Caleb Houstan Also Testing NBA Draft
We didn't have to wait until the official list after all:
Michigan freshman Caleb Houstan declared for the 2022 NBA draft prior to the deadline, a source told ESPN. Houstan is maintaining his NCAA eligibility while exploring the pre-draft process. pic.twitter.com/0fHOkIXmii
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 26, 2022
As expected, Houstan is going to get a draft evaluation. Unlike with Moussa Diabaté, who's likely to get some late 1st or early 2nd round interest based on his potential, the wind with Houstan feels like it's blowing towards a return. Houstan's freshman campaign saw him plummet down draft boards—he's currently 64th (one spot below Ron Harper) on ESPN's big board, but hanging on in the 40s to NBA Draftnet's matrix thanks to a few rankers who'll put him on the 1st round bubble. Many of those rankings also come with admonitions to return to school.
Houstan's defense developed far more than most fans realize over the course of the season—this was a subplot of the Sweet Sixteen run—but offensively Houstan still has holes in his game everywhere but shooting while set. Houstan may also be waiting to see what happens with Diabaté, especially if Moussa returns and the draft evaluations come back telling Houstan to bulk up to a four. Meanwhile, Michigan will have to wait with them to figure out their forward situation. Doubtless their pursuit of Terrence Shannon, who projects to play at least half his minutes at Houstan's old outpost.
smart move. get eval'd, get a list of 'to do's', get another year of college work, exposure, weight training, and make a much more serious run at it in 2023.
Not sure why he'd need to test the draft to get his eval. Houstan's list of "to do's" is a post-it with "EVERYTHING" scrawled on it.
This kind of strikes me as an adolescent conceit to waste everyone's time. Whatever his upside, the holes in his game are currently so numerous that he could easily get them from a grad assistant, let alone Juwan effin' Howard and his years of developing NBA talent. Instead he wants the NBA to look at him? It's his prerogative, but I'd imagine he just annoyed a number of grown-ups with better things to do than evaluate a player who struggles with consistency at the college level.
April 26th, 2022 at 10:40 AM ^
i see that, but in a sense for him its pretty close to 'win-win'. he goes and gets exposure, learns the ropes, sees the drills or interviews or whatever, and all the other athletes in a concentrated form and place, talks to a ton of scouts, learns. heads back to U of M for another year of top-notch education, but now knowing a lot of the nitty-gritty details of what he needs to be prepared for in 2023 when he makes the jump.
or, he goes, gets all that stuff above, and in something like a jordan poole-unexpected way gets a firm handshake re: if you're in the draft we're picking you at #___, and the kids says, 'cool, time for me to fly'.
There's literally no downside to doing it.
April 26th, 2022 at 12:55 PM ^
This is literally what this process is for. Of course Juwan tells him what to work on, but new evaluations from other people who work at the place you want to work is super valuable. I guarantee that no one is "annoyed" that he took advantage of a service offered to him explicitly for this reason.
Yea there is no downside for the player. The downside for Michigan is that it just adds to the massive uncertainty around the roster for next season. It will be another 5-6 weeks of wondering what this team will look like and whether there will even be open scholarships for guys like Shannon and Llewelyn.
April 25th, 2022 at 11:37 PM ^
I assume he'll be told to go back and see if he can improve at the 4. Smart move by him to ask.
April 26th, 2022 at 12:55 AM ^
Maybe a dumb question but can just anyone decide to test the draft waters, even someone who is clearly not draftable? I get Houstan has a 5 star pedigree but if East Toronto State's 11th man tried to declare are teams really gonna waste time talking to him about his game? Who decides who is good enough for the process, is it an invite situation?
The NBA combine is invite-only, with invites decided by a committee of NBA team reps. They usually invite about 60-70 players. There doesn't seem to be a hard limit as the number varies year by year but I'm sure they don't want to waste anyone's time by inviting players that clearly aren't good enough to make the league.
Also it costs money to travel to the combine. I would guess the NBA covers that but in any case somebody's paying for that flight ticket and I don't know why you would for someone who obviously isn't good enough to make it.
Now you can get drafted without attending the combine, and some elite prospects who are no-doubt lottery picks will skip. But it's pretty rare for players on the fringe to get drafted without attending the combine, with the exception of international players.
Also it costs money to travel to the combine. I would guess the NBA covers that but in any case somebody's paying for that flight ticket
The player's agent usually pays for these expenses. i.e. if you were/are all the way in on the draft, you signed with an agent who was paying for all of the flights to get to team workouts, combines, lodging and all of that. If a collegian was testing the waters, they would have to pay for it on their own, because taking the agent's money for these things made them ineligible
I just want one of Houstan/Diabate back. A lineup of Collins/Shannon/Williams/Houstan OR Diabate/Dickinson can definitely contend for a title.
And then you have Bufkin and a Top 10 class of freshmen off the bench.
If we lose both guys, someone unproven gets pressed into starting duty whether that's Bufkin or a an incoming freshman.
Moussa is a really fun player, and interesting guy--selfishly, I would like him back very much. But in terms of importance to team success next year, Caleb may be more important.
I see it the other way around. Diabate was a switchable defender from the day he arrived. I'd say he's at least a year away from even G League, but in college he makes a difference just with sheer athleticism.
Houstan is, right now, a Just A Shooter who can't shoot. . . unless he's set. . . while playing at Crisler. He looks replaceable at this level.
April 26th, 2022 at 11:38 AM ^
I agree. "Only a shooter" guys who hit around 38% from 3 are not hard to find. Now obviously Houstan has the potential for shooting much better this year and developing other parts of his game.
On the other hand Diabate has a rare mix of length and athleticism that, if properly harnessed, can be a difference maker.
April 26th, 2022 at 11:50 AM ^
People really, really under-rate Caleb; he was a markedly improved defensive player by the end of the year, and--if you look at his numbers--was just a bucket or two a game from quite fine, by most any standard. We know that the guy can make them in quantity.
If Caleb hits one or two more a game--TOTALLY within the range of possibility, if he's comfortable and confident--then we win three or four games more and are on Cloud Nine about both last season and the one upcoming.
But the point is that we NEED a shooter, and we need two of them, and he is already on the team, whereas--fun as Moussa is--spacing tends to be terrible with him on the floor and coming off of the bench for Dickinson is probably not a terribly appealing prospect for him.
At any rate, he's a person from a family of extremely modest means, intent on professional play. He's much more likely than Caleb to stay in the draft, judging from hints we have gotten.
Replaceable by whom? We have basically zero shooters if Houstan leaves. Shooting is a MASSIVE need for this team going forward.
Having Houstan’s shooting would be good but I see Jett as fairly equal and adding Shannon would give us a couple of shooters.
Different kind of players. And Jett's not anything like the pure shooter that Caleb could yet become--possibly more effective in college than the pros. Jett's your three and Caleb at the four in lots of the hoped-for lineups I'm looking at for next year.
How many times have Michigan players decided somebody sucked only to see them blossom later? That was pretty much the story of Beilein's years. You have to have the vision--and thankfully, coaches tend to--of what a player can become. They're not static, just like we aren't. Lots and lots and lots of freshmen don't excel.
Yes, we have seen some of Caleb's limitations. But that's a different thing. At the beginning of the year there were times when I gasped in dismay at his defending. Yet by the end of the year, he was doing quite well. With a lot of people who said he was too wooden and unathletic to play D, etcetera.
Two buckets more a game next year and we are ecstatic about him at the four.
Both Caleb and Moussa will likely get invited to the NBA combine. Both have very attractive talent that will intrigue many suitors-including the very top ones. This is how the top teams stay at the top-grabbing the Jordan Pooles before they explode onto the scene. I think Caleb's upside is going to be too much for the NBA to resist and whether he stays or goes this year is going to be his, Caleb's, call-more than the NBAs. Plus, these two are throwing themselves into the mix with the blessing of a very highly respected Michigan coaching staff.
April 26th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
Maybe. I think Poole showed a lot more raw ability early in his career than Houstan has so far.
Poole definitely showed more facets to his offensive game prior to leaving than Houstan has. Really the biggest knock on Poole was a tendency to play out of control and his decision making at times when he left.
Caleb has a lot of work/improving to do to get his game up to all Big Ten Honorable mention level.
We don't have enough stars! (Get some stars) OMG!!! Stars are doing star things! (judge, judge, judge)
Have to roll with the byproduct of recruiting highly touted players if, you know, you want highly touted players on your team.
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