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Post by dss03 on Jun 1, 2024 18:54:24 GMT -6
Besides Walt not one other player sniffed a chance in the NBA. Lemon is an athletic beast with a motor. Top 10 in the last decade in no particular order? 1 Walt 2 EC 3 DB 4 Rienk Mast 5 Malevy Leons 6 Ja'Shon Henry 7 Donte Thomas 8 Josh Cunningham 9 DLO 10 Connor Linke or Nate Wells ;-) I’d probably put Leons first, but not looking to pick any fights, just friendly conversation, because there are fine players almost all the way down the list. Of anyone on this list, I’d want Leons guarding an Eric Gaines (Hyper-athlete guard UAB had), or Xavier Johnson. He’s who I would want to guard a Ben Sheppard or a Darian Devries. He’s who I’d want to guard a Jake LaRavia, Domask, or Ben Humrichous. And it isn’t even close from 1-4, and this is over the last decade of Bradley hoops. Only when you get to the good 5’s does it get close and debatable to me, and there is a debate. He’s great as an on ball defender, great at getting through screens. Yet, he’s probably as good and maybe better as a helpside off ball defender. He’s also a highly efficient offensive player, and a great unselfish teammate. He’s a role player at the NBA level at best. His efficiency at the MVC is on fairly low usage. His biggest question/issue is whether his offensive skills can play up well enough to not be completely ignored. He’s efficient, but doesn’t have a lot of handle and creativity/playmaking. He’s way more than athletic enough for the MVC, but it’s functionally athletic for NBA, and he’s pretty slight even if strong for his weight. He will have to prove he can defend up to a 4 without getting overpowered. The other big issue is that he’ll be 25 as a rookie. Nobody is taking him as a developmental project. He’d be getting a 2 way or just Summer League (hopefully) segwaying into G league gig, and he’d be getting a quick evaluation with no runway or tolerance for major setbacks, slumps, or struggles.
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Post by Braves4Life on Jun 1, 2024 21:29:30 GMT -6
Besides Walt not one other player sniffed a chance in the NBA. Lemon is an athletic beast with a motor. Top 10 in the last decade in no particular order? 1 Walt 2 EC 3 DB 4 Rienk Mast 5 Malevy Leons 6 Ja'Shon Henry 7 Donte Thomas 8 Josh Cunningham 9 DLO 10 Connor Linke or Nate Wells ;-) I’d probably put Leons first, but not looking to pick any fights, just friendly conversation, because there are fine players almost all the way down the list. Of anyone on this list, I’d want Leons guarding an Eric Gaines (Hyper-athlete guard UAB had), or Xavier Johnson. He’s who I would want to guard a Ben Sheppard or a Darian Devries. He’s who I’d want to guard a Jake LaRavia, Domask, or Ben Humrichous. And it isn’t even close from 1-4, and this is over the last decade of Bradley hoops. Only when you get to the good 5’s does it get close and debatable to me, and there is a debate. He’s great as an on ball defender, great at getting through screens. Yet, he’s probably as good and maybe better as a helpside off ball defender. He’s also a highly efficient offensive player, and a great unselfish teammate. He’s a role player at the NBA level at best. His efficiency at the MVC is on fairly low usage. His biggest question/issue is whether his offensive skills can play up well enough to not be completely ignored. He’s efficient, but doesn’t have a lot of handle and creativity/playmaking. He’s way more than athletic enough for the MVC, but it’s functionally athletic for NBA, and he’s pretty slight even if strong for his weight. He will have to prove he can defend up to a 4 without getting overpowered. The other big issue is that he’ll be 25 as a rookie. Nobody is taking him as a developmental project. He’d be getting a 2 way or just Summer League (hopefully) segwaying into G league gig, and he’d be getting a quick evaluation with no runway or tolerance for major setbacks, slumps, or struggles. Yes, if you're picking a team out of these players you would probably pick Leons first due to his length and diversity...he was a really good college player. That said, not all good college player's game translate to the NBA game. I don't think Leons is ready yet for the NBA. Perhaps with a few years of seasoning in the G-League or EuroLeague he would be able to take a route similar to AP and catch on with an NBA team in 3 years or so.
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Post by dss03 on Jun 1, 2024 22:46:57 GMT -6
I’d probably put Leons first, but not looking to pick any fights, just friendly conversation, because there are fine players almost all the way down the list. Of anyone on this list, I’d want Leons guarding an Eric Gaines (Hyper-athlete guard UAB had), or Xavier Johnson. He’s who I would want to guard a Ben Sheppard or a Darian Devries. He’s who I’d want to guard a Jake LaRavia, Domask, or Ben Humrichous. And it isn’t even close from 1-4, and this is over the last decade of Bradley hoops. Only when you get to the good 5’s does it get close and debatable to me, and there is a debate. He’s great as an on ball defender, great at getting through screens. Yet, he’s probably as good and maybe better as a helpside off ball defender. He’s also a highly efficient offensive player, and a great unselfish teammate. He’s a role player at the NBA level at best. His efficiency at the MVC is on fairly low usage. His biggest question/issue is whether his offensive skills can play up well enough to not be completely ignored. He’s efficient, but doesn’t have a lot of handle and creativity/playmaking. He’s way more than athletic enough for the MVC, but it’s functionally athletic for NBA, and he’s pretty slight even if strong for his weight. He will have to prove he can defend up to a 4 without getting overpowered. The other big issue is that he’ll be 25 as a rookie. Nobody is taking him as a developmental project. He’d be getting a 2 way or just Summer League (hopefully) segwaying into G league gig, and he’d be getting a quick evaluation with no runway or tolerance for major setbacks, slumps, or struggles. Yes, if you're picking a team out of these players you would probably pick Leons first due to his length and diversity...he was a really good college player. That said, not all good college player's game translate to the NBA game. I don't think Leons is ready yet for the NBA. Perhaps with a few years of seasoning in the G-League or EuroLeague he would be able to take a route similar to AP and catch on with an NBA team in 3 years or so. Yeah, I agree not all college players and skillsets translate well. Also agree that Leons will have to prove himself for a while. I would say Leons game and skillset translate better than other great players we have had to the professional game. With players such as Lemon or Terry Roberts, there is a certain awkwardness in being the offensive alpha at a college program (especially at our level) and adjusting what that requires, over to really knowing, understanding, and accepting a supplemental role requires. It amounts to holstering a good chunk of what got them to this point, right at a pivotal moment. Do less, right as you are approaching your goal. It’s asking something they never had to prove, or had reason to prove, before. It’s usually a tough question for scouts, and tough to prove whether players will accept a supplemental role. Leons doesn’t have to prove that one. He has already. His question is mostly the opposite. Offensively, it’s more a question of if he can he flex up enough to give space to give the studs enough space to function. Leons had 3 hurdles that IMO are pretty close to 50/50 (IMO) to clear. If he can clear 2 of them (25%), I think he can get games similar to why Lemon did, assuming he decides to stick around in the G League system long enough to be conveniently used that way. If he clears all 3 (12.5%), he could stick around long enough for some folks to remember him. 3 swing factors that I say are fairly close to even money on. 1. Ability to hang and compete vs 4’s on defense: would let his natural strength, defense, really play. That has his “switchability” translate up nicely. I am listing this as the first concern, but I think it is the one that is the least urgent for pros in evaluation, and the one they will have most patience for. I believe NBA teams would have more runway on this point of concern, than the others, because they can see a vision where year around weight training might close this gap. But the investment only is worth it if he shows the other 2 concerns get addressed while he bulks up…. 2. Hit 3’s, especially corner ones, at a rate that draws a close out. This is necessary to be a playable low usage/high efficiency player. It has to land at a minimum of 35% to buy any time after this next year, and buffer and runway depends on how it looks with progress on #1. 3. Have to be able to finish and beat closeouts fairly well. This is where I think MVC experience makes this the widest variance question. Like, Robbie Avila is a nice player, but 5’s like him and Krutwig are not overwhelming for a player with Leons ability to finish around. Leons being able to finish vs them as a MVC 5, vs a universe where you’ll run into a Jaren Jackson or Aaron Gordon as a 4 to contend with at the rim. That’s a big difference. Can the 1-4.5 versatility on defense in MVC translate for him as functional 2-4 versatility in the NBA? Can he play in the NBA offensively with similar percentages and function as he did here at Bradley in 21-22? Those are the ultimate questions to prove, and he’d have to prove them quickly.
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Post by squirrel on Jun 7, 2024 10:52:37 GMT -6
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Post by woodford on Jun 7, 2024 15:06:52 GMT -6
I hope every kid who's overlooked can see this story and try to emulate it. ML didn't have idiot handlers telling him tall tales of how he was getting overlooked, he took it upon himself to get better the hard way, listen to his coaches, play on winning teams, ect.
Would be so huge for BU if he makes it. Gives kids hope. Takes the program visibility up a notch.
If anyone deserves it it's ML.
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Post by tribecalledquest2024 on Jun 8, 2024 14:20:23 GMT -6
I hope every kid who's overlooked can see this story and try to emulate it. ML didn't have idiot handlers telling him tall tales of how he was getting overlooked, he took it upon himself to get better the hard way, listen to his coaches, play on winning teams, ect. Would be so huge for BU if he makes it. Gives kids hope. Takes the program visibility up a notch. If anyone deserves it it's ML. Malevy was never overlooked. I also don’t think it’s fair to label every single “handler” as an idiot.
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Post by dss03 on Jun 8, 2024 19:30:04 GMT -6
I hope every kid who's overlooked can see this story and try to emulate it. ML didn't have idiot handlers telling him tall tales of how he was getting overlooked, he took it upon himself to get better the hard way, listen to his coaches, play on winning teams, ect. Would be so huge for BU if he makes it. Gives kids hope. Takes the program visibility up a notch. If anyone deserves it it's ML. Malevy was never overlooked. I also don’t think it’s fair to label every single “handler” as an idiot. I won’t speak for Woodford, but I took it as more that it is a better narrative when an Alize Johnson, AJ Green or Ben Sheppard (or maybe Malevy one day) makes it directly from one of our schools vs a Jake LaRavia (or maybe one day Antonio Reeves or Jonathan Mogbo). Which I agree with. And agree that scouts will find you. You might be on a lot fewer mocks on the internet up to then, though, for whatever that is worth. All that said, it still annoys me that we couldn’t bring in that one player or two that could put us over Drake and Indiana State and really reward Malevy for his decision to stay.
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Post by tribecalledquest2024 on Jun 8, 2024 19:52:25 GMT -6
“All that said, it still annoys me that we couldn’t bring in that one player or two that could put us over Drake and Indiana State and really reward Malevy for his decision to stay.”
Going all in is not something this staff is comfortable with - as we have seen again this offseason.
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Post by laviola on Jun 8, 2024 20:59:21 GMT -6
“All that said, it still annoys me that we couldn’t bring in that one player or two that could put us over Drake and Indiana State and really reward Malevy for his decision to stay.” Going all in is not something this staff is comfortable with - as we have seen again this offseason. I don’t understand this idea that the staff refuses to “go all in” like there’s opportunities available to improve the team and the staff intentionally determines they’d rather shoot for third than first. It’s fair to disagree with the philosophy on how to build a team, but Wardle is a coach who needs to trust his players and he’s not willing to take a flier on talent in exchange for character. Criticize the philosophy all you want but that’s different than intent to win. If there is hard evidence this staff evaluated players who they felt would improve the chance to win and then decided to not pursue them in the interest of not increasing expectations or “going all in” then they deserve to be fired tomorrow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post by tribecalledquest2024 on Jun 8, 2024 21:03:26 GMT -6
“All that said, it still annoys me that we couldn’t bring in that one player or two that could put us over Drake and Indiana State and really reward Malevy for his decision to stay.” Going all in is not something this staff is comfortable with - as we have seen again this offseason. I don’t understand this idea that the staff refuses to “go all in” like there’s opportunities available to improve the team and the staff intentionally determines they’d rather shoot for third than first. It’s fair to disagree with the philosophy on how to build a team, but Wardle is a coach who needs to trust his players and he’s not willing to take a flier on talent in exchange for character. Criticize the philosophy all you want but that’s different than intent to win. If there is hard evidence this staff evaluated players who they felt would improve the chance to win and then decided to not pursue them in the interest of not increasing expectations or “going all in” then they deserve to be fired tomorrow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk That’s not the point. If you stop looking for players there aren’t going to be any to turn down. I think we can all use logic and understand there are/were better players out there than Goanar Bileuw and Cade Hartke - who Bradley decided to give scholarships to. I personally think being picked as the runaway favorite is not something this staff if comfortable with.
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Post by Jli2636 on Jun 10, 2024 21:58:35 GMT -6
I hope every kid who's overlooked can see this story and try to emulate it. ML didn't have idiot handlers telling him tall tales of how he was getting overlooked, he took it upon himself to get better the hard way, listen to his coaches, play on winning teams, ect. Would be so huge for BU if he makes it. Gives kids hope. Takes the program visibility up a notch. If anyone deserves it it's ML. He was the JUCO national player of the year... not exactly an award you win by being overlooked...
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Post by squirrel on Jun 11, 2024 5:26:14 GMT -6
People forget Mast was putting up comparable numbers to Valley alums including Donte in the Dutch league before he even suited up for Bradley.
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Post by squirrel on Jun 11, 2024 11:53:31 GMT -6
Yes, if you're picking a team out of these players you would probably pick Leons first due to his length and diversity...he was a really good college player. That said, not all good college player's game translate to the NBA game. I don't think Leons is ready yet for the NBA. Perhaps with a few years of seasoning in the G-League or EuroLeague he would be able to take a route similar to AP and catch on with an NBA team in 3 years or so. Yeah, I agree not all college players and skillsets translate well. Also agree that Leons will have to prove himself for a while. I would say Leons game and skillset translate better than other great players we have had to the professional game. With players such as Lemon or Terry Roberts, there is a certain awkwardness in being the offensive alpha at a college program (especially at our level) and adjusting what that requires, over to really knowing, understanding, and accepting a supplemental role requires. It amounts to holstering a good chunk of what got them to this point, right at a pivotal moment. Do less, right as you are approaching your goal. It’s asking something they never had to prove, or had reason to prove, before. It’s usually a tough question for scouts, and tough to prove whether players will accept a supplemental role. Leons doesn’t have to prove that one. He has already. His question is mostly the opposite. Offensively, it’s more a question of if he can he flex up enough to give space to give the studs enough space to function. Leons had 3 hurdles that IMO are pretty close to 50/50 (IMO) to clear. If he can clear 2 of them (25%), I think he can get games similar to why Lemon did, assuming he decides to stick around in the G League system long enough to be conveniently used that way. If he clears all 3 (12.5%), he could stick around long enough for some folks to remember him. 3 swing factors that I say are fairly close to even money on. 1. Ability to hang and compete vs 4’s on defense: would let his natural strength, defense, really play. That has his “switchability” translate up nicely. I am listing this as the first concern, but I think it is the one that is the least urgent for pros in evaluation, and the one they will have most patience for. I believe NBA teams would have more runway on this point of concern, than the others, because they can see a vision where year around weight training might close this gap. But the investment only is worth it if he shows the other 2 concerns get addressed while he bulks up…. 2. Hit 3’s, especially corner ones, at a rate that draws a close out. This is necessary to be a playable low usage/high efficiency player. It has to land at a minimum of 35% to buy any time after this next year, and buffer and runway depends on how it looks with progress on #1. 3. Have to be able to finish and beat closeouts fairly well. This is where I think MVC experience makes this the widest variance question. Like, Robbie Avila is a nice player, but 5’s like him and Krutwig are not overwhelming for a player with Leons ability to finish around. Leons being able to finish vs them as a MVC 5, vs a universe where you’ll run into a Jaren Jackson or Aaron Gordon as a 4 to contend with at the rim. That’s a big difference. Can the 1-4.5 versatility on defense in MVC translate for him as functional 2-4 versatility in the NBA? Can he play in the NBA offensively with similar percentages and function as he did here at Bradley in 21-22? Those are the ultimate questions to prove, and he’d have to prove them quickly. Great post - spot on! I also have mentioned the "complimentary" aspect of Malevy - he's not an alpha - he doesn't need to be. He elevates everyone around him. On a team full of NBA/EuroLeague level talent, if he just does his thing, and continues to make everybody around him better, all those intangibles and deficits kinda get wiped away. And that's why I see him being even a potential MVP-level player at least at the EuroLeague and being part of many championship teams in his career.
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Post by dss03 on Jun 11, 2024 21:49:38 GMT -6
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Post by tribecalledquest2024 on Jun 11, 2024 21:54:50 GMT -6
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ph
Recruit
Posts: 49
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Post by ph on Jun 13, 2024 16:05:53 GMT -6
A good thread:
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Post by Spoon on Jun 27, 2024 17:31:33 GMT -6
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Post by dss03 on Jun 27, 2024 19:16:00 GMT -6
The good: OKC knows what they are doing The bad: OKC is stacked
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Post by bradleyfan3423 on Jul 9, 2024 18:50:56 GMT -6
OKC plays the Jazz tonight at 8 on ESPN2. According to the box score from last night's game, Mal did not play.
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Post by Spoon on Jul 9, 2024 19:47:45 GMT -6
OKC plays the Jazz tonight at 8 on ESPN2. According to the box score from last night's game, Mal did not play. Malevy just got his first minutes of game time and immediately hit a 3 on a nice pump fake sending the first defender flying by.
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