Ha, no need to trust me more

But I would say if he’s going to go in the first round — and I think he will, even if I don’t know if it’s necessarily deserved — he needs to go to a team with veteran bigs, a coaching staff and some sort of commitment to development. The Spurs (29), Mavs (26), Celtics (25) and Rockets (23) all fit those requirements. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Thunder drafted him and stashed him in the D-League, a la Latavious Williams this season.

What’s his ceiling? I don’t know if anyone can really know his ceiling at this point aside from Bob Hill. If he gets everything together upstairs, continues to develop an 18-footer and adds more to his post game, he can be a very good player. Unfortunately, It’s impossible to know what he contributes on defense against like athletes and that leaves a pretty big question mark.

Could he be an All-Star someday? Sure. Will it be before he turns 25? I wouldn’t bet on it. Look at the current All-Star big men in the league and Tyler’s not close to them. If he gets in the right system, it’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it happening soon. Could he far exceed his draft position if he’s picked later in the first round? Definitely.

No Subject

I think you are being harsh.

I think the article was about how to make the D League more investment friendly. In sporting socialist America, as opposed to sporting capitalist Europe (See soccer AND Euroleague BBall) the teams invest a LOT of money in player development. A LOT.

Most every Premier League team has an academy. Ditto La Liga and Serie A. In America, the whole cost of the sporting education of a teen is taken up by the proper education system.

That’s nuts, and why there ar so many 6’4" - 6’8" centers with no perimeter game in the NCAA (See Faried, Kenneth).

I think that it is a crying shame that there isn’t more direct downward investment in American sport, and the improvement of Latavious Williams, in terms of his body and the skills he needs to succeed (boxing out, screening, defensive rotation etc) shows what is possible when an NBA team invests COACHING in a young prospect.

IMHO, and as an Australian to be fair, the idea that Private High Schools and NCAA college teams produce NBA ready players is flawed, and could be improved if an NBA focus existed. Heck, the chances of players having ANY career, even in Europe, would be improved with downward investment from pro-coaches and teams, as too many prospects have the skillset required to play Pro at all.

I think

the best way to retool the D-League is to expand to the point where every team at owns a portion of a team.

OKC and San Antonio use the 66ers and the Toros pretty consistently (Latavious Williams, Larry Owens, etc).

I say this because my Bulls have used the Energy I think once in the past three seasons, and that was when James Johnson asked to be sent down.

Then again, I’m not sure if a 30 team League is really viable at this point.

In the end

we should all just be happy that we cover/watch a league that Jeff Adrien and Latavious Williams both play in.

Barton

Even though I am a big college fan, I actually wanted to see what would happen if Barton played in the D-League for a year before the draft. I hope someone with some potential (more than Latavious Williams) makes the jump soon.

One downside

to the new Frisco team is that it reduces the number of times the Toros and 66ers play. Only four games this year instead of, like, a dozen that they had last year. And both games in Austin are around New Year’s, when I’ll likely be out of town. No Latavious Williams in person for me :(

Maybe March 2 or 3, when Frisco finally comes to Austin, so I can see how Lieberman’s doing as a coach.

Options

I am extremely interested to see what happens here. Obviously, if he chooses the D-League, enters the 2011 draft and has success in his rookie season, the D-League becomes a viable option for many players who don’t want to go to college. (He will be a much better test subject than Latavious Williams).

My guess is many players are still hesitant over choosing Europe, since we have not seen a major exodus there yet. If the D-League proves to be a successful option, I would expect to see at least a handful of players choose that option over college.

LATAVIOUS WILLIAMS

MMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Latavious Williams

Why do they keep saying he can play small forward? What am I missing?

They should just keep running that play.

“Latavious Williams cuts to the basket and dunks.”