Michigan Players in the NBA

imagine someone telling you the one possible exception was THJ!!!

(or Caris?)

It probably took until at least 2018 for me to admit that THJ had the best NBA career on the 2013 roster! (again, except for maybe Caris?)

It’s 100% absurd. Imagine if someone told you that when he was at Williams :rofl:

(And I’d probably lean towards both THJ and Caris being better than him but definitely close)

(and Franz will definitely be a better NBA player but don’t want to ignite the flames of ‘DiD bEiLeIn Or JuWaN bRiNg FrAnZ’)

Well, I love Caris, but he has bounced around a bunch, doesn’t have the post season success, and I wonder where their career earnings will stack up over time. Lavert has made more so far…but got a head start. THJ is probably the answer given his longevity, consistent role, earnings, etc.

Stauskas is still the one that mystifies me.

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Lavert got a head start on what? Tim was in the 13 draft and Caris was in the 16 draft.

Over Duncan

I just meant that from a salary point of view Lavert got a 2-3 year head start and was a high pick.

My opinion is that while they’re different players obviously (Tim and Duncan pretty similiar in terms of role, but I think Duncan has become a little more versatile), their value (forget earnings) is pretty similar? They’re all quality top of the bench guys that can start on mid-seed playoff teams if they need to? Whether they’re the former or latter in that equation generally has way more to do with the team around them (generally - good two-way “3’s” are hard to find, the hardest thing to find, in the NBA and these guys have all been enlisted to start as one when their team has failed to find one).

Duncan and Tim play pretty wildly different despite mostly being “just shooters” - Duncan has more on-ball game than Tim ever had, and off-ball has always been much higher activity - his running and movement opens space for the Heat’s somewhat slow-twitch ball handlers (Butler is a road-grader not a dancer), Hardaway is more stationary since being with Luka.

Levert has always struggled to shoot and been a little TO prone, but has a pretty versatile game outside of that - he has been cromulently deployed from point guard to small forward in his career, has always done a pretty good job creating for others, and a decent job for himself (he’s never been efficient here but the fact he can do it is a skill like 75% of NBA guys don’t have), and is by far the best defender (if only “fine”).

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Duncan doing the behind-the-back dribble WITH HIS BACK FACING THE DEFENDER is extreeeeemely funny. Even better that it worked!? (I mean, it is the Pistons)

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I don’t have the video but I am 100% sure that move was on his Williams mixtape when he was coming to Michigan. An old favorite apparently.

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at the :25 mark of his HIGH SCHOOL tape:

how did you remember this??

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that is absolutely insane that someone would rememeber that. i’m in awe

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Look what you’ve done / you know who you are / go sit in a quiet spot and do some thinking about your behavior / I hope you’re happy with yourself

Thank you! Ignore the fact that I was actually mildly wrong.

But yeah I am a true Beilein era sicko. Absolutely smoked the name every starter by year quiz. I was at a party with JB a couple years ago and only barely was able to hold back mentioning how LLP screwed up the scoring of my team camp game in 2010. It doesn’t translate to other areas of my life but my basketball memory is disgusting.

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Not that DARKO is the be-all end-all but the career trajectory stuff is a decent reminder that it’s kind of splitting hairs between 3 guys who got to about league average and are probably on the downside of their careers now. THJ’s improvement this year I can’t explain other than his usage being up somewhat and his TS% hasn’t gone anywhere. BPM thinks he stinks out loud.

Franz obvi is whole other caliber and being above league average in year 3 bodes really well for his age 25-29 peak. One of these years he’s gonna shoot the heck out of the ball and the Magic will make some moves in the playoffs bc of it.

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Well if it helps Tim hasn’t made a shot in about 4.5 weeks and is scoring, I think, like 7 ppg in his last 10

So which former Michigan player was the last one to consistently exceed leak average? I assumed Jamal Crawford? None of the Beilein guys topped out above solid contributors and otherwise you’d have to go all the way back to the fab. 5.

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Franz’ confidence in his jumper is completely shot again, record scratching on the catch over and over again last few games. Can’t wait til he makes 200 million this summer and can relax a bit lol

I doubt Crawford did

These models don’t appreciate huckers

Probably a fab five guy, like Webber obviously but Jalen maybe too

Edit: Webber and Rice are it

BPM likes Crawford just fine. Nets out almost exactly career average and had two runs of 3+ years above 0. Think he’s probably the right answer to the Q but if it’s not Jamal then yeah you really do have to go back to the Fab.

Also FWIW DARKO only goes back to 1996-97 and I thiiiiink it struggles somewhat when it doesn’t see a player’s whole career?

Semi-related, here’s the top 25 career NBA games by UM attendees. Not a suuuuper impressive list.

  • cromulent
  • doctrinaire
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