[don042488Participant]

I’m a basketball fan for life and time and time again I kept watching the NBA Draft and I hear how several players take the wrong advise from outside people and make the bad decision of entering the NBA Draft, when they weren’t ready. So I took it upon myself to add a whole bunch of prospects in the 2008 high school class and some players already in college basketball, as friends on Myspace. Some reply back, some don’t. Me and Brandon Jennings have wrote back and forth to each other several times, and I gave him advise and told him going to Arizona wasn’t a good ideal, with Lute Olson’s return in limbo at the time, and I suggested for him to consider Arizona State instead, with James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph there, but instead he opting to go to Europe. I’m not knocking on him, because I think he made a good move because he will learn a lot playing against grown men professionally, in a 62 game season, more than he would’ve in college basketball, but there was another player I couldn’t quite get through. This player was former Texas A&M Aggie, DeAndre Jordan. Scouts were hyping up the 6’11 athletic big man, to be the next Dwight Howard, they were saying he’s a top 10 pick, and etc, but when I watched his games, I was like this kid got potential, but he’s real raw. Then as the season progressed and I basically knew already who was entering the draft from who wasn’t, I seen how weak the 2009 NBA Draft looked and I advised him to stay in school because he has a chance to compete with Blake Griffin to be the #1 overall pick in the draft. He kept saying he’ll think about it. So I gave him a whole bunch of reasons why he should stay, #1 to develop his game, #2 mature more as a person and a player, # 3 Aggies best inside player, Joesph Jones, graduated, so he would get more looks inside for the 2008-2009 season, # 4 the Aggies was bringing in a true playmaker in their incoming recruiting class, in Dash Harris, so there was no question about it, he would’ve gotten more looks inside # 5 he would be a lock as a top 5 pick in the weak 2009 NBA Draft and the higher the pick he is, the more money he makes. Did he listen? No, so I then told him not to hire an agent, so he can always return back to college, if his draft stock fell, but it was too late he hired Joel Bell as his agent, also agent of Michael Beasley, and he fell to the 35th pick to the LA Clippers. Now all DeAndre is doing is picking up splinters on the bench, when he could’ve been a star for the Aggies right now.

[don042488Participant]

Former Pittsburgh center, Chris Taft, made the same mistake in the 2005 NBA Draft. He was hyped up to be the next Amare Stoudemire, and of course was told he would’ve been a top 10 pick, but he was doomed by the same fate on draft night and got taken 42nd by the Golden State Warriors and now isn’t even in the league. Same goes former Arizona Wildcat, Marcus Williams, who I thought could’ve developed into a Penny Hardaway type of player, but the rail thin versatile guard, decided to enter the 2007 NBA Draft, instead of returning to school, to add weight to his skinny frame and to add more to his game, and fell to the 33rd pick, to the San Antonio Spurs. Williams too, is not currently in the league. Former Memphis Tiger, and Chucky Atkins younger cousin, Darius Washington Jr. was a highly heralded prospect, from Orlando, Florida. Washington was the second best point guard in the 2004 High School recruiting class, behind Sebastian Telfair. After two seasons at Memphis, he decided to enter the 2006 NBA Draft because his father, who he looks up to dearly, pushed him to and because John Calipari was planning to play him at shooting guard, instead of his natural position at point guard, for the 2006-2007 season. Because GM’s always heard of Washingston’s bad body language, how he’s not mentally tough, and he seemed to be more of a scorer than a playmaker, he went undrafted, and he also isn’t currently in the league. Two players considered as prospects for this year’s draft, I hope they don’t decide to go are BJ Mullens and Tyreke Evans. BJ Mullens falls in the same category as DeAndre Jordan and Chris Taft, he’s too raw and needs to come back to school to develop. I saw in a article that he’s leaning towards entering the 2009 draft because of his family’s financial situation, that’s all well and good, but if he didn’t have the God given gift to play basketball, he would still have to go to college for four years and then get a good job to support his family, so that’s bull crap to me. Might as well, Mullens just stay in school for another year or two and then enter the draft, when he feels he’s ready to make an impact in the league. Now Tyreke Evans is in a different situation, for two reasons, he’s actually putting up good numbers in some aspects and his family is good financially because one of his older brothers, Reggie Evans, plays for the Philadelphia 76’ers and he’s making over $4 million this season. Tyreke Evans also has went on wax to say he feels John Calipari will develop him enough, to be a one and done. Why? Tyreke Evans needs to polish a lot of aspects to his game, such as, cutting down on all the turnover he makes, he needs better shot selection, he needs to tweak the mechanics of his jumpshot, as he tends to fade away all the time, he needs to become a better three point shooter, he needs to become a better finisher around the basket, become a better defender, and get his teammates more involved, as he sometimes shoots his team out of a game. Evans definitely needs another season of college basketball to get him ready for the NBA and with Xavier Henry coming to Memphis, they can create probably one of the most dynamic duos in college basketball next season and, both of them can lead the Tigers perphaps to the Final Four and then both of them can become lottery picks in the 2010 draft.

[los507Participant]

You’re on the money, I’ve noticed there are a lot of guys recently that have no problem coming out early and knowing that they would most likely go in the second round. I don’t understand that, but I guess this probably a byproduct of the over 18 rule. I just think you have to be patient and some of the guys you mentioned were in such a rush to get to the league that they never really did any developing in college. And man you hit the nail on the head talking about D.Washington because that killed me when he left, I felt like he was 1 year away from being a first rounder. I’m a Tiger fan til the day I die. I hope Reke thinks about the fact that the NBA is not going anywhere and the draft is not getting any stronger and he really needs another year of seasoning to work on his left hand. The way Mullen looks he should probably be a 3 yr player at least. If Reke comes back and plays with X.Henry and the Tigers get J.Walls it would really be worth his while to come back. As far as Taft is concerned he really got some bad advice or he just hated school because, I don’t think he was that far off from rounding into the form of a decent rotation guy And then he went pro too early and thats it for him I hope a lot more players start looking at the fact that some players need a little more time to develop than others. A couple extra years of school for certain players makes all the difference in the world. Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay are sterling examples of this.

[bmorebaskekballParticipant]

Never knew they were brothers. I saw a special on ESPN about Tyreke and his family and they didn’t mention that. They talked about team Tyreke, which is his 3 brothers that handle the business side of his basketball life.

[don042488Participant]

I don’t know if you seen it, but the day Tyreke Evans made his to decision to attend Memphis, as his college choice, which was aired on ESPN, Reggie Evans was with them, but I’m not basing it off that, I read in an article their brothers.

[bolewa]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=3347574, They have the same name but they both have different ages the Reggie Evans in the league is 29 while this one is 35.

[don042488Participant]

Reggie Evans in the NBA is Tyreke Evans older brother. How much of a coincidence is it, that they have the same last name and they both grew up in the same exact part of Philadelphia.

[bolewa]

He grew up in Pensacola.

[Author]

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