Here's a nice piece on Xavier Henry over at Grantland.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10120670/the-resurrection-lakers-forward-xavier-henry ↗ ↗
Glad to see that Xavier is finally healthy and playing. It seems like a lot of former KU players have dealt with injuries since going to the NBA - Rush, Henry, Selby, Arthur. It's nice to see that Henry has been able to come back from that.
Glad to see Carl is still trying to pull the strings,
Xavier Henry was developing into an NBA player. But all Carl Henry could do was cringe. He wanted his son to shoot more.
But here is an intriguing quote,
"I think the toughest thing for [Henry] is that he was at Kansas for only a year before he left early for the draft," Monty Williams, New Orleans's coach, told the Times Picayune in March 2012. "Then he goes to Memphis and is hurt, so he doesn't get the same teaching. Then we have a lockout. That's two years where he hasn't played consistently."
How many players who entered the draft with high potential, but were not ready get the same amount of coaching/support they would have when they were the stars of their college teams had they come back to school?
Regarding Coach Self's recommendation for a player who is potentially a lottery pick,
"Like a lot of kids, I think he was ready to make a lot of money," Self said. "It's hard to fault anybody when they leave, ... then you risk a lot of things. My thing is, if a kid's a lottery pick, then it'd be hard for me as a coach to try and convince him to stay."
Henry was not injured while in school, but was after going to the NBA. Was he injury prone? Could it be he knew something wasn't right at the end of his year at KU, so he didn't want to risk it being exposed before the next draft?
What's the downfall other than being injured while in school? If being exposed of the deficiencies by staying in school is such a high risk, wouldn't "not getting the chance to develop and correct the deficiencies" be even more damaging? Based on Henry's experience, I'd say yes.
Now for Embiid, will he be a starter on the NBA team if he is drafted with a lottery pick next year? And I'm assuming he won't be nearly as ready as Olajuwon when he was drafted No. 1 after graduating. Will he get the same amount of teaching/nurturing/support from the NBA team as KU? Remember Coach Self coaching philosophy, the ball always go through the big man. At KU, Embiid will be THE go-to guy if he comes back next year. But will he if he is on a NBA team?
So what's the advantage for Embiid to go after this year other than grabbing the quick money?
I caught a glimpse of him the other night and goodness, the arms on that young man. I don't remember him being so built up when he was at KU.
@wissoxfan83 Anything else about X that turned you on?
Xavier had the misfortune of being drafted by Memphis. Instead of giving him the signing bonus all rookies get, they refused and he sat out the pre-season, the time when rookies get their initial exposure to the big boys game and earn playing time. I believe his agent bears some of the responsibility, but there is a good chance that he was following order from Carl. The injury and lockout and his trade to New Orleans were additional bad breaks.
He seems to be now in a good situation with the Lakers, who need a player like him and picked him up as a free agent. He has risen to the challenge and revived a career that many thought was over.
@HighEliteMajor No, you?
Xavier is now the starting point guard with Kobe going down, at least until one of their three injured point guards (most likely Farmar) comes back.
http://www.lakersnation.com/lakers-news-without-kobe-bryant-xavier-henry-will-play-point-guard/2013/12/19/ ↗ ↗