azcavalier wrote:
Slugger wrote:
Trent's a great kid and an amazing athlete for his size. But he is not ready for the NBA. He can't shoot facing the basket and is still too bouncy. He needs to work on strength and posting up with his feet on the ground. No argument that he's one of the most athletic 7-footers you'll find anywhere, but he'll get his lunch handed to him in the NBA by the likes of Duncan, Howard, Stoudamire, and Wallace. He needs to add more to his arsenal, namely outside shooting and improved rebounding. I hope he finds a niche in the NBA, but now isn't the time.
While I don't disagree that he needs to come back, I don't think he's all of a sudden going to develop a shot. He can't just not shoot while facing the basket...he can't jump shoot at all. He does lay ups, dunks, hook shots, and put backs. He's just so athletic that he can get that shot off. That's why his free throws are so abysmal...he has no "shot". And that's not going to develop over one year.
But that's OK. It's not his game. If he can just learn how to go BOTH directions off of a post, then he'll be hard to stop next season. The problem is, he's really one dimensional. It's just that the one dimension he has is pretty danged good.
He does layups? Since when? I doubt his shooting % would have changed if they had removed the glass.
And let's get dunks with open space separate from dunking over an opponent on the block. He's big and athletic, thus can dunk when given a wide open invitation to the hoop. He cannot get the ball on the block, take a dribble and dunk over a smaller or less athletic opponent (or rather, he doesn't).
Trent needs to get his head on straight before he can worry about a 10 foot jumpshot off the glass.
1st and foremost, Trent needs to learn to play with a mean streak like he wants to win (ala Hansbrough). Next year at BYU would be the 1st time he really could afford to do that. Chris Miles and Mcgregor will be seasoned backups.
He also needs to learn to make quicker decisions in the block. Think less, play more. It should be instinctive to feel the help defense and get that ball out. Sometimes it takes Trent an hour to decide what he wants to do. I have to wonder if he's as worried about failing as he is about succeeding. (Honestly what else would convince a big man that he has to shoot hook shots and fadeaways when he's got a height and athletic advantage? His timid style has evolved into a timid scoring game above the rim and I wonder if he can get away from it now.
I think I'd fall out of my chair if he took a ball on the baseline and just stuffed it with guys trying to take his dribble 'to the middle for the baby hook' away.)
Those lapses can't happen, take the ball and score, or find the open man. You've got ballers on your team. Trust that they'll pick you up and play like you have nothing to lose.
And last but not least, he as as much to gain by coming back and improving as anyone in college hoops. BYU basketball has a chance next year to have the best and deepest team since Danny Ainge laced it up. While we may pat Lee on the back for being conference player of the year, it's Trents name that NBA scouts are going to follow. They know who he is and they'll be looking for that improvement.
It's not often that you can improve your resumee by a few million dollars by hitting the weights, shooting free throws and 10 foot shots off the glass, but that's exactly what Trent can do. His senior year could be the most valuable season a BYU player has had since Araujo set himself up for life by being a lottery pick. Say what you want about Haffa and his career, but he got paid because he did almost everything right his senior season.
I honestly think that if Trent leaves this season, he ends up in the nbdl and eventually in europe. And while it worked out for Travis Hansen, Travis has always played a European style of game. Big men in Europe shoot the ball. They play zone defenses and there isn't a lot of inside game (except garbage men points which is not Trent's strong suit).
All that aside, Europe is not for everyone and while some have success, and enjoy happiness and prosperity playing in Europe, the great majority wash back up on US shores.
If Trent takes the most loaded BYU team in decades to the sweet 16 or beyond, he buys himself at minimum the NBA pinetime that Haffa got. Now if Trent develops more of an offensive game, he might just buy himself a 5-10 year NBA career; a pension, and stability that the vast majority of European playing Americans never benefit from.
Honestly, I think the worst possible scenario is that he goes to the Orlando predraft (it's easy to shine for an athletic guy that can finish alley oops in a unstructured "baby allstar game" it's different to do that in a real game, with coaches that know your strengths and weaknesses on both side), has a couple good pickup games and gets drafted in the mid 2nd round, just to not make the cut and land in the nbdl or no mans land when they see his glaring deficiencies in real game situations.
The best possible scenario (in my head)always involves him coming back and forcing himself into the lottery by shocking us all and bringing a commanding arsenal and confidence to BYU hoops next year. This is not an unreasonable possibility. Why settle for anything else? Especially if you could be the poster boy for a Top 15 ranked BYU hoops squad returning all their best players.
