NBA Draft Projections & Mock Drafts 2019

Tillman is gonna return I think. No real feelings on why other than gut. Think he needs a full season. I think Winston is gone though. No way he can boost his stock up any higher than it currently is. No clue what Ward is going to do.

Very few players will announce they’re leaving immediately after a tourney loss. Check back with them a week later. I would expect both guys to test the waters, anyway.

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Good call. Without being too conspiracy-minded, I might bet that Izzo has a slightly different way of dealing with players considering leaving than Beilein does.

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Conspiracy-minded or not, Izzo has a much different way of dealing with players who consider leaving than does John Beilein. There is no way Miles Bridges stays a second year unless Izzo does a helluva sales job, which is something Coach B simply would not do, unless by sales we mean one who has the best interests of his customer at heart, which is noble but not the usual notion of sales.

Coach B will honestly, almost impartially, help a kid evaluate his options, thoroughly. He will present pros and cons for both sides of the decision. He will help his player to get all the feedback necessary to make the best decision for that player.

Of course Coach B will help the player see what his role will be the next year if he comes back. Of course he will talk about the benefits of coming back, but he will not oversell, nor will he talk about things like “loyalty” to the program and/or the player’s teammates. There will no emotional plea. Everything will be data driven.

If, after all of the information is in and seems to be in the best interests of a player to go to the NBA, Coach B will, as he has said many times, “drive the kid to the airport.” I believe Izzo will do everything he can to convince a kid to stay in East Lansing. So, yes, I think they are very different in their approaches in this regard.

I don’t think Tilman will go. He needs another year. He should declare, get his feedback, and come back. Cassius doesn’t need another year. He should declare, get feedback, and make a decision based on whatever that feedback tells him. But Izzo will tug at his heartstrings and convince Cassius to come back and “finish what we started.” That’s what I believe.

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Everyone advised Bridges that it was in his best interest to leave but himself. He wanted college.

I respected his decision immensely.

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What I heard from family members that were at Michigan State is that Izzo had his “stay or go” meeting with Bridges at a prominent place on campus surrounded by students that wanted him to stay, hammering home talk about leaving his legacy, etc. It’s what I could call emotionally manipulative

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That was his announcement he was returning. Not a meeting to decide. Some of you guys are really reaching here.

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I’m not trying to reach, that’s what I was told by Spartans. But…I guess they had it wrong and I repeated it.

Guess your family members deceived you lol

Dot, I respect you opinion immensely, and if Miles Bridges truly “wanted college” I, too, respect that decision.

I, personally wish all kids would stay in school. I wish the NBA didn’t make it so hard for kids to make that decision because of the millions of dollars they throw at kids. If Miles Bridges made his decision to stay in college despite the millions of dollars he would have made by going after one year, then God Bless him. NOTHING but respect from this old college experience and college basketball purist.

There is very little question in my mind, though, that Izzo played some emotional cards with him. I think it’s what Tom does, and people may legitimately have differing opinions on whether or not he should.

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It’s not the NBA making these decisions hard. It’s the NCAA. If the kids were able to at least profit from their image, the top guys would be making a lot of money and might consider staying if they weren’t lottery picks.

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Conspiracies are constantly occurring. It is human nature to conspire. For instance my wife and I conspired to marry one another.

Thomas Izzo is perpetually trying to find ways to conspire with people, some of them alive, who may help him to retain a player who he wants to remain on his basketball squadron. He allowed Bridges and Jackson to leave because he realized that he couldn’t properly incorporate them into his evil plans to conquer college basketball. The soldiers on his current roster won’t similarly benefit due to their successful play, and will absolutely remain on active duty. They will make the ultimate sacrifice by continuing on with Izzo’s sinister schemes to control college basketball in the midwest region of the united states. This is what Izzo does, and there’s nothing that the players can do to stop it other than to lose in the first round of the ncaa tournament.

Izzo shielded rapists and men who hit women to try to win more games, so I have no doubt he would make some behind the scenes moves to win some games if he thought it would work. Whether he actually thought so or was successful at it, I have no idea.

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I think everything worked out okay for Miles Bridges. He was still a lottery pick and got to come back and win a big ten title by three games.

Izzo’s a little (edit: ALOT) squirmy, but as a fan I wouldn’t be upset if the coach of the team I support actively tried to retain players from time to time. Michigan might lose three players early to the NBA this year and there’s a legitimate chance none of them will get drafted. Meanwhile at MSU, their all-American point guard is talking 15 minutes after his season ended about how excited he is for next season already.

In my opinion, NBA draft is kind of an easy decision in a vacuum:

  • If you’re a first rounder, you go.
  • If you’re a second rounder, you come back.
  • If you’re late first or early second, THAT is an extremely tough decision. VERY tough.
  • If you’re going to be a junior or senior and you’re a second rounder, probably go back to school and get your degree first.

Miles Bridges and Darius Morris made the wrong decisions based off the above.

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What you say here makes it easy for Winston to stay and get a degree. Which is logical.

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Yep, I would think he stays. I don’t see why he’d go if he’s got one year left and he’s no better than a second rounder.

And, if the economic decision is the only one that counts, for me it isn’t, but I seem to go against society on this, but if the economic decision is what really counts, certainly Miles Bridges, though he’s doing fine, gave up a lot of money that he simply won’t get back.

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Exactly. In the end, it kind of worked out since he stayed healthy and got his lottery contract. However, he still lost that year of NBA accrual. He’s now a year behind his next contract.

Purely economically, you should leave the second that the NBA is willing to pay you a contract. Going pro elsewhere is generally “pays less” than college unless you’re an elite player who could go to the NBA.