Darius Bazley

[Trueblue25]

It seems like most of the posts here are from people still bitter about him deciding to back off his commitment. It's impossible right now to say if he made the right decision or not.

It’s hard to look at his current situation optimistically after, from what I understand, he had to drop out of the D league on his agent’s recommendation due to not nearly being physically mature enough to bounce with the big boys.

It’s not an insult or bitterness. Personally I’m intrigued to see how this shakes out and wish him the best.

 

[Dinkyspond]

He also is a class away from his degree. Tyus was a true student athlete. He will have choices that others will not. You can’t even coach without a degree.

I think Tyus is a computer science major. He's truly a student athlete.

 

[Horn88]

It’s hard to look at his current situation optimistically after, from what I understand, he had to drop out of the D league on his agent’s recommendation due to not nearly being physically mature enough to bounce with the big boys.

It’s not an insult or bitterness. Personally I’m intrigued to see how this shakes out and wish him the best.

Maybe it works out for him, maybe it doesn't. Impossible to make that verdict right now. He most likely was going to be in this June's draft whether he went to Syracuse or not. I think it's far more important which situation he gets drafted to in the NBA than where he was from August through April.

If you're pointing to his physical development, I haven't seen much evidence from our current roster that our program would help him in terms of developing physically during his one year on campus.

 

[Trueblue25]

Maybe it works out for him, maybe it doesn't. Impossible to make that verdict right now. He most likely was going to be in this June's draft whether he went to Syracuse or not. I think it's far more important which situation he gets drafted to in the NBA than where he was from August through April.

If you're pointing to his physical development, I haven't seen much evidence from our current roster that our program would help him in terms of developing physically during his one year on campus.

The benefit I see from college, for him, is NBA scouts seeing him perform against draft prospects and p5 talent vs scouts not seeing him because he’s very physically outmatched by older, mostly non NBA talent.

 

[Trueblue25]

He would have been on national tv and visible this year. Now he’s an educated risk in the 2nd round based on workouts because no one had the opportunity to see him compete in the G league.

 

[Brooky03]

He clearly was not even slightly interested in school. Do we think he would have shown up for classes? Cuz I don't.

The potential APR hit, alone, might've made his decision a blessing in disguise for the program.

 

[Horn88]

The benefit I see from college, for him, is NBA scouts seeing him perform against draft prospects and p5 talent vs scouts not seeing him because he’s very physically outmatched by older, mostly non NBA talent.

There's definitely some truth to that. It's always preferable from a front office perspective to have as large a sample size of data as possible and that would have provided a larger sample size.

Darius bet on himself that he would do well in the predraft workouts and his agent would be able to get him drafted. After he hopefully gets drafted, what he did during the 18-19 season is irrelevant and all about how hard he works and the development situation of the team that drafts him.

 

[PhatOrange]

Wow. And a mod liked this post?

Sad to see adults wish ill will on a kid because he didn't want to play for their favorite team.

where in there did I wish ill will on the kid ?

 

[Horn88]

He would have been on national tv and visible this year. Now he’s an educated risk in the 2nd round based on workouts because no one had the opportunity to see him compete in the G league.

Him being on national TV or not really means nothing from a scouting perspective. NBA scouting departments don't only watch games and players that are on TV.

 

[realorange]

Maybe it works out for him, maybe it doesn't. Impossible to make that verdict right now. He most likely was going to be in this June's draft whether he went to Syracuse or not. I think it's far more important which situation he gets drafted to in the NBA than where he was from August through April.

If you're pointing to his physical development, I haven't seen much evidence from our current roster that our program would help him in terms of developing physically during his one year on campus.

It isn't so much where he was from August to April as WHY.

He didn't make this decision on his own. An AAU coach and a mom who may have been convinced to go along with the current strategy and who knows who else conceived it.

That's the only reason I feel sorry for this kid. That he didn't end up at Syracuse may or may not have been a bad thing after seeing how this whole mess is proceeding.

 

[OttoMets]

That information seems confused to me. The article clearly says:

"Later Paul told ESPN Bazeley will receive $200k in base salary over five years, if he remains on an NBA roster in the second year and is in the league each season thereafter."

...

Wow.

I just can't see how this thin kid could stick on an NBA roster in 2019-2020 after spending a whole year away from organized basketball (and that last organized basketball was at the high school level).

Imagine if any one of us a) took a year off from our careers and b) were expected to essentially navigate a huge promotion after that one-year sabbatical.

 

[Brooky03]

Removing academics from the equation, the only measuring stick that will determine if he made the right call is his draft position.

Conservatively, if he went to college, he'd get drafted no later than last pick in the first round. He's banked a million so far. If the difference over the term of his first contract between that pick and where he actually gets picked (assuming he goes 2nd round) is more than a milli, then he made the wrong choice. If not, he made the right choice.

 

[realorange]

Him being on national TV or not really means nothing from a scouting perspective. NBA scouting departments don't only watch games and players that are on TV.

Tell me Ennis' stock didn't rise because of TV. I'm too tired at the moment think of others but I'm sure the bright lights helped significantly.

 

[Trueblue25]

Him being on national TV or not really means nothing from a scouting perspective. NBA scouting departments don't only watch games and players that are on TV.

Tell me Ennis' stock didn't rise because of TV. I'm too tired at the moment think of others but I'm sure the bright lights helped significantly.

ennis, richardson, waiters, flynn all benefitted tremendously imo.

 

[Horn88]

Tell me Ennis' stock didn't rise because of TV. I'm too tired at the moment think of others but I'm sure the bright lights helped significantly.

ennis, richardson, waiters, flynn all benefitted tremendously imo.

Their stock rose because of their performance while NBA scouting departments were evaluating them. The fact they were shown on CBS or ESPN was not a primary reason or why they heard of these players.

I don't think people realize what professional scouting departments do. They aren't fans watching games on the couch and forming opinions like the casual message board poster. They travel to games all over the country and watch them in person, they reach out to all kinds of people that have known these players since they were in junior high, they interview them, they run them through intense workouts, they take metrics and data and plug it into advanced models to try and project the ceiling and floor of the player based on the data of thousands of past prospects, etc.

The biggest loss as Trueblue mentioned is that he doesn't have a year of game tape for scouts to evaluate. Other than that the other developmental differences are negligible one way or the other.

 

[Brooky03]

Their stock rose because of their performance while NBA scouting departments were evaluating them. The fact they were shown on CBS or ESPN was not a primary reason or why they heard of these players.

I don't think people realize what professional scouting departments do. They aren't fans watching games on the couch and forming opinions like the casual message board poster. They travel to games all over the country and watch them in person, they reach out to all kinds of people that have known these players since they were in junior high, they interview them, they run them through intense workouts, they take metrics and data and plug it into advanced models to try and project the ceiling and floor of the player based on the data of thousands of past prospects, etc.

The biggest loss as Trueblue mentioned is that he doesn't have a year of game tape for scouts to evaluate. Other than that the other developmental differences are negligible one way or the other.

I think just about everybody knows this. You think people are operating under the assumption that scouting departments are just chilling and waiting for ESPN to tell them who's good?

 

[Trueblue25]

Their stock rose because of their performance while NBA scouting departments were evaluating them. The fact they were shown on CBS or ESPN was not a primary reason or why they heard of these players.

I don't think people realize what professional scouting departments do. They aren't fans watching games on the couch and forming opinions like the casual message board poster. They travel to games all over the country and watch them in person, they reach out to all kinds of people that have known these players since they were in junior high, they interview them, they run them through intense workouts, they take metrics and data and plug it into advanced models to try and project the ceiling and floor of the player based on the data of thousands of past prospects, etc.

The biggest loss as Trueblue mentioned is that he doesn't have a year of game tape for scouts to evaluate. Other than that the other developmental differences are negligible one way or the other.

I think Ennis’ stock rose upwards of 10-20 picks during our 25 game win streak his freshman year. But thats just one case I guess. Waiters and Malachi inarguably benefitted from their domination in March.

My arguments better represented by Ennis though. He benefitted far more from college success than individual pre draft workouts from what I understood.

 

[CusefanATL]

Got paid $1m right?

but did it cost him anything?

he could have come to cuse, boosted his market and turned it into a $100 mil career (he still could for the record).

My only point that baz getting 1mil means nothing. his career earnings potential was astronomically higher than the standard person - so making 1mil as guarantee vs $0 in college isnt the same thing as a normal person. he altered his potential earnings - its still too early to tell if that alteration is good or bad.

 

[chugg21]

Bazley will likely have plenty of opportunities as well if I had to guess thanks to that internship and the connections he likely made.

Well if you just want to be negative and build up another excuse for why JB and the team were mediocre then you ignore that and the fact that he has the most powerful agent in the league.

 

[chugg21]

but did it cost him anything?

he could have come to cuse, boosted his market and turned it into a $100 mil career (he still could for the record).

My only point that baz getting 1mil means nothing. his career earnings potential was astronomically higher than the standard person - so making 1mil as guarantee vs $0 in college isnt the same thing as a normal person. he altered his potential earnings - its still too early to tell if that alteration is good or bad.

Oshae came here and at this point it seems clear that he would have been better off taking $1m. So would tons of players that have came through.

 

[jgeorge322]

but did it cost him anything?

he could have come to cuse, boosted his market and turned it into a $100 mil career (he still could for the record).

My only point that baz getting 1mil means nothing. his career earnings potential was astronomically higher than the standard person - so making 1mil as guarantee vs $0 in college isnt the same thing as a normal person. he altered his potential earnings - its still too early to tell if that alteration is good or bad.

Ill say this, and its to your point, i am not sure anyone who is solely driven by money will have the greatest success in their field. I think you still need to have passion/a love for the game. I question a player’s desire who would forgo the opportunity to play in college, to learn from a HOF coach. Say what you want about the corruptness of the system, playing college basketball means something. Just watch a march madness game if you need confirmation. Darius passed up that opportunity. That to me is a red flag. If i am a nba team, id want a guy like zion, who has made it clear that he is playing for his love of the game, for his teammates. Give me that character all day. Not the “what can you do for me” attitude that permeates everything these days.

 

[AZOrange]

I think Ennis’ stock rose upwards of 10-20 picks during our 25 game win streak his freshman year. But thats just one case I guess. Waiters and Malachi inarguably benefitted from their domination in March.

My arguments better represented by Ennis though. He benefitted far more from college success than individual pre draft workouts from what I understood.

Yes his workouts were below average

 

[Horn88]

I think just about everybody knows this. You think people are operating under the assumption that scouting departments are just chilling and waiting for ESPN to tell them who's good?

People said that past players had their draft stock improve because they played well on national TV. When NBA scouts are evaluating prospects they do not care what station is broadcasting the game.

 

[AZOrange]

I think just about everybody knows this. You think people are operating under the assumption that scouting departments are just chilling and waiting for ESPN to tell them who's good?

Yeah and it misses the obvious point. The college stage allowed for the opportunities.

 

[CusefanATL]

Oshae came here and at this point it seems clear that he would have been better off taking $1m. So would tons of players that have came through.

oshae wouldnt have been offered the 1 mil.

zion would have made a HUUUUGE mistake to take the 1 mil (or 2 mil he may have gotten). may have been the biggest mistake in the history of sports money.

new balance gave him 1 mil - but part of that is if he happens to blow up, new balance will almost certainly win big on the deal. if he does nothing they only lost a mil.