as expected Diabate is gone
Diabate remains in the NBA Draft, forgos remaining eligibilty at U of M
That's a bummer. Good for him though. Just wish we had the opportunity to see more of that freak athleticism in the maize and blue.
I just did something I almost never do - looked at NBA draft mocks. Did not see Moussa's name in the 1st round of any of the maybe 7 I looked at, and not even in the 2nd in the 1 which mocked all 58 picks.
So question: why is this "good for him"?
What are his options if he indeed goes undrafted?
Because mock drafts are basically worthless after the first 15 or so picks. After that it's a guessing game.
He'll go to the G League, make 6 figures and hopefully work on his craft. I think him not being able to get NIL also played a role in his decision. He's betting on himself and I wish him the best!
Wish you well, Mr. Diabate.
Also, if you'll pardon my French: darn.
bonne chance jeune homme, deviens bleu!
C'est la vie
"La vie"
just wish, if we're going to have 'one and done' players, they actually dominate during their one.....
is that too much to ask?
Most one and done players dont "dominate".
interesting.....
You do have a point. There are a lot of "one-and-done" players that leave via the transfer portal.
How about that they play so well that they at least make All Big Ten honorable mention? Or at least make massive improvements by March and don't get stuffed by the rim on an easy dunk?
Right? my point was, dude is going to be a one and done, with all the potential he has..... it would have been nice if he was much more productive game in and game out.
Did he owe you that, or what? Not sure I get this sense of wounded entitlement, though I know it's widespread. Guy comes from a very poor immigrant family, came of age in one of the toughest Parisian banlieues. Hasn't played bball long, and has a lot of potential to try to make good on--basketball got him here, but subbing for Hunter or trying to mesh with him on offense when he needs to play center in the NBA. . . no lure whatever to return to Michigan. The truth is that very few players emerge as serious stars after a year in college. We should wish him the best!
Jalen Duren was a much higher ranked croot than Moussa, he's being mocked in the 12-16 range. I'm sure Memphis is very disappointed in their 2 "surefire 1 & dones", no?
I'm not sure where Moussa ends up, as it appears possible he goes undrafted - but I'm not terribly disappointed with his 1 season at Michigan.
Only 1 mock i saw had Houstan going in the 1st either, to SA at 25 i believe. He didn't appear in any other. Has his deadline to stay at Michigan passed?
11:59 pm tonight is the deadline to withdraw, i'm pretty sure.
Ugh.
Not a surprise. It’s the game you play when you recruit guys with that kind of talent.
Same with Houstan if he stays out. And if he is getting real guidance saying he’ll get drafted (especially in the first round) he absolutely SHOULD go, even if I’m a bit confounded by what teams see.
From the little I’ve paid attention, Moussa’s draft stock is oddly less certain than Caleb’s, but his physical talent is surely something to capitalize on, and I have a hard time seeing anything but getting drafted, followed by a couple of years of significant development work where there are at least a couple of board posts of some ridiculous Moussa highlight in the G League or NBA garbage time and nothing but glowing quotes about his future.
I’m not disappointed in the guys, but it would have been nice to get one or two back for another year. For their pro careers, I am excited and hopeful
Some teams' models put a fair bit of stock in age and Caleb is one of the youngest players in the draft pool. He wasn't great in his one year for us but he was ok and got better and has international play they're also looking at, add in his age and I can see why a team would take him late 1st especially a team with multiple picks. Someone's projecting that he improves quickly and has the base skills to be a solid player.
Due to his age and top 10 status out of high school some teams' draft models would have him as a first round even if he shot 10% from 3 this year.
This Caleb age idea continues to escape me. The WWW says that he was born on 1/3/3, which would make him *older* than most first-year college students.
Unless everyone playing big-time sports is doing the Texas redshirt as a younger kid, Caleb isn't much younger than the other one-and-dones.
Lots and lots of guys in fact do that "redshirt" or prep year. Hell, Shaedon Sharpe reclassified to get into this draft and is only a few months younger than Caleb. Most of the guys in the draft are older. Unsurprisingly, Jalen Duren is the youngest. Also why AJ Griffin is a popular top 10 guy and helps Jabari Smith as the likely top pick. You can sort by age on this:
Huge bummer but not a surprise unfortunately.
Go get paid, young man. Blessings on your future.
MOUSSA (NOT) BACK!
A historical footnote and little more.
Can honestly say I’ve never seen a man with such athletic ability and size that makes about 20% of his layups
Or can’t catch a simple pass
I can’t say these guys shouldn’t be able to do what they want, but this is yet another example of why the quality of play has never been lower in the NBA and especially in college.The NBA’s greatest players would be great in any era, but many players never develop as they would’ve if they didn’t jump so quickly to the league. That, along with the out of balance prominence of the 3 point shot, has made basketball almost unwatchable for me.
I am of the opposite opinion...I think the depth of talent is great right now in the league due to the explosion of talent from overseas. A quarter of the league is foreign born compared to just 5% in the 96-97 season. But yeah the style of play can really hurt to watch...sometimes it is teams running up to three point line and exchanging bricks back and forth. Not fun.
Some would argue the skill level in the NBA is at an all-time high! And the younger players are leading the way(Tatum, Ja, Luka, Trae Young) and bringing success to their teams. Moussa deciding to stay in the draft has very little correlation to how the NBA is doing. There were young guys getting drafted and not panning out back in the day and there will be players that will be busts in the future.
The Oracle just admitted he doesn't watch basketball. I wouldn't take his talent evaluations too seriously.
Um, where did the Oracle admit that? Simply stated that basketball was almost unwatchable (which for some is true).
I wouldn't take just about anything he writes on MGoBlog too seriously.
Fixed that for you ...
And they’d be wrong, but it’s especially true in college. Each year’s National Champion these days would’ve had no chance of winning in years past. I just finally watched the Jimmy Valvano 30 for 30 and was reminded that the year NC State won, North Carolina had Sam Perkins (Jr.), Jordan (So.) and Brad Daugherty (Fr.) on the roster at the same time…and they were all still there the next year when North Carolina won’t the title, something that would never happen today.
Not to mention that the 3 MVP candidates this past season -- Jokic, Embiid, and Antetokounmpo -- are all foreign born.
The skill level in the NBA is insane these days, and people who argue otherwise are, I think, yearning for a "golden age" that never existed. And I say that as somebody who puts Chamberlain in my Top 3 All-Time.
Although the way the game is officiated has changed a great deal and the 3 pointer is obviously used much differently, I don’t think this year’s Celtics or Warriors compare to the Celtics and Lakers teams of the 80s.
I think these Celtics and Warriors are two of the weaker Finals teams in recent years, but I suspect both of them would still be able to beat those Celtics/Lakers.
Players are in such better shape, are incredibly big and fast, and can shoot the lights out out from 3.
4o years later, there still hasn’t been another point guard who combined the size and skills of Magic Johnson. He was an athletic freak then and still would be if he was coming into the league today. How many 6’9” small forwards are there today who have James Worthy’s quickness and ability to get to the basket? And then there’s Kareem, who is no worse than the second best inside scoring threat in the history of the game. Michael Cooper would be as good today as he was then. And the travel and schedules those guys dealt with were much tougher. I disagree with the argument that today’s NBA players are better athletes, although there is no disputing they shoot the 3 much better, but that’s a function of the emphasis that’s placed on the shot now.
I am far from a LeBron James fan but if the teams he was on choose to call him a PG (he was still the primary ball-handler) he could have played PG from the ages of 24-31 with no problem. Younger LeBron was every bit as quick as Magic and got to the basket much easier. Magic was only a PG for 6 seasons with the others being at SG and PF. Whereas LeBron was designated a PG for 2 seasons.
This is old man logic. There's no way a team from 2-3 decades ago could beat a top-tier team today. Evolution applies to athletes as it does everything else. Today's stars are faster, stronger, better conditioned, and more multi-dimensional. I don't even know how you can dispute this. Just watch a game from the Showtime era and you can see how much slower and more plodding the game was.
Except the players of yesteryear would be as strong and as conditioned as the players of today by training to today's standards.
You have your recency bias just as some of us have OML.
Magic Johnson is certainly a top 20 all time player. But he was existed in an era where there were no other big play makers. Six five plus player makers are not uncommon. Magic would find it much more difficult to post and bully smaller guards because they are all bigger and stronger but just as fast. The 3pt shot also gives the advantage to the sniper and Magic was never a great perimeter player be it offense or defense. Also there is much more of a commitment to defense. The age of running down the court for 40 free easy points is over.
I don’t think skill is at an all time, I think the nba has embraced its sports entertainment vibe. I mean, every one of these players gets away with traveling to the point the game is almost unwatchable. I mean the nba has had to change their travel tule to include the gather step and the Euro step. Both travels by the rules of the game and in every league except the nba
This doesn’t make sense to me, and doesn’t mesh with significant improvements in development just in the last 20 years. We’re in a better spot than we were when guys were coming out of HS, for example. And it’s not like there weren’t major busts in every draft just like there is this year.
You can argue about the style (I prefer, say, GS-style ball movement or Denver point-forward offense to the endless Kobe/Carmelo iso 18 footers from 15 years ago, but that’s just me), but this argument about player quality and development just whiffs of get-off-my-lawnism.
The standard of off-court work and athleticism is higher, not lower. The standard of shooting ability is much higher. And the level of scoring is a significant upgrade over the 80-75 games we saw in the Wallace Pistons era.
You don’t have to like it. Liking it is a subjective judgment and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But calling the quality of play lower is… unwarranted and inaccurate.
Excited to see Tarris Reed's impact this winter
that's a shame...
I always knew this was a possibility whenever you recruit 5* talent...
Seemed like a great kid - wishing him the best in the future