I agree with a great deal of this post, esp the people hyping recruits and players. But you have a huge double standard at the end. You say Roy gets spun as not being OAD friendly because he doesn't rush people out. From everything I've read Roy has said if he thinks the kid is ready or going to be a very high pick he will support that early jump if that's what the player wants. Please correct that if I am wrong. K does the same thing. He's not kicking these guys out the door, but hes not holding them back. He's saying if you are going to be a top pick I will advise you of where I think you stand, but if you want to go that's fine. UNC fans are spinning this as, you are a OAD move on so I can make room for next year" This is what Calipari has openly said he does. But if K tells a player, you may be a top pick but I don't think you are ready UNC and the media crucifies him. William Avery...lottery pick but K said he should come back another year....can't win. Jason Williams recently commented that K talked him back for the 3rd year and he probably could have gone and people on this board ripped into K(not saying you, but public backlash...) Williams draft stock didn't get hurt with another year and nobody can predict a motorcycle accident....
Should also be pointed out I have never said K turned anyone into a OAD. I said they played their way into top picks. That's a combination of coaching, skill, and mostly player work ethic(we all have seen supremely talented kids who wouldn't put in the work waste away) I don't think K magically took Tyus and Justice and suddenly they were talented. I do think that at the end of the year he sat down with both and discussed where their draft stock was and where it could be. Justice has the size that NBA wants....so the potential is there. Tyus is undersized compared to most PGs. Hes smart and has a good shot but not a freak athlete, not dominant. I truly believe his stock likely was about as high as it would go. With that in mind maybe it was good for him to strike when the iron was hot. We will never know what would have happened if he had come back, but I know that if he did and wasn't picked in a year or two people would say K held him back. It easy to say the wrong thing was done 5 years later when you see the outcome.
Interested if you know or would guess as to what Roy told Marvin Williams or Brandon Wright? Only an idiot would say he didn't want them back, but did he support them leaving to be top 10 picks? If so was it that they were ready or was it they had a huge opportunity.
Actually the double standard is those negative recruiting suggesting that Roy holds his players back.
AS for the players played their way to being a one & done? That is a bit self serving is it not, every kid plays his way in to being a one & done, do they not?
What you describe K as doing is what every single D-1 coach does with their player, Roy included, that has a chance to be one & done. So excuse me while I suggest K does not have the corner on that market..
I don't have to guess what Roy told both Brandan and Marvin, he did exactly what you share K did, he spoke to his NBA contacts and got a solid assessment of how the NBA considered them, what they needed to work on and where they would likely be drafted and he then let the kids make up their own minds. I am not try8ing to spin that as Roy being the only coach in the country to do that, they ALL do that.
Let me correct you on one thing, I can darn well predict that I will never get in to a motorcycle accident, don't get on one and you will not crash one. If you do ride, the odds that you will get in to a serious accident are pretty darn high, how many folks do you know that ride a bike a lot that have never had to lay it down, few I wager, have had 3 friends killed on those things. You want to ride one fine, it is your choice but when you do you accept the risk and if you are a professional athlete you risk your career.
As you say, from JWill's own mouth, K talked him in to coming back, by definition means he talked him out of entering the NBA when he wanted to. By definition, is that not holding the player back from what he wants? There is that darn double standard thingy again...
