🏀 KuBuckets Archive

My personal grades:

• Hardman - C - He fills a need, but Chiefs are acting like he's the next Percy Harvin. He does have a valuable skillset in his speed. His ball tracking should be a good combo with Pat. I just don't like trading up for guys in this area usually. However, it is hard to say this was a reach. Word has it the Colts traded up to get him, but then we traded one pick ahead of them. I just don't like the front office's affinity for "gadget" guys. So the only thing wrong with the pick is personal preference.
• Thornhill - A - If he can come in an start right away at FS, this is a great pick. No other way to look at it.
• Saunders - C - I think we could have made some moves to get into the 4th and gotten him there. Had to reach in the 3rd because we didn't have a 4th. Basically made swapping picks with the Seahawks worthless. But, this is a guy with some fun upside...

Hard to grade anything after the 4th round imo. But the RB they drafted had a great PFF grade and Andy has had good success with late round offensive lineman.

Overall, a B-. I would have rather seen then keep their 5th and just take whatever WR was there at 61 (Butler and DK were both there). But it is what it is.

It would only hurt Bill Self if he started lying to recruits. K can lie right to their faces and turn around and get the #1 class the next season.

Too early in the offseason for this.

@dylans Draft has been strange... Just hoping someone falls to us. Hakeem Butler is the guy I'm hoping makes it to 61. Whatever CB is there at 63 is what it is. Might be someone good. Might not be.

Lord knows Veach trades both 2nds to move up though. Guy doesn't have a patient bone in his body. If he had waited until yesterday to make the Clark trade (like he should have) we probably don't make the trade or at least don't end up giving up our 2019 1st.

I blame Andy for Veach getting his job too early. I think Veach is smart. I just don't think he has been around long enough to learn patience. This job should have been Ballard's...

HighEliteMajor said:

@Kcmatt7 We know who got what, we know what Zion got, we know the details. We have the info on any top player. We know the contacts, we know what was suggested to us, we know what we deal failed to meet to get a player. We trying to get deals done. We know what parent got what job, or what house, or what benefits. We are one of the biggest players in the game. Self knows. KT knows. You think that Adidas didn't let us know what Nike was up to? All assuming that the premise that all of this is wide-spread and rampant is true. Time to break the mafia like code of silence (again, under this narrative).

The NCAA can investigate, and force coaches to cooperate, or get hit for the failing to cooperate. The NCAA does have subpoena like power to member institutions.

This would be in part a publicity item, to apply pressure.

Or we can take it up the a** while others skate in a scheme that, under this theory, covered most of CBB? Not me.

This is a pipe dream that’s not based anywhere in reality.

@HighEliteMajor With what evidence? Burn it all down with what? You keep saying it, but I don't see how we could possibly burn it all down considering the NCAA does not have subpoena powers. Our coaches wouldn't want to implicate themselves in anything illegal.

How do you propose we burn it down?

KirkIsMyHinrich said:

BeddieKU23 said:

IT'S GETTING JUICY!!!

Matt Norlander has tweeted about Steve Smith assistant coach at Clemson discussing potential payments to Zion Williamson.

Also USC's Tony Bland on tape discussing payments to lure Marvin Bagley Jr.

Hilarious how both ended up at Duke for FREE RIGHT??? RIGHT???

I think Nike paid Bagley's dad to coach an AAU team or something. Which is fine for some reason.

Yea JJs mom was his AAU coach if I recall correctly... Very very likely that's how money was funneled to him. At least, one avenue.

We are 100% the victim if we are the only ones who end up getting the shaft from all of this. I guess besides Louisville....

I don't think reclassing is done for 2019 yet by a long shot. You'd be dumb to be in that 2021 draft if you can be in the 2020 draft instead. I wonder how many more guys are able to do it. Just going down the ESPN 60 list:

• Mobley
• Hampton
• Johnson
• Brown
• Barnes
• Boston
• Todd
• Cunningham
• Christopher
• Suggs
• Walker
• Roach
• Brakefield
• Dante
• Juzang
• Williams
• Cooper

Yea I'm done. Like 90% of the top guys are old enough. I expect several more names to start popping up.

Not a word about this on the Duke board.

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This is absurd.

Seventh Woods leaving UNC. Big disappointment for them.

Could see Dooley or Martin get him I think he'll be a solid contributor somewhere.

BShark said:

Gorilla72 said:

Jake Weingarten on Twitter is saying Kyree Walker might reclassify to 2019, with KU and Arkansas being the leaders. Additional comment is that KU now has a chance to land two 5* guards this year. Interesting....

The other is RJ Hampton.

I'd be ok with this. He looks like a multi-year guy to me though. I don't know what he thinks he is, but he's a little rough around the edges.

Great size. College ready physique. Decent athlete. Plays with a physicality. Handles are roughhhh. Pretty good finisher. Not shooting .400 from 3, but better shooter than JJ. Goes after rebounds.

Looks to me like a modern day 4 man not really a wing.

BeddieKU23 said:

@Kcmatt7

That is a good point about merging into one. 247 and Scout did it recently but even that pool of fans was one-sided in size with the Phog having way more. I don't think many on here would stick around if this place one day merged with the Phog. Nightmare over there and takes away from some of the people that post on there that actually are good.

Basically 90% of this board would not last on the Phog. I agree.

BShark said:

Woodrow said:

For those of you that follow KU recruiting closely does it seem like this past year there has been almost no coverage of it? There just isn't a good site that provides any information on updates on any of the recruits that we are after. I just never read anything about who we are visiting how visits went and such. Holyfield visited Monday and I literally haven't seen one word about it.

The only information I really ever see is from Corey Evans or Eric Bossi and it is usually in their little weekly write ups. Just is a lot different than it used to be.

Matt Scott was the only guy with any real connections but obviously he wasn't without fault. The guys at 24/7 now are just beat reporters.

And even Matt had his faults... I don't doubt he did his best, but he was often a tease and his CB picks weren't reliable. He rarely staked his name to a definitive statement.

The problem may very well be that we as a KU collective have not jumped to a single site to generate enough traffic and revenue for a sports site to justify hiring a beat reporter. RR is THE place to talk about UK basketball. DD is pretty good as well from what I see.

We have people on LJW, the Phog, SB Nation, here and I'm sure a few other places. If we combined everyone, it would be as toxic as RR. But we might get a legit reporter... So there is a give and a take to it all.

BeddieKU23 said:

Kcmatt7 said:

BeddieKU23 said:

Can Hampton and Dotson co-exist on the court? Someone needs to be able to shoot on the perimeter..

They’d fit better than Dotson and Garrett...

And you think he'd play over him? I'd love to believe that would happen but would Self. He love Marcus

100%. I’ll have to find who it is, but someone on Twitter that seems somewhat knowledgeable said Self has personally been more involved with RJ than basically any recruit in recent memory. He wants him bad.

Garrett only started 13 of 30 games last season... I don’t know that Self is THAT in live with his game.

BeddieKU23 said:

Can Hampton and Dotson co-exist on the court? Someone needs to be able to shoot on the perimeter..

They’d fit better than Dotson and Garrett...

KirkIsMyHinrich said:

Hagans, Quickley, Maxey, Whitney, probably Juzang... does Kentucky have room for Hampton?

If that happens I’m done watching college basketball. I am. I don’t care if he goes to Memphis. But if he goes to UK I’m done.

Not a soul clean in CBB.

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Crimsonorblue22 said:

No trob?😭

To be fair, he’s the only one that doesn’t need the money 😂

BShark said:

Kcmatt7 said:

Hampton is coming. It just has that feel. And I'll eat my words about Adidas today.

I'm trying to not get excited but it's hard. I hope this decision is mostly up to RJ.

This is one we need. This is a whatever it takes recruitment.

Withey has to be the last one.... The hair fits. I don't know who else it would be.

Hampton is coming. It just has that feel. And I'll eat my words about Adidas today.

Fans are funny...

Kneel for the National Anthem, they want to burn you at the stake and will boycott a season in mass.

Beat a woman, but your an Olympic level speedster? Just, uh, please don't do that again. Will you sign my jersey?

I'm not surprised at all. And the money is great. It was obviously inevitable. We were probably never even negotiating with anyone else.Honestly, the amount also probably includes what would have been a settlement in civil court anyways.

I just know that for the next 14 years we are probably going recruit worse than Duke, Arizona, UNC and UK.

But the money is great. We should be happy.

BShark said:

Kcmatt7 said:

Sigh.

WE WILL BE BACK

It's fine. Just, the only thing good about Adidas is Reebok lol. Can we at least wear Reebok gear instead? haha

Sigh.

Crimsonorblue22 said:

But, we have such quality players like mahomes. There are many more that give so much to our community. Salvy and Duffy too. More guys than I know. I know Dayton and the Royals have charity events they support. There are more quality guys than bad, many of them go to Jayhawk games.

And even "bad" guys can end up doing a lot for a community afterward, when the realize they need to change and they become devoted to giving back.

I come from a much rougher family than most would ever believe, so I HAVE to believe in 2nd chances. Even for some heinous stuff. People screw up. Sometimes, they do truly awful things. But many people can change. Many people WANT to be good people, they just go down the wrong path. They do something they never even believed they were capable of.

And a few years later that same person could turn into one of the best people you know. I have many, many examples of people like this in my own personal life. And it's why I usually feel so strongly about giving people a second chance.

@nuleafjhawk Attending sports live is definitely something I have disdain for... I can agree on that no doubt.

@nuleafjhawk I think I went to one of my last Royals games just this year. We got the cheapest tickets they had online. We got parking online for cheaper than the gate. We got two beers. It was over $60 for two of us.

You just can't afford to go to live sports anymore.

However, if you watch the games, you are still supporting it. Ratings are what matter in the TV industry. And sports is one of the few things left that advertisers will pay top dollar for spots on because you don't have a choice but to watch the commercials. Contracts have increased so much because of TV and advertising money, not because of the price of a hot dog.

dylans said:

@Kcmatt7 I’m becoming less than enthused at the character of “my” Chiefs team. I’m having a hard time getting behind this move regardless of his football dominance. Like KU basketball I only watch the Chiefs and possibly the championship game, if it weren’t for Mahomes I wouldn’t watch a single NFL game given the Hill, Clark, Hunt, Belcher, etc. junk.

Domestic violence and the FBI have all but ruined sports for me.

I forgot about rolling the Berry dead money into 2 years instead of taking the hit this year.

Again, I do not think this is a great topic to get into. At least not if people are going to look at it emotionally instead of from a philosophical viewpoint. Which, is basically a guarantee. So, I say we just table it. What's done is done.

@nuleafjhawk The players getting paid is not the players fault. If it wasn't going into the player's pockets, it would be going into the owner's.

dylans said:

The numbers I’m looking at must be wrong then. I see 22 million in cap space less 4.5 million in future commitments to drafted players. Before the Clark deal.

Crazy money considering the Chiefs weren’t willing to pay a qb over 20 million a couple years ago. Now they locked in a DE for 20 mil a year for 5 years. 63 million guaranteed likely spread out over 3 years if not the life of the contract in the form of a signing bonus.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/cap/ ↗

He had better be an amazing football player; he’s proven to be of poor character.

$9M more comes open Jun 1 from cutting Berry.

A hefty Roster Bonus will likely be put in place in year 1, which will be apart of the guaranteed money (and moves the cap hit to June if he makes the team or the 2020 cap if he were cut for some reason). Either way, it will basically move it so they can use the Berry money.

The remaining signing bonus money will be spread out over the 5 years of the deal. Probably only $25M signing bonus.

As far as "crazy money" goes, the cap has increased 30M since then. Contracts reflect that.

I'm definitely not going to comment on his character. It's not my call who we sign. And getting into some sort of ethical discussion about it likely will lead to nothing but trouble. However, I agree that his character is less than ideal.

As long as people watch them on TV and TV companies pay godly amounts of money, neither sport is going anywhere.

@dylans we have $30M in cap space this year left starting June 1 with really no one left to spend it on.

His salary in year one should be like $1m.

But his bonus in year one should be $30M. Which cuts half of the guaranteed.

Now it’s a 4 year $70M with only 30M guaranteed staring next season. That’s reasonable.

Gorilla72 said:

@BShark - where did you see this? Link?

All over Twitter.

It’s unreal. Duke and UK getting top guys for bench spots. We can’t sell a starting spot.

I'm not trying to get myself too hyped, but he looks like a guy who plays hard. And that jumper don't exactly look broke (form-wise).

FarmerJayhawk said:

Kcmatt7 said:

Possible Reclass? He's already 18. Maybe trying to sneak into the 2020 draft?

It'll be official. He'll be 19 during the 2020 draft year so it's possible assuming his grades are in order.

That's what I like to hear.

@BShark Sorry, he WILL be 18 in July.

Possible Reclass? He's already 18. Maybe trying to sneak into the 2020 draft?

nuleafjhawk said:

@Kcmatt7 Where can I find your sarcasm font? Is that an APP or something I can download?

Lol I'm obviously being sarcastic, but I'm also glad to hear the staff is turning over rocks.

I'm definitely not being critical of anyone

https://247sports.com/player/leke-asenuga-46080751/ ↗

Another big name.

The question is, who is even good next year?

UNC taking a step back. Duke has a great class coming in, but Carey isn't Zion and Hurt isn't Barrett. Marquette could have been a top 10 team if the brothers had stayed. Virginia is losing their top 3 players. Tech lost some players. Yet to be seen at Memphis. Georgia has Tom Crean as HC.

UK and MSU are 1A and 1B.

After that it's a crapshoot. At least that's what it looks like to me.

lol at twitter right now.

We just locked up a 25 year old elite DE for 5 years. It was a fine deal. We can pay half of the guaranteed cash this year alone.

Those ears... Too easy to tell it was him lol

You knew something was up when they weren't having a draft party.

I like it.

Now go flip your other 2nd round picks for Peterson.

justanotherfan said:

Kcmatt7 said:

@BeddieKU23 If Bryce Brown did at KU what he did at Auburn I think he gets drafted. That's all I'm saying. 141 threes is absurd. And that is something that I'd harp on.

I definitely think Bill sells him a starting spot. Or at least phrases it, that if he can't beat out either of those two, he isn't an NBA player anyways.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

There's a very recent KU comp to Bryce Brown - Malik Newman.

Newman averaged 14.2 PPG, 5 RPG, 2 APG last year at KU, and had the huge NCAA tournament that led his team to the Final Four.

Brown averaged 15.9 PPG, 2 RPG, 2 APG this year for Auburn, and had a huge NCAA tournament to lead his team to the Final Four.

Both guys are 6-3 SG. Both were in the same HS class, with Brown just five months younger than Newman.

Brown's shooting percentages this year were 43/41/81.

Newman's last year were 46/41/84.

There's not that much difference between the two, honestly. Score first, undersized SG's don't have a lot of margin in the NBA. Not sure that Brown gets drafted coming out of KU.

Tucker probably gets drafted if he puts up numbers similar to what he did at Little Rock at a P5 school. He's 6-5 and athletic. That additional size makes all the difference. In that respect, because he just needs to play in a P5 conference, KU doesn't have a decided advantage over Auburn on this.

That's a relatively good comp. I don't have much of a rebuttal other than Bryce did it as THE guy that got schemed for. But you definitely make a great argument.

Woodrow said:

I have seen two preseason polls for next year today after players committed and they had KU ranked #3 and #9. Those are both assuming Dotson comes back. I think the doom and gloom of next year is greatly exaggerated.

Dot and Doke alone can carry a lot of the burden. Big Dave and Ochai are above average "secondary" players. Mitch and Garrett are solid rotation guys.

It's far from doom and gloom from me. Doke being back changed everything for my 2019-2020 expectations.