@HawksWin–As usual, everything I write is opining and speculation without inside information, or access to anyone on the inside, to my knowledge. And it was probably wishful thinking on my part that it could never happen, as CJonline’s Ben Ward was quick to point out. And he was alas probably all too correct. But…
Andrew reputedly came out early. I believe that if its okay to come out early because you think you may be able to play at a higher level than high school, that it should also be okay to wait a year longer than planned to play more consistently with the expectations of yourself and your trusted advisors, rather than necessarily ploughing ahead to the NBA. Why does Andrew necessarily have to go to the NBA the end of this season? Why is it that necessarily the best thing for him and his family and his business potential?
Outward appearances suggest to this fan that his physique appears not as physically mature as Lebron’s appeared when he went to the pros. Neural nets develop at different rates in different persons. Why do Andrew’s necessarily have to be ready now? What is set in stone about going pro just because the NBA wants to make him an extremely high pick?
Money is a huge consideration, probably decisive. But earnings can be looked at different ways. Why is it written in stone that he has to grab the bones now to avoid injury? If injury risk were paramount, why didn’t he just sit out this season of OAD play, put himself in a padded cacoon and come out a year later and go straight to the NBA to avoid injury entirely? Why is playing one season in D1 the best thing for Andrew and two seasons unthinkable?
During Jesse’s blog it occurred to me that his folks are former athletes that know what it is like to compete at a high level. They can recall coaching and team dynamics. They probably understand some, or a lot of the dynamics of the various potential business forces pulling on their son’s career planning. It just occurred to me that if he were my son and he appeared to be playing at some what less than what I had forecasted in my expectations, despite putting up good but not great numbers, well, if he were my son and it was thought that he could get to the hole anytime he wanted, but hasn’t always seemed to, I would want to come and see for myself, lend him some moral support and try to reevaluate around now whether I wanted him to continue with the OAD approach, or ease back and wait a year. It occurred to me that if he were my son, I would want to meet with his coach and get his advice at this point in the season. If he were my son, if he were not doing all the things I and our advisors thought he should reasonably be able to do this season in D1, and be relatively happy and consistent doing them, then I would probably entertain staying an extra year, because the risks of injury would seem lower to me (a layman fan), than the risks of stunting his growth and getting him caught up dysfunctionally in further hype this season, and in the awesome rigors of the NBA (no boys allowed) next. I thought about it all and it occurred to me that the next Lebron, that could play like the next Lebron in the NBA next season, would go. And it occurred to me that the next Lebron, or Kobe, as slayr has recently modified his player development modeling conception of Andrew to, would wait until his play and physique suggested he could enter the NBA and play like the next Lebron, or Kobe.
If I recall correctly, Lebron started most of his first NBA season and did pretty well; that was not the case with Kobe.
What I like so much about slayr’s re-casting of Andrew in terms of Kobe is that Kobe is also, a great one, but that Kobe had a gradual development process compared to Lebron. And Andrew and Kobe’s games and body morphology potentials seem much more closely related than Andrew and Lebron. And last but not least, slayr was insightful enough to make clear that if Andrew were to model his game off Kobe that would involve retooling from a high injury risk, get to the rim guy, into a low injury risk create space for jump shooting all over the floor guy. slayr was apparently crafting an answer to those worries about injury that propel players to jump as early as circumstances will permit based on what they already can do, versus what they after some more work, should be able to do, regardless of their rates of maturity. slayr was apparently holding out a hypothetical career path consistent with greatness and huge earnings, but a modestly slower rate of development than Lebtron’s career and with less injury risk. In turn, it occurred to me that were Andrew and his brain trust to consider slayr’s IMHO astute insights about Andrew vis a vis Kobe, that they might come to view staying another season at KU as a reasonable alternative, given that injury risk would be minimized and Andrew could arguably afford the extra year, because he reputedly came out of high school a year earlier than Lebron, did not come from poverty, and maybe came at little earlier than the model of Kobe.
Andrew seems too great of a young player to let conventional wisdom box him into leaving early no matter what.
In my fan’s opinion, Andrew should go the the NBA as soon as he is comfortable and able to find a situation in the NBA that might be able to simulate Kobe’s early years with the Lakers, whatever might be even better fitted to what his development status were when he goes.
But from the outside looking in, the NBA today and its draft do not seem a place geared to taking Number One draft choices and making them subs their first seasons, 6th men their second seasons, and then starters their third seasons. For Number Ones, especially guards, they seem to want to accelerate them as quickly as possible into starting their first seasons, like Lebron did. But of course I do not watch the NBA closely and so I could be wrong in this assumption.
Nevertheless, is coming out immediately really the best that can be done for this apparently exceptional human being, not just player, that is Andrew Wiggins? It seems to me that he deserves to be cut some slack just because he is so exceptional.
But I’m just a fan and so, what I write, or what ex-player and now fan slayr writes probably doesn’t (and probably shouldn’t) account for much.
Still, when you see some one this exceptional, someone so obviously gifted in certain ways that seem not yet any where near mature capabilities, you want to wave your KU pendant from the cheap iSeats and shout, hey, can anybody hear me down there? Will someone consider cutting this exceptional human being some slack!!! Does he have to go so soon, when nothing is written?
I can at least imagine an NBA situation next year that could be a better trade off than staying at KU, But I can imagine a lot of worse NBA situations than being at KU next season. Unless some great NBA team has the ideal slot all set up for Andrew’s unique situation, I sure hope Andrew’s brain trust gives some consideration to Andrew staying another year, whether or not KU wins a ring this season, and considers slayr’s remarks about Andrew in terms of Kobe.
Rock Chalk!
