes to play winning basketball. Of course the Wizards as a whole are definitely not winning.
2 Likes
Love the parentheses here
https://x.com/glushonsm/status/1750658953892299185?s=46&t=OMxEAgg62bsLI0mWenDZ7w
3 Likes
It looks like Moe is back above Bitadze.