Moritz Wagner Invited to NBA Combine, Told to Leave Charles Matthews at Home
As expected Moritz Wagner has officially earned an invite to the combine, probably so they can watch that behind-the-back thing in person a few more times:
Really, @moritz_weasley?!?!@umichbball is going to pull off the upset at No. 4 Michigan State. pic.twitter.com/TkfZs6Svfw
— Michigan On BTN (@MichiganOnBTN) January 13, 2018
But after two more reports last week to this effect and one prior one saying the opposite, it’s now official that Charles Matthews will not be invited to the NBA combine.
Officially official: Charles Matthews not invited to NBA Combine. Moe Wagner is. https://t.co/taem17Xsne
— Josh Henschke (@JoshHenschke) May 7, 2018
So…is he coming back? Matthews did not sign with an agent and our expectation was that he was trying to get a feel for where he stands and maybe move up, but that another year at Michigan was the most likely outcome. This doesn’t change that math, except it’s a good indication the NBA doesn’t think he’s going to be a first round pick, since 60 players were invited. Matthews can still work out for teams and get feedback from the draft advisory committee, which feedback will almost certainly come before a decision is made.
Other players not invited include Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, Trevon Bluiett (sigh) of Xavier, UNC’s Theo Pinson, Cincy’s Gary Clark, St. John’s guard Shamorie Ponds, Bonzie Colson of Notre Dame, and Nick Ward of Michigan State.
Watching Moe make Nick Ward fall all over himself always reminds me of this.
Apparently he did not get invited to the combine, so yeah, Moe broke Ward's ankles and career in one move.
"lumbering" per se, but he is a slower, old school C that does not really exist in the NBA anymore. He can push people around in college and bully his way to the rim, but that just won't work at the next level.
If he is thinking about having any form of career after college, he needs to work on nothing but his outside jumper and FTs.
he actually has really nice post moves. But he wouldn't be able to score efficiently enough over NBA shot blockers to justify posting him up and thus clogging the lane.
If you can't shoot outside shots as a modern NBA big, you have to be a pick and roll pogo stick and/or a defensive rim protector. Happ can't do any of those things.
I don't think Happ is overrated, his game is just outdated.
Or...Big10 success is different than the NBA and you can be good and recognized as such at one, and not have potential at the other.
wasn't invited. After breaking his ankles like that, he's a health risk.. :)
Be honest, this whole post was just an excuse to put up the Moe breaking Ward's ankles video again, wasn't it?
Some top players will elect to not participate in the combine and obviously some players will be injured and choose not to accept their invitations, so Matthews can still get a late invite to the combine as players decline their invites. I guess we'll see what happens
Pretty much everyone even thinking about being a 1st round pick shows out at the combine. They do nothing but hurt themselves by not going.
Most of the lottery picks don't have to fully participate. Some invites gives top prospects the option to choose to skip the live scrimmages and only take part in measurements, medical tests, & interviews.
This year DeAndre Ayton, Robert Williams and some others declined. You certainly can hurt yourself by being there, i.e. you could literally hurt yourself. Some guys don't have anything to prove. Just get to draft day healthy.
I couldn't find anywhere indicating that they replace those guys that decline though. No evidence of late invites in previous years.
The way I understand how it works is that they give an initial "invite" to guage interest from players to see who will attend and based on that make their official invites so they already know how isn't going to attend and will get the number they want.
I could be wrong about that though.
I think that ship has sailed. I think this list is for players who were invited and accepted. DeAndre Ayton and Robert Williams declined their invite and are not included on this official list. So I think the NBA may have already completed their RSVP process, and the Combine is about a week away.
And I am not even sure Matthews is in the top 5-10 players who were snubbed.
Why isn't Bluiett a pro prospect? He's got the size and the three ball. Is he not a great athlete or something? I didn't watch him much at Xavier, but I saw him tear through the Indiana HS tournament.
He looked very good in the limited opportunites I had to see him in college.
he's a 23 year old senior that will be 24 in November. That's 4 years older than most of the best prospects in the draft. Much more likely to be maxing out his ability than younger guys. You don't want to be old trying to get drafted.
I didn't watch him play at all, but my guess is that he must also not be a very good defender because his size and shooting and FT rate would seem to be attractive even at an advanced age.
Charles is my guy.
he's OUR guy next year. It's frustrating to have players bolt when we've only gotten one good but not great year out of them.
Come on back Charles.... it'll be fun, it'll be a lot of fun! 3 peat in the Big 10 tourny?
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