Darius Morris to Lakers
Um, see my post on the next page. I highly doubt he'll go back to school.
enough to make that sort of prediction about his life.
You "highly doubt it." Are you a personal friend of his? Or making assumptions based on other athletes, generalizing, and then applying that generalization to a distinct individual- Darius Morris? Seems a little presumptuous, no? And nice use of "blowing" in your first comment. Saying that fellow Wolverines were "blowing" Darius Morris. Classy. Spew that shit on MLive, please.
Okay, fine, let's assume that he wouldn't get drafted in the first round next year. He's either drafted in the second round (like he was this year) or goes undrafted. And he has a BBA from Ross.
You seem to be overlooking two issues:
1. Morris was a sophomore. He almost certainly needed two more years of school to graduate, not one.
2. In his chosen profession (basketball), it doesn't matter at all if you have a college degree or not. And if he eventually needs to go into another field, he can go back to school, and will probably get better grades when he doesn't have basketball monopolizing his time.
Playing in your hometown is a great consolation prize for not getting guaranteed first round money.
Plus, he's gonna be mentored by a great long-time vet in Derrick Fisher, and he gets to play alongside possibly the best player in the world in Kobe Bryant.
Good luck to D-Mo for now, and for future endeavors!
The Lakers' D-League affiliate, the D-Fenders, are also located in L.A. So yes, he is going to play in his hometown.
Picked by a title contender with an aging point guard and no legit backup.
Steve Blake isn't a bad player even if he wasn't very good in his first year in the triangle. In fact I'd say he's a better player than Darius right now. Maybe not potential wise. Maybe.
The guy often had poor body language on the sideline and gave lip to our head coach. The guy bolted for the league as soon as he could when the program was on the verge of big things for the first time in well over a decade. The guy takes a public shot at Michigan fans on his way out the door. The guy actually thought he was good enough to be present at the draft and then walks up to the stage as the 41st pick, which is pretty much unheard of. And people here are kissing his ass just because he wore the maize and blue.
Sorry, but Darius Morris is not one of my favorite Michigan athletes.
I know that what you said is a very unpopular opinion on this board, but I absolutely agree with you. I was never a big DMo fan because of the same reasons. FWIW, a few of my fellow students who are big fans of M basketball feel the same way.
It's unpopular because the "stay classy" philosophy, which does have a lot of positive products and usually keeps this place above the trash at RCMB or OSU boards, sometimes runs amok.
If everything tells me "this guy seems like kind of an asshole," I'm going to say it if he went to Michigan or not.
You're the kind of guy I like to talk sports with (or anything else for that matter). I hate the Red Sox fans who hate on Teixeira and Jeter, the Yankees fans who hate on Pedroia, and the Bears fans who hate on Reggie White. There's no reason that you shouldn't like those guys because of how they play the game and act as people. You can't love a player just because he is on your team, and you can't hate a player just because he's on a different team.
Oh, pull it together already. You guys are acting like he broke up with you.
I can only imagine what Tim Hardaway Jr. could be thinking if he reads this thread and sees you two going on like this about his ex-teammate.
New MGoBlog decorum: Restraining your opinion with the consideration that someone who you aren't even talking about might be reading it.
Whether he went to Michigan or not.
Unnecessary.
He had his moments of being headstrong, which a lot of guys do. He went pro with John Beiein's blessing in a weak draft. He complained that Michigan fans were dogging him for doing what he thought was best for himself, as any student or student athlete would. He went later than he would have liked but he still walked up onto the stage to live his life-long dream (I assume). And yes, Michigan fans are rooting for a guy who did a lot for Michigan basketball.
I would be the first one saying good luck to the guy if he was a good bet to be a top 20 pick, but he was nowhere close. The combination of that uncertainty (magnified by the league's labor situation) along with us being so close to what MY dream for our program has been for a long time made me a little bitter when he peaced out in the first offseason when declaring for the draft seemed like an even remotely plausible idea.
If that's selfish, sue me.
Here is what Darius Morris owes you: nothing.
I'd plus this 1,000 if I could. The asshattery and lovefest between these two commenters above is nauseating. We get it: neither of you ever liked DMo, and you've found each other. And you feel vindicated now. And you enjoy bashing him. Your assessments are based on subjective opinions. "Bad body language." "Taking shots at Michigan on way out." Sigh. Just admit that he stole your girlfriends and move on. (kidding).
of a guy who didn't care much about the state of Michigan basketball is also nauseating.
Many in this thread are like kids at a lunch table who shout "Go get him tonight, Johnny!" after the school jock punches their tuna sandwich.
Well, I guess we're each oversimplifying the others' position. I don't think you can call what Darius did "punching us" as a fanbase, really. And yeah, I was oversimplifying your position as well, I'll admit that. When it comes to attitude issues for Michigan's "star" basketball player the past 10 years or so, I don't think Darius comes to mind as an asshole/entitled/too headstrong, really. I guess it's kind of subjective. I feel like, for example, Manny was a lot more of a problem from a leadership standpoint.
And I don't owe him my support as many of you seem to think I do.
I agree with you completely. He was no where near ready. I was also pretty blown away when he walked up to the stage after being taken so late.
What? No where near ready because he wasn't a first rounder? Don't have kids man, your standards are absurd.
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<br>Congrats to Darius on a well earned ticket to the Pros.
Actually I think there are some of us on this board that are over 20 years old and remember when you had to be really good to turn pro early. Having one decent year, being a 3rd team all conference player did not constitute being ready for the pro's. You might want to be able to make a jump shot and go to your left before you think about it. If can not get drafted in the first round and what might have been the worst draft of all-time (which is saying someting these days) then you might want to stay in school. I guess those standards are too high!
Anything?
Yeah, John Beilein was obviously quite offended by all the lip darius Morris gave him, considering how supportive he's been throughout this whole process. And boy, all the kind things his teammates have said about him must just be covering up what a cancer he was in the locker room.
Without Darius Morris, the team doesn't make the NIT, much less the big dance. And while he might not have gone in the first round, he most definitely should have. Corey Joseph and Iman Shumpert? Those picks were jokes. He will be just fine in the NBa and Michigan basketball will continue its rise thanks, in part, to the momentum he started last season.
Sorry, but you're not one of anybody's favorite Michigan fans.
Beilein was supportive of the exploration process. How supportive he was of the decision to stay in the draft we don't know. To assume he thought it was a good idea is a stretch considering that Bacari went on a twitter mission to try to get Morris to stay a day or two before he made it official.
Hopefully I'll get to see him play out here... he's obviously going to need some work, but I like the pick, as with any luck he'll be able to run this offense in 2-3 years... I like Bilas, but it sounded like he was bagging on Darius for not being Magic... but hell, who is?
I really, really like D. Mo, and while I was disappointed by his decision, I am totally pulling for him. Hope that he puts in the effort in the upcoming offseason and goes all Tom-Brady-I-will-teach-the-rest-of-the-league-for-not-drafting-me-higher-and-then-just-for-good-measure-I-am-going-to-marry-the-hottest-woman-in-the-world.
Why do you "really, really like" D-Mo??? Is it just because he wears a Michigan jersey? Honestly, the dude is overrated.
I agree, this is probably where he should've been drafted. Which means that he should've stayed in school.
Why? Guys that come back don't historically improve their draft stock after their sophomore years on a macro level. And next year's draft is going to be deeper.
This topic/phenomen has been discussed by Brian here and by other basketball blogs, including, actually, John Hollinger (who I admit I derided above), in the context of Player Efficiency Rating, a stat that you're likely familiar with. (If not, check it out; it's a pretty good way to measure a player's effectiveness)- here's the study from Big Ten Geeks which supports the frosh-to-soph jump part of what I said above: http://www.bigtengeeks.com/2009/11/they-grow-up-so-fast.html
And a post from this blog that cited it: http://mgoblog.com/category/post-type/tempo-freeeeeeee
In terms of draft position, I'll admit that this is more anecdotal and I can't find a nice breakdown of it. But I have read articles on ESPN Insider (I believe) before which state that, frankly, many guys hurt their stock by returning to school. The problem with me saying "anecdotally" and "many guys" is that, a.) it's hard to truly know where they'd been drafted if they'd stayed in the draft the first time because, you know, they withdrew, and b.) I don't expect you to take my word for it. So I'll have to leave that one unsupported, as I have to go to bed. I did just try to search for it, but couldn't find it, unfortunately. But here's a bit of a question- can you think of a handful of guys who definitively improved their draft stock after returning to school following their sophomore years? Given that the NBA often drafts on "upside" and "potential" and, for awhile there (say, 1999 through when they put the one year waiting period into effect a couple years ago) they seemed to always go for high school/younger guys far more often than older guys (look at some of the first rounds from the last decade). You could say "well, that's because the younger guys were ready," but there were a ton of young guys that were taken on potential and not anything they'd proven (cough, Darko, cough, Nikolez Tshviski or whatever his name was). I realize the counter to this is Emeka Okafor. But for every Okafor, there's a Martell Webster (and Gerald Green, and so on) taken over an Acie Law (I'm using examples here; I don't even know if those guys were in the same draft as each other) or Battier or someone similar. But yeah, gotta go to bed. I realize this second part isn't very convincing.
The latter part of your post is right on. For better or for worse, NBA scouts and executives don't view college basketball as that analogous to the game played in the NBA. Far more than the NFL, they draft on measurables and upside potential. Limited footspeed and lack of explosive athleticism hurt Morris's draft potential far, far more than his sketchy jumper and left hand. And those are things that weren't going to improve significantly. If he was determined to leave early, this was the year to do it. The idea that a better jumper was going to get him into the lottery is just pure fantasy that bears no resemblance to how the NBA evaluates players.
taylor-made for possible stock improvement. Work on the jumper and the left-hand. Unless he thought he had hit his college ceiling, yes, he would have been wise to come back and improve his skills.
And oh yeah, help lead Michigan to the top of the Big Ten. That didn't seem to be a big priority of his.
This. (the last part)
I'm not condemning Morris, but it's hard for me to care much about whether leaving was a good decision for his pro career or not. He obviously wasn't completely invested in the program itself. Which is fine - that's how these things work much of the time, and he played some good ball while he was here. I'm just not that interested in Darius Morris at this point, but all things being equal I hope he does well in the league.
Who's he going to marry?
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<br>Gifs?
The Lakers just drafted another PG by the name of Andrew Goudelock. He was touted as being one of the best pure shooters in college basketball last year.
Good luck D-Mo
to him. It's not ideal, but at least he has a chance. It's not like there is an abundance of talent in front of him.
I guess I dont harbor the same ill will some folks here do. To hear some of you guys tell it, Morris was the biggest douche in the history of all doucheness worldwide. Yes, UM would have been a helluva lot better with Morris back this season but I'm not going to act like some national travesty has occured. He went pro. He's going to get to play in his hometown for the team he most likely grew up idolizing. I'm happy for the kid. And yes, most of that has to do with the fact that he played for Michigan.
Yeah, there sure are a lot of bitter people on here who think they know what's best for someone else.
A lot of times "someone else" DOES know what's best for someone -- especially when that person is surrounded by people who blew pixie dust up his butt all year. Ever hear of an arbiter; mediator; counselor?
Real shame there are so many "yes men" surrounding these kids who feed them bad intel. A lot of college prospects this year, not limited to Morris, got bad intel telling them they'd go in the 1st round. Many of them dropped, such as Jordan Williams.
That being said, going to reiterate best of luck to Darius Morris, going to give him a chance and see what he can do with the Lakers.
Yet none of us are NBA draft mediators. Just fans that think they know some shit about what goes into this process. He made his choice, and it hasn't proven definitely right or wrong.
Even non-professionals could see him in the first round was a pipe dream. So it should have been really obvious to those who know. Unless, you know, they have agendas that don't involve his best interest, but their own.