Norcal kids in the NBA Draft

[TwitterLegend]

NBA just released it's official Draft Combine list of players. Not being invited has to be a pretty good indicator on if you are expected to be drafted or not.

Marquese Chriss & Marcus Lee are on the list. That is all.

Other Norcal players who entered the draft but haven't signed with an agent are Malik Pope, Cameron Oliver and Ike Iroegbu. Seems like a good indicator that they should probably think about heading back to campus. Who knows though...

 

[larry legend33]

Talk about 2 kids going in opposite directions. Chriss stock is going through the roof and Lee who was once a MCD All American has plummeted since frosh year. I like Chriss a lot. He's going to surprise some people.

Pope and Oliver has upside too. Oliver had a great campaign at Nevada.

 

[Coach Simos]

I wonder if Marcus chose a place where he would have been more critical to the game plan what could have happened. He still could have been High Major without falling to wayside at Kentucky. I'm not sure they ever looked at him being more than a defensive presence, O-board and drop off pass guy there. I bet his role within that same conference would have been much different at almost every other spot.

Another one I wonder about on that roster is EJ Floreal (Paly 9th -11th grade). He had Low-mid D-1 offers out of High School from what I remember. I know his Dad coaches track there but I think he has played 40 minutes in three years as a walk on. Wouldn't have been more fun to play 34 minutes a night at Cal Poly? Maybe not....Who knows maybe he wanted to be near family....I really don't know.....Just an observation.

 

[SmoothJay]

NBA just released it's official Draft Combine list of players. Not being invited has to be a pretty good indicator on if you are expected to be drafted or not.

Marquese Chriss & Marcus Lee are on the list. That is all.

Other Norcal players who entered the draft but haven't signed with an agent are Malik Pope, Cameron Oliver and Ike Iroegbu. Seems like a good indicator that they should probably think about heading back to campus. Who knows though...

Isaiah Taylor Texas/St Mary's Albany through JR year has also entered draft but hasn't hired agent

 

[SmoothJay]

NBA just released it's official Draft Combine list of players. Not being invited has to be a pretty good indicator on if you are expected to be drafted or not.

Marquese Chriss & Marcus Lee are on the list. That is all.

Other Norcal players who entered the draft but haven't signed with an agent are Malik Pope, Cameron Oliver and Ike Iroegbu. Seems like a good indicator that they should probably think about heading back to campus. Who knows though...

Isaiah Taylor Texas/St Mary's Albany through JR year has also entered draft but hasn't hired agent

 

[larry legend33]

I wonder if Marcus chose a place where he would have been more critical to the game plan what could have happened. He still could have been High Major without falling to wayside at Kentucky. I'm not sure they ever looked at him being more than a defensive presence, O-board and drop off pass guy there. I bet his role within that same conference would have been much different at almost every other spot.

Another one I wonder about on that roster is EJ Floreal (Paly 9th -11th grade). He had Low-mid D-1 offers out of High School from what I remember. I know his Dad coaches track there but I think he has played 40 minutes in three years as a walk on. Wouldn't have been more fun to play 34 minutes a night at Cal Poly? Maybe not....Who knows maybe he wanted to be near family....I really don't know.....Just an observation.

I keep going back to skills. I always thought he was a freakish athlete. (Lee). Massive hands, runs like a deer, jump out of the gym.... Great on O-Glass, blocking shots, deflections on the press. But very awkward in the post and with the ball. Just not a threat at all offensively. Was the exact same in HS. Works for Deandre Jordan but he's 6"11 270 and jumps out of the gym. Lee is 6"9 210 and doesn't have the frame to put more weight on.

But how much time is UK going to invest in a kid these days with 3-4 guys going pro every year. They don't have too. Lee could have gone to a Pac 12 school and developed a skill set over the course of a career. Amazing all those wins and he never got a National Champ either. A kid like Rabb would have shined at UK but Lee is far from Rabb.

 

[da real]

LL, he might have played more at other schools but who is to say he would have developed nba level skills or a nba body.

His making the AA team had a lot to due with him signing with UK imo.

 

[larry legend33]

da real- I don't disagree with you. I just thought at another school the focus might have been more on his development but who knows. Hopefully he surprises us and finds a niche somewhere. You just never know.

 

[TwitterLegend]

UPDATES:

Deadline to stay in the draft or go back to school is today and looks like all Norcal kids have decided.

Malik Pope: Back to SDSU for Junior year. If he can build off his strong finish to last season and have a more consistent, productive junior year, he will play in the NBA eventually.

Cameron Oliver: Back to Nevada for soph year. Good decision since he didn't really get any draft buzz. Should be more on the national radar this year.

Ike Iroegbu: Back to Wazzu for senior year. HAd a good junior season but they were sooooooo bad, didn't seem likely he would be considered for the draft. Hopefully he has another strong year as a senior and his team can actually win some games.

Marcus Lee: Most interesting news of the bunch. All reports are that he was horrible at the combine and would not be drafted. He smartly is going back to school, but that school is TBD. UK announced he will transfer. He'll have to sit out a year. Hope he picks a good fit for his senior year and puts in some serious work in the year he has to sit out.

Marquese Chriss: Signed with an agent out of the gate. Lotto pick who will be in Brooklyn to shake Adam Silver's hand in June. Who can say they saw this coming last June. Awesome story though, good for him!

 

[larry legend33]

Heard the same buzz around UK's lee. Been a so called Lee "hater" for a long time. Guess I don't know what I'm talking about. Little skills. Big deal he can jump. Sounds crazy but does he come back and play d2? Sitting out a year and aging isn't going to help NBA chances down the road.

After watching Chriss adjust to UW a few of us on here thought he really went under the radar. Athletically he is a freak and he measured 6"10 in shoes. But his ability to face up from 20 sets him apart. Big time upside. I'm betting he would have gone before Rabb if he went out. Good move by the others.

 

[TwitterLegend]

LOL at Marcus Lee to a D2... cmon man... I agree he was in over his head at UK but he will likely end up starting for a decent Pac-12 team... if he goes to a mid-major, he could probably have a big year even.. gotta hit the weights hard in the year off though, if he wants to ever sniff the NBA, he needs to show some significant improvement to his body (would also show a stronger work ethic)

 

[vukovich]

Heard the same buzz around UK's lee. Been a so called Lee "hater" for a long time. Guess I don't know what I'm talking about. Little skills. Big deal he can jump. Sounds crazy but does he come back and play d2? Sitting out a year and aging isn't going to help NBA chances down the road.

After watching Chriss adjust to UW a few of us on here thought he really went under the radar. Athletically he is a freak and he measured 6"10 in shoes. But his ability to face up from 20 sets him apart. Big time upside. I'm betting he would have gone before Rabb if he went out. Good move by the others.

Lee wasn't in over his head at Kentucky and it wasn't a bad choice. He personally didn't develop one bit from his senior year in high school to now and that's on him and him alone. He is the exact same weight and his skills are the same as they were 4 years ago.

 

[larry legend33]

Agree with Vukovich 100%. He never got better. That is on him. I wasn't suggesting he's a D2 player I'm saying nobody wants a 24 year old Rookie these days. Its an odd position to be in. Honestly if you are talking about guys like Chriss, Oliver, Pope, and rabb they are in such a different league than Lee.

 

[da real]

Can he still be a graduate transfer?

Wouldn't he have been better served playing this season out at UK (reportedly, he is a semester away from graduating) and then transferring to a pac-12 school as a graduate transfer the following season?

A lot of players develop their "pro" bodies in the NBA ( Draymond green, Kevin Love, etc.) and not in college. If he makes the NBA , he will be an energy player, who rebounds and is a threat on pick and rolls (Ed Davis from the blazers comes to mind).

 

[TwitterLegend]

if he played this year at UK, he would be a senior and have no eligibility left...

 

[passfirst]

Actually I remember a year or so ago this board was loaded with people bashing Criss. His attitude, his effort, etc. Quite frankly he deserved it a bit. Be he got it together and made the most of it. Kid goes from a bench player part of his soph year to a lottery pick in 3 years. That's called development. Great story.

 

[kiddman32]

Guilty. I was one of those commenting on his apparent lack of effort, taking plays off, etc. At least that's what it looked like on court in games... Between spurts of really spectacular play, anyway...

Two things, though... 1) I happened to run into his HS coach during the Modesto Christian tourney and said something like "That kid would be incredible if he played hard all the time", and he agreed. 2) I saw an article last year while he was at Washington that said Chriss had started playing organized ball much later than most kids would, and it's probable he just didn't know what to do or where to be yet, and I (and many others, possibly even his coach) could have totally misread his body language.

In any case, Chriss is sure a heck of a player now...

 

[passfirst]

Kiddman you hit it right on the head. I saw them a week before the MC tournament and he was struggling with the new coach. But they got it together and had a good year. Still relatively new to game.