Maliq Brown to Duke

[MikeSU02]

not sure where to put this but I found a great post on twitter about this whole situation, with much needed perspective:

With the news of Maliq entering the portal today I’m getting the feeling that a lot of Cuse Fans haven’t looked around and saw what’s happening in college basketball and are under the impression there’s an issue with Syracuse Basketball given the amount of players in the portal.

So I did the research and broke down the Top-150 Players in the class of 2022, since they’ve had one full offseason

The numbers of guys at their original school will open your eyes that this is not an issue unique to Syracuse Basketball

Here’s what I found:

Keep in mind - this is as it sits today. The season technically isn’t even over yet. More guys will portal. Here’s the stats.

Players: 150
Stayed at original school: 56
Went Pro out of HS: 1
Are in the NBA: 21
Transferred: 72

Here’s a percentage breakdown

Stayed: 37%
Pro: 15%
Transferred: 48%

That means ~half of the Top-150 players in the 2022 class have transferred or entered the transfer portal before the national championship of their second year. This is not a Syracuse problem. Relax. Look around. Portal taketh, portal giveth. They have 5-6 months to build this roster, lock in on Syracuse in October - anything before that is doing yourself an injustice. Go Orange

How many of these guys were the best player on their team and then transferred?

This means bunk.

 

[MikeSU02]

Maliq is the highest rated PF.

Role player though.

 

[CardiacCuse]

How many of these guys were the best player on their team and then transferred?

This means bunk.

it doesnt mean bunk...if Brown was the best player...red wouldnt have recruited over him. but he did.

not trying to diss anyone...but look around...

a top 150 recruit staying at a school more than 2 years is now abnormal

 

[CardiacCuse]

Maliq is the highest rated PF.

Role player though.

if you had to choose one - freeman or maliq - who do you pick?

 

[hoopsupstate]

So Maliq helps us win in lieu of his own personal gain by playing out of position and the onus is on Maliq, again, to be the duct tape to cover the missteps by our coach?

Ya, miss me with that.

You bank on the JJs of the world and hold onto the Bennys for too long but need Maliq to take one for the team because you can't field a team, screw that.

He’s not playing out of position. His best position is at center even though he is undersized. What skill does he have that’s better suited for playing forward?

 

[djcon57]

Mark Sears, Alabama's best player, Year 3 at Alabama
Donavan Clingan, UConn's best player, Year 2 at UConn
DJ Burns, NC State's arguable best player (prob Horne), Year 2 at NC State
Zach Edey, Purdue's best player, Year 4 at Purdue

Don't try to sell me this idea you don't need to keep your best players. You need to keep your best players AND add onto them. Yes the majority leave. I get that. The best teams seem to keep theirs though

 

[Orangezoo]

How many of these guys were the best player on their team and then transferred?

This means bunk.

Good question although I’d say how many were top 3 on their team vs just top player. I think a lot of us just hate the new normal so much we are genuinely down on SU too whether warranted or not. Our SU teams are going to be more like the Boeheims Army TBT teams than old SU in terms of how we feel about them and the connection and ties rooted to the school.

 

[MikeSU02]

He’s not playing out of position. His best position is at center even though he is undersized. What skill does he have that’s better suited for playing forward?

His best position is at center? Ya, we won't agree. All good.

 

[Orangezoo]

Mark Sears, Alabama's best player, Year 3 at Alabama
Donavan Clingan, UConn's best player, Year 2 at UConn
DJ Burns, NC State's arguable best player (prob Horne), Year 2 at NC State
Zach Edey, Purdue's best player, Year 4 at Purdue

Don't try to sell me this idea you don't need to keep your best players. You need to keep your best players AND add onto them. Yes the majority leave. I get that. The best teams seem to keep theirs though

So badly want to see what is really happening with NIL numbers to get an idea of just where we stand….

 

[littlereg]

Mark Sears, Alabama's best player, Year 3 at Alabama
Donavan Clingan, UConn's best player, Year 2 at UConn
DJ Burns, NC State's arguable best player (prob Horne), Year 2 at NC State
Zach Edey, Purdue's best player, Year 4 at Purdue

Don't try to sell me this idea you don't need to your best players. You need to keep your best players AND add onto them. Yes the majority leave. I get that. The best teams seem to keep theirs though

brother 3 of the 4 players you just named are transfers…. Burns and Horne TWICE.

 

[djcon57]

brother 3 of the 4 players you just named are transfers…. Burns and Horne TWICE.

uhhh...

Is JJ a transfer next year?

 

[MikeSU02]

if you had to choose one - freeman or maliq - who do you pick?

Are you really asking me if Im taking a guy who led us in all important advanced stats and was All ACC defense vs an unproven guy at the college level? Im taking Maliq.

But that's not the right question. It's not apples to apples. This isn't a one person sport.

 

[Bayside44]

Mark Sears, Alabama's best player, Year 3 at Alabama
Donavan Clingan, UConn's best player, Year 2 at UConn
DJ Burns, NC State's arguable best player (prob Horne), Year 2 at NC State
Zach Edey, Purdue's best player, Year 4 at Purdue

Don't try to sell me this idea you don't need to keep your best players. You need to keep your best players AND add onto them. Yes the majority leave. I get that. The best teams seem to keep theirs though

Isn't Bama Sear's second school and Burns is on school #3 with NCSU?

 

[littlereg]

uhhh...

Is JJ a transfer next year?

I wish. I’d replace him too. I dont care who the players are I want the best players on the court.

 

[djcon57]

Isn't Bama Sear's second school and Burns is on school #3 with NCSU?

Really? You aren't getting this?

 

[CardiacCuse]

Mark Sears, Alabama's best player, Year 3 at Alabama
Donavan Clingan, UConn's best player, Year 2 at UConn
DJ Burns, NC State's arguable best player (prob Horne), Year 2 at NC State
Zach Edey, Purdue's best player, Year 4 at Purdue

Don't try to sell me this idea you don't need to keep your best players. You need to keep your best players AND add onto them. Yes the majority leave. I get that. The best teams seem to keep theirs though

yeah its better if you can keep your best players but its just very hard to do now

acknoweldge the reality


besides, a significant number of the best players do leave to the NBA/pros after 1 year too

so it's a weird game now where...you want someone good...but not too good that the NBA will call...who will also be loyal and stick around


its like threading a needle

 

[Cusefan0307]

So Maliq helps us win in lieu of his own personal gain by playing out of position and the onus is on Maliq, again, to be the duct tape to cover the missteps by our coach?

Ya, miss me with that.

You bank on the JJs of the world and hold onto the Bennys for too long but need Maliq to take one for the team because you can't field a team, screw that.

This is interesting because if Benny had transferred last year I would gather the people who are saying Maliq is no big loss would be saying Benny was a big loss. Meanwhile I would have welcomed it.

I think a vast majority of fans judge players by their high school star rankings even after they in college no matter what their performance was in college.

 

[CardiacCuse]

This is interesting because if Benny had transferred last year I would gather the people who are saying Maliq is no big loss would be saying Benny was a big loss. Meanwhile I would have welcomed it.

I think a vast majority of fans judge players by their high school star rankings even after they in college no matter what their performance was in college.

i mean...brown was good but I saw it waay too many times last year...where teams just abused the orange in the paint

what position do you want brown to play? center?

powr forward?

do you want freeman benched for brown?

 

[Bayside44]

Really? You aren't getting this?

With your last post, no. You listed guys who moved, a local kid, and whatever unicorn Edey is.

 

[djcon57]

With your last post, no. You listed guys who moved, a local kid, and whatever unicorn Edey is.

Ok...

Is JJ Starling a transfer next year OR would you suggest he's coming back for Year 2?

 

[Cheriehoop]

We can't beat teams with good centers with Brown. He played his heart out but he's a thin 6'8. He is a forward who had to play out of position. Same as Joe having to play pg for Jim.
It sucks he doesn't want to split time at the 4 and 5 this year but you can't blame the kid. To me this is Querrier all over again. He wants to play for a school at forward. Wants to see if he can improve the offensive side of his game as a starter. His role at Syracuse was never going to allow that to the level he wants. Not with Freeman on the team. I believe this is all about his fit at SU not being what he envisions for himself.
I hope he gets the opportunity to play forward full-time, to develop his offensive game and do well.
Unfortunately like Guerrier I don't see it. Brown is what he is. A solid tweener who's a great defender, good rebounder and passer that lacks an offensive game.

Depending on the matchup, he did well. He was much more efficient than 5th year DJ Burns, had 10 more rebounds in their 3 games, had a better fg average, more assists against him than the other center praised for his passing ability and he also had more steals. Burns out scored him by taking more shots and we won 2 out of 3 games. MaliQ was excellent against another 5th year big man, Quentin Post, who he totally frustrated. He was a sophomore who is still learning going against experienced, older big men. He showed an upward projectory.

He improved from freshman to soph year appeared to be coachable and I was looking forward to the next jump. Everyone’s talking about PJ Hall, a senior who also had Ian Schieffelin, a junior, whose sophomore stats were outdone in every category by Maliq in his sophomore year. In my opinion, he’s a very tough loss to justify and rationalize. He even started making the rare 3 at a very efficient rate .368. I know I will miss him.

 

[UpstateSM]

Most of us consider Syracuse to be in the second tier of CBB programs right under the blue bloods, right? Show me how many times the most important player from one of the teams in our tier or above has transferred in the last couple of years, please.

 

[Eric15]

I truly cannot understand why anyone would want to be a college basketball coach anymore.

I mean, you get paid 6-7 figures to coach a game that involves putting a ball in a cylinder. That still seems way better than [insert almost any other job on Earth].

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

We’re gonna be kicking ourselves for not having a Donny Malik combo next year.

 

[Bayside44]

Ok...

Is JJ Starling a transfer next year OR would you suggest he's coming back?

Ok...

Is JJ Starling a transfer next year OR would you suggest he's coming back for Year 2?

If he earns his degree he can do whatever he wants.