Report: Wilson & Wagner leaning towards entering NBA Draft (without agent)
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I was going to upvote, but 39 upvotes seems just right
I was going to upvote as well but I think 39 seems fitting.
Is this a surprise? I thought it was expected that both would submit their names but not hire an agent? I think this is common practice for fringe first rounders. It doesn't mean either is gone for sure.
If you don't hire an agent, you don't have much to lose if you declare. The next step is to see if you are invited to NBA Combine and workouts and see what happens from there.
People should already be ready for this to happen. It would actually be a mistake if both do not take the opportunity to attend the combine and workouts. It does not mean they are going to leave. Read this about the experience of players who declared and returned last year:
Exactly - squared - essentially nothing to see here.
definitely the right way to find out what they need to work on.
I think Wilson, for example, a deeper dive into his tape will reveal some things that would give teams pause - and these things can be remedied with a season where he shows growth in these areas.
Overall, it's the smart thing to do and a positive either way.
although his legal guardian- roosevelt barnes -may serve as his represenative
That article said nothing of substance (read: anything new). It even mentioned for each of them, zero forecasts going in the first round.
Submitting names for draft =/= leaving.
The combine is where the tipping point will be and I believe it is where they both start to get mid-first buzz... How many bigs can you name that will be 6'9" to 6'11" dribble and make three. They will light it up in an empty gym and with a free flowing pick-up game where no other elite bigs will be on the floor.
I want them to both come back but with the way the combine is designed it is perfect for these two. Hard to see either not doing well but if anything maybe DJ could struggle in the pick-up game on the offensive end.
on combine performance. If they're invited, they'll be very well scouted when they arrive. This just provides them the chance to actually talk to NBA teams and get feedback about that scouting. Unfortunately, that means you're probably right about DJ staying in the draft. Wagner will likely be back though. His defense is probably too horrible to get first round feedback.
of Wilson's play all last year. You've got a recency bias. I've watched him closely for pretty much the whole slate - after all, I've been calling him out as a potential NBA player from Day 1. But his inconsistent motor, the way he takes himself out of games when things don't break his way, the bizarre, I can no longer concentrate on this game as I am busy contemplating the meaning of life full length games that appeared at various points from the first 3/4's of the season - all these things make him a very risky pick. He's a sensitive kid, an artist, and he needs to decide whether he's going to bring it every night and exhibit the toughness he will need to not be a bust in a league where men bring it every night. The tape will show him getting scored on consistently by players much smaller than him in the post. Because they caught him going soft. Guys like Vince Edwards punked him in the post far too often.
If I'm an NBA GM, he's a guy I really want to see a steady year of consistent effort and toughness from before I spend a first round pick on him.
Wagner, the question is will he ever put on the necessary weight/muscle. His work ethic, I don't think will be questioned. He has the more professional attitude of the two.
I think they should both come back.
I've been extolling the DJ virtues since he stepped foot on campus and have watched him incredibly closely all season long. Last year, I was telling anyone who would listen that he is the key to this season when everyone was writing him off. Clearly has the best combination of length and athleticism since GR3 and his superior length might even put him over the top as the best pysical specimen to play under Beilien at Michigan.
Some of his best games weren't even recent, so claiming recency bias shows you must not have been paying attention. He came out and had 12 boards and 2 blocks with an efficient 10 pts against Marquette to announce that the light had come on and that this team would have final four potential. He was dominant in games at Iowa and Illinois when no one else on the team had stepped up yet.
He has occasional lapses in concentration on defense (as any second year collage player does) but those are more fixable and he was quite consistent if you put your availability bias aside (sometimes guys score on you, sometimes you get beat, he got beat relatively infrequently and that's what defense is all about). Are you talking about the BTT game in which Edwards shot only 3-9 and scored only 8 points or the one where he scored 13, most of which came in garbage time after we were up 20 and very few of which were Wilson's fault?
And if you think I'm just being overly positive, Beilein felt the same way when we went with him as the sole rim protector and benched Wagner during crunch time of most of the last games of the year. This is why the NBA is higher on Wilson - it's not just me. The pysical tools and vastly superior defensive play. No one cares if he's an artist or whatever you're trying to say when he has so much potential and was already very productive this year. He is an incredible talent and that can't be coached and he mostly plays hard, even if he zones out occasionally. The NBA will take a guy like that in a heartbeat. Is he a slam-dunk? Definitely not. But he has an easier path becuase he is the perfect, prototypical stretch four from a physical standpoint. All he has to do is focus a bit more. I really, really hope he comes back obviously, and hopefully those lapses and avoiding contact down low will cause scouts to tell him he's second round, but I'm not sure they will.
Wagner has incredibly good offensive skills, but he lacks the lateral and vertical quickness, length and shot-blocking ability to be an asset on defense. HIghly likely he'll always be a negative defender in the NBA so it doesn't matter what his work ethic is, he just doesn't have the same physical tools to have as high a ceiling on defense as the NBA likes to see. His path his more difficult because he can't just grow his arms longer. If he can be a poor man's Dirk/Carmelo offensive player (and I think he's good enough to get there), it obviously won't matter. But his margin for error is lower on the offensive side because of defensive deficiencies.
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What I said earlier about you good sir? All in jest.
Unlss they come back then enjoy Illinois or Purdue.
I really don't think they'll both leave, but I fear DJ will.
Arizona, Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and UNC only in the draft. Arent there still 25 cant miss NBA players in front of them. Add in the other 300 plus teams and the world and thats another 10 players at least. I kid but serouisly can we keep a 3 ppg player for more than a damn year after said 3ppg season.
Anyone roughly NBA caliber should declare without taking an agent so they can return if it doesn't look good?
I'm interested to know if there is a downside that I'm not aware of, but I don't see one.
This is NOT real news. They have been projected as first round picks by multiple analysts, and entering their names in gives them the opportunity to get a better sense of their value.
Until they hire agents, this is nothing.
because this almost certainly means they want to leave if they hear the right things - which is probably if they hear they're likely first rounders.
The best-case for Michigan obviously would be if they didn't care if they're likely to go late in the first round but they definitely want to come back and get into the lottery next year.
So it's not the best-case news, even though it is expected news, and isn't "bad" news until they hire an agent.
It's like people forget how the NBA draft works.
I mean, I would prefer a headline that said, "Wagner and Wilson decline to float names in the draft, will be back for next year," because of course that would be great news. But unless they are obvious misses there's really nothing to lose here since they're not signing agents. They still have the ability to back out. Given that some guys are putting them in the low regions of the first round in mock drafts, I think they would be foolish not to engage in the process and get a better idea of where they will go.
If these guys are surefire first rounders, they should go. I don't think they are, and I think they could both improve their stock considerably by coming back, but this just makes good sense.
But, you know, panic in the streets because that's what people do.
doesn't change anything. They were always expected to test where they would go.
If he's thinking that he could back up Tyus Battle at Syracuse next season while also doing a long-distance version of The Dak and Dunc Show, then Andrew Dakich might be able to combine a graduate year of basketball with a degree from Sportscaster U.
Yeah, floating your name like this doesn't mean too much, and I think you actually have until 10 days after the conclusion of the draft combine to provide a letter expressing your intent to withdraw from the process, so you can get an evaluation and still come back potentially. I am not going to panic, and really, good for them for baselining themselves.
You can measure anybodys vertical in centimeters. Vince Carter had a vertical of 109cm.
uh, sorry, that's wrong and makes little sense.