Well, he obviously made the wrong choice to reclassify, as his decision was financially-based and it ended up costing him millions. Ironically, his decision to leave early was based on money and trying to get in under the current collective bargaining, but it ended up causing him to drop to the mid-2nd round, which cost him those millions. Second round contracts are not guaranteed and there's no pay scale.
He's not going to be poor, as he will still likely sign a contract in the neighborhood of $1 million/year starting out, but none of that money is guaranteed. Compare that to, say, if he had even gone at #20, he would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of at least $6 million guaranteed, even if he was a total flop and got cut and never set foot on the court. Would have been $10 million or more guaranteed if he'd gone top 10, which is where he was projected had he not reclassified.
I don't know who was advising him, but someone gravely miscalculated. As good as he was in high school, it was readily apparent that he was not ready to be a starting college player, on an awful team at that.. Maybe if he'd gone to an established program and been allowed to develop coming off the bench it could have worked out better for him. He needed a stable of good players around him, but what he had was a collection of misfits, and he was expected to take the lead. It was just too much to ask. Hindsight is 20/20 for everyone involved. I said at the time I hoped this wasn't going to be like a player in MLB being rushed through the minors to get to the majors have having his development stunted in the process. At the moment, it appears that is what has happened.
Of course, there's always the possibility that he's not as good as thought. Happens all the time. But, for now, he's in the league. If he blows up, he can sign a mega contract later and none of this will matter. Let's hope that what happens. For now, though, it was a miscalculation.
As it relates to USC, it not's a great look for us to have taken a projected lottery pick and turned him into a mid-2nd rounder.
He's not going to be poor, as he will still likely sign a contract in the neighborhood of $1 million/year starting out, but none of that money is guaranteed. Compare that to, say, if he had even gone at #20, he would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of at least $6 million guaranteed, even if he was a total flop and got cut and never set foot on the court. Would have been $10 million or more guaranteed if he'd gone top 10, which is where he was projected had he not reclassified.
I don't know who was advising him, but someone gravely miscalculated. As good as he was in high school, it was readily apparent that he was not ready to be a starting college player, on an awful team at that.. Maybe if he'd gone to an established program and been allowed to develop coming off the bench it could have worked out better for him. He needed a stable of good players around him, but what he had was a collection of misfits, and he was expected to take the lead. It was just too much to ask. Hindsight is 20/20 for everyone involved. I said at the time I hoped this wasn't going to be like a player in MLB being rushed through the minors to get to the majors have having his development stunted in the process. At the moment, it appears that is what has happened.
Of course, there's always the possibility that he's not as good as thought. Happens all the time. But, for now, he's in the league. If he blows up, he can sign a mega contract later and none of this will matter. Let's hope that what happens. For now, though, it was a miscalculation.
As it relates to USC, it not's a great look for us to have taken a projected lottery pick and turned him into a mid-2nd rounder.
. I’ll still enjoy your other posts.