http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/st

no plaisted in the first round, what a surprise

Hengst wrote:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/st

no plaisted in the first round, what a surprise :dry:

I believe you can still make decent money by going in the second round.

You can also be cut.. or designated to the D league. Trent will rot on the pine for a year and end up in no mans land, instead of having a resume' senior year with a top 10-15 BYU squad. His professional career will be about as long as Luke Staley's and about 1/5 as long as Arajous (and 1/100 as profitable.)

The true money in the NBA is in longevity. A guy like Mark Madsen builds a reputation in college and lives off that reputation for a decade+ and is set for life. Same for Scott Pollard, Brian Scalabrine, etc.
And don't give me Europe; for every 1 guy like Travis Hansen there are 49 other Americans that Europe chews up and spits out. It's not all rainbows and roses in international hoops; especially for a guy that can't shoot the ball. (European big men make their free throws too)

Trent is nobody to the league and will be treated like nobody.

I would have completely understood if a guy like Stephen Curry (who did have a resume' year) left early because his team lost their top 3 players or the guys on Kansas;(chalmers, arthur, rush) because they just won the NC, etc. But Trent did nothing at the end of the season and his stock is not very high right now. He basically would have been holding a full house and the keys to a shiny studly loaded BYU team with a depleted NCAA field, and instead pushed all of his chips in holding a pair of 2s. I think we completely overvalue the fact that he's 6'11" - Heck the state of Utah has produced 9-10 6'10"+ guys in the last few years; they're just not as rare as you'd think; (especially ones that can't hit the back side of a barn from the free throw line, can't box out, and don't have a single offensive move that will work in the NBA.)

I try to root for guys that leave BYU and move on to the pros, but I just can't root for Trent. To me, his leaving early was on the bone-headed level of a John Walsh or Luke Staley.

What he potentially would have gotten out of leading the most talented BYU team since the mid 80s could have been priceless. If you don't see the value of senior seasons, look no further than Arajuo. The guy is set for life from his 1st lottery contract; a contract that Trent will never see in his entire playing career. Haffa earned that contract from 2-3 games his senior year and his huge effort against Syracuse; a losing effort for the BYU team but a big winner for Haffa. Because of the way that Haffa went out, I could root for him regardless of his lack of success. I dont' think I'll ever root for Trent.

Hengst wrote:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/st

no plaisted in the first round, what a surprise :dry:

Your acting as if Trent needs to be lottery pick to justify his decision. I'm sure he knew all too well that he wasn't getting the type of coaching he needed at BYU to improve his chance of playing in the NBA. Therefore it made no sense for him to stick around for another year of the same lack of developmental opportunity. At some point one has to consider the opportunity to provide for one's family vs playing the game in exchange for a scholarship.

I'm more concerned about future potential BYU players. If Trent is able to quickly address those missing components in his game, what does that say about the quality of BYU's coaching of their big men? Don't take me wrong here. I'm support Coach Rose, but I do see three weaknesses in his coaching style:

1) Limited development of his big men (need to work on facing the basket, hitting the short to mid range jumper, and getting serious about boxing out on rebounds),

2) Not using his pt guard more to penetrate and pass off or make the shot,

3) over-dependence upon the 3-pt shot (this could become a huge problem when the 3-pt distance is increased).

I don't want to see another big man come to BYU and show good ability his Frosh year and then only minor improvement (if any) after that. If the player is serious about his game, I imagine it would be frustrating to not get the type of coaching needed to improve his game.

Of course, what do I know. I'm just a fan with fond memories of Ainge, Roberts, Cosic, & etc.

Conosticator wrote:

Hengst wrote:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/st

no plaisted in the first round, what a surprise :dry:

Your acting as if Trent needs to be lottery pick to justify his decision. I'm sure he knew all too well that he wasn't getting the type of coaching he needed at BYU to improve his chance of playing in the NBA. Therefore it made no sense for him to stick around for another year of the same lack of developmental opportunity. At some point one has to consider the opportunity to provide for one's family vs playing the game in exchange for a scholarship.

I'm more concerned about future potential BYU players. If Trent is able to quickly address those missing components in his game, what does that say about the quality of BYU's coaching of their big men? Don't take me wrong here. I'm support Coach Rose, but I do see three weaknesses in his coaching style:

I don't want to see another big man come to BYU and show good ability his Frosh year and then only minor improvement (if any) after that. If the player is serious about his game, I imagine it would be frustrating to not get the type of coaching needed to improve his game.

I don't get this neccessity for a big man guru on the coaching staff. If anything I think the best thing a big guy gets out of a good school is their athletic trainers and facilities; BYU is top notch there. My guess is that Trent didnt' take much advantage of having a guy like Jay Omer there at his disposal.

Very rarely does a basketball coach make a guy a better pro prospect; especially true if you consider the majority of top picks are freshmen and sophs; many guys become better pros than they were college players (ex: vince carter, michael jordan, dwayne wade, etc.) Does this mean that they weren't properly coached in college? (No)
So lets' take that leap about worrying about recruiting....What school has a lock on producing great big men? Do you honestly think that Michael Beasley went to Kstate because of their great history with big men?
Since when did Ohio State become the place that Greg Oden was going to become a great big?
Why would anyone attend Duke if you were basing your decision on the type of pros they produce? Aside from Boozer and Brand, (and possibly Deng) nearly every all american from Duke has been a bust in the league. J Williams, Reddick, Laettner, Ferry, Duhon, Langdon, (don't even get me started on Chris Burgess) etc. etc. etc.
While you're at it, name me a big man that Roy Williams,Bobby Knight or Dean Smith made good pros. Eric Montross anyone? Brendon Haywood? Greg Ostertag? (Honestly the only 2 guys I can think of off the top of my head that consistently produced solid NBA worthy big men are John Thompson Sr. and Rick Majerus)

Stanford has produced big man after big man, (Madsen, Borchardt, Collins twins, now the Lopez boys) and being family friends with their asst. coach Nick Robinson, I can tell you that they don't have a big man guru.

Great players are born, not coached and carved out of stone. They either get the most out of less by working their tails off (like a Steve Nash) or have developed enormous skill to go with their fabulous genetics (Kevin Garnett). Very rarely does a nobody come to school (especially a 7 foot nobody) and leave school a somebody. There is too much AAU and spring, summer hoops. The coaches know who the players are long before they end up at school. Some fall through the cracks (Nick Fazekas, Stephen Curry, Paul Milsap, JC Carrol, etc.) but that's extremely rare. Usually you know a future NBAer from day 1. They only improve or digress from that point. The great Utes of the last 15 years were great the day they stepped foot on campus (Van Horn, Bogut, etc.) The great Cougars have been the same (Ainge, Durrant, Smith). I'm sorry but coaching NCAA hoops is not about producing better pros, it's about building good college hoops teams.

To me, this sounds like Trent ducking the responsibility for not improving because in actuality: #1 not loving the game of basketball (if you dont' love it why spend 8 hours a day practicing on your own) #2 just being plain stupid and unteachable (the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over the same way but expecting different results) #3 Being lazy - (You' re 6'11", you don't shoot outside so you have 3 college years to beef up, get up to 255-260 lbs and become a glass eater yet fail to get there- there is no room in the NBA for 6'11" guys that tap dance in the block) #4 Having terrible advisors that think he's much better than the rest of the world.

Those that think that he'll get more teaching and attention at the next level are absolutely dense. It's a business there, guys are not coddled like they are in college; they're expected to be pros and act like pros-which means improving on your own. The lack of serious effort in the weight room and on his own in a dark quiet gym with no one cheering him on are his problem; I don't see how that's going to change; especially if he's going to try to blame the coaching staff for his lack of improvement.

Can you imagine someone like Larry Bird blaming his lack of success because he wasn't coached up enough?

Conosticator wrote:

Hengst wrote:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/st

no plaisted in the first round, what a surprise :dry:

Your acting as if Trent needs to be lottery pick to justify his decision. I'm sure he knew all too well that he wasn't getting the type of coaching he needed at BYU to improve his chance of playing in the NBA. Therefore it made no sense for him to stick around for another year of the same lack of developmental opportunity. At some point one has to consider the opportunity to provide for one's family vs playing the game in exchange for a scholarship.

I'm more concerned about future potential BYU players. If Trent is able to quickly address those missing components in his game, what does that say about the quality of BYU's coaching of their big men? Don't take me wrong here. I'm support Coach Rose, but I do see three weaknesses in his coaching style:

1) Limited development of his big men (need to work on facing the basket, hitting the short to mid range jumper, and getting serious about boxing out on rebounds),

2) Not using his pt guard more to penetrate and pass off or make the shot,

3) over-dependence upon the 3-pt shot (this could become a huge problem when the 3-pt distance is increased).

I don't want to see another big man come to BYU and show good ability his Frosh year and then only minor improvement (if any) after that. If the player is serious about his game, I imagine it would be frustrating to not get the type of coaching needed to improve his game.

Of course, what do I know. I'm just a fan with fond memories of Ainge, Roberts, Cosic, & etc.

What guard did we have this year that was capable of penetrating the lane? Just one, and he was a true freshman.

So because Trent didn't have a developed game, we put that on the coaching staff? In that case, I suppose they get 100% credit for squeezing every bit of potential out of a 6'6" guy like Keena Young that could do all of those things. Bravo, coaches..you did a great job with Keena, why couldn't you do the same with Trent?

Over=depedence on the 3? How else were we going to score? Trent and his one soft move? Honestly, there were several games, that I wished we had shot more 3's. Let's not forget that JT is a true soph; Jimmer is a true frosh, and Murdock and Burgess were never ideal starters for a top 20 team. I'd say we did a great job taking advantage of our strengths by shooting 3's. Again, if the next option was giving Trent the ball, I'd say chuck the 3s up as much as you want.

And Cosic, Ainge, Roberts, Michael Smith, Durrant, Hanson, etc. were all gym rats that loved the game of basketball. Since when did you ever get the impression that Plaisted loves hoops? He's a big man that wants a paycheck......that's all

Our hoops team hasn't been in better hands since before Shawn Bradley flew the coop and Roger Reid lost his mind.