Horford and Morgan are Teammates Again in D-League
This isn't breaking news, but Jordan Morgan and Jon Horford are teammates again, playing for the Canton Charge in the D-League. Their team is in the Eastern Conference finals. Looks like J-Mo just joined the team a week or so ago.
http://canton.dleague.nba.com/news/charge-advance-east-finals/
Great for Morgan! But who is this "Jon Horford" person of whom you speak?
I'm guessing the Jon Horford you are unfamiliar with is the very one who dedicated 4 years to the University of Michigan basketball program. Just a guess. Though that certainly pales when compared to those who post about basketball on websites.
I'm so happy that Morgan plays for a team called the "Charge."
He also drew a huge one against Syracuse in the Fianl Four with under a minute left.
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Good for them. I'd lie if I didn't find it a bit ironic that Horford left UM because he felt they didn't offer him a chance to showcase his game for the NBA, then he goes to Florida and doesn't really impress and winds up on the same D-league as the guy ahead of him on the depth chart.
And I think he would have put up far bigger numbers at Michigan last year than he did at Florida. BUT, you can certainly argue that from a development perspective he benefited more from getting coached 1 year by Billy Donovan than hearing the same things from Beilein he had been hearing already for 4 years.
In the grand scheme of things, he has to be doing some things right to get into the D-league. Not bad for a guy who came out of high school weighing 180 pounds.
His departure burned Michigan, and IMO really tanked the season, but I think he made a very reasonable decision.
But if you did, I think Horford demonstrating that he had range out to the 3 point line was probably significant to NBA teams looking at his long-range potential. Horford took 10 3s in 4 years for Beilein and 51 in 1 year for Donovan. He didn't make many (26%) - but he got the opportunity. Pretty ironic given Beilein's rep, but it might be fair to say that Horford left so that he had the freedom to take 3s.
Also his 2 point FG% was at a career high 59%, his fouls and turnovers also dropped. Those may not matter to the casual fans but it's something that counts with scouts and analytics departments.
Horford never said anything unfair or untrue that I saw about Michigan. This is about as bad as it got and it's pretty much true:
"They just felt that it's a system that's difficult for big men to have success, especially when compared to the guards," Jon Horford said. "It's a great offense that's difficult to (defend) and it's a paradise for guards, it really is. If you're a guard and you can shoot and dribble and pass, that's the offense for you, but there is very little emphasis on getting bigs post touches.""It's a system that, if given the minutes, any big could have success. I could have had success," Horford said. "I feel like in the games that I was given good minutes -- 16, 17 minutes and up -- I always had success in the system. It's just that those kind of opportunities were so limited."
Horford was a tri-captain for the Wolverines' Elite Eight team in 2013-14 and was expected to serve as a captain again next season."He's really heartbroken about that," Elizabeth Horford said. "He loves Michigan, he loves the players, he loves the coaches. It's been a wonderful opportunity for him."
It seems like Horford thought he was going to sit behind McGary and left for the playing time and experience in a more NBA-friendly system for bigs. A totally reasonable decision.
Genetics doesn't change the fact that he made amazing progress from his freshman/sophomore year to his 4th and 5th years. His dad and bro were still his dad and bro when he was an unplayable underclassmen project that Beilein put his faith in. Al was a bigtime recruit. Jon was a 2-star flier.
In that league, they don't have to worry about playing Julius Randle's team.
Too soon?