Wolverines in the NBA/PISTONS/NBA in general

[*JD*]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7vKFDchI4"]Andre Drummond Pre-Season Mix - YouTube[/ame]

[*JD*]

Jamal Crawford is really coming out of the gates quickly for the Clippers. Three straight 20+ point games, coming off the bench.

[lineygoblue]

Its too bad the NCAA would not allow him to complete his college career.

[WM Wolverine]

Yup, just a sophomore season really could've boosted the program

[*JD*]

Yeah. A half-season was just an appetizer. He was going to be pretty special here.

[lineygoblue]

The NCAA made it impossible for him to stay in school. He wanted to stay in school, but they demanded that he pay 1500 to a family friend who bought him an old car to drive around town. In todays language its known as a "hoopdy". And, they wouldn't allow anyone to even give him the money to pay to the friend. He had to earn it on his own. His only other choice was to leave school.

I love the sound judgement of the NCAA .....

//sarcasm

[hack]

Man he was looking special indeed...

[Hannibal]

Maybe a good thing for Michigan in the long run that he didn't stay, since that would have extended Brian Ellerbe's career. Even with Crawford in there, I seem to remember that team being pretty bad.

[*JD*]

They hung with doook that year and I think they beat Georgia Tech. I don't remember much else.

[*JD*]

I know this isn't much of an NBA crowd but the Pistons are becoming fun to watch again. They have won 9 out of their last 13 and are creeping up towards respectability.

It's all about Andre Drummond. The Big Pup is averaging 9.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in January. He still is just getting a hair over 20 minutes a game while putting up these numbers.

He and Mitch McGary are on similar paths this season, at their respective levels. Both are very enthusiastic, a little out of control and both tend to change the complexion of the game (for the better) when they are on the court.

[*JD*]

Jamal Crawford is lighting Memphis up right now! I think he has 13 or the last 15 points for the Clippers.

[*JD*]

Not that it affected the outcome much but Darius Morris started for the depleted lakers last night. He had 24 points (9-15 shooting) and 6 assists. He'll probably start Game 4 for them as well.

Darius may be looking at this as auditioning for next year. The lakes are done.

[*JD*]

Encouraging news for Tim Hardaway Jr., per Chad Ford:

CHICAGO -- Though the NBA draft combine is just one day away, I got an early preview of seven prospects Tuesday morning at the Fitness Formula Club.
I sat courtside for a couple of hours watching Duke's Mason Plumlee, Michigan's Tim Hardaway Jr., Murray State's Isaiah Canaan, Illinois State's Jackie Carmichael, Syracuse's James Southerland, Wisconsin's Jared Berggren and Florida Gulf Coast's Sherwood Brown go through a combination of drills as well as 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 games.
Here's what I learned:
• As a freshman at Duke, Plumlee quickly found himself in the top 10 of our 2009 Top 100 board. Blessed with size, an NBA body and elite athleticism for a big, he seemed like a surefire bet for the lottery. Plumlee, however, didn't quite live up to expectations, and as a sophomore and junior he saw his stock slide to the mid-to-late first-round range.
This season, as a senior, he finally lived up to his lofty expectations. As one of the two or three best players in the ACC, Plumlee not only showed off his athletic prowess but also became a big-time rebounder and scorer for Duke.
His reward? Skepticism -- and heaps of it -- from NBA scouts and GMs.
Plumlee is 23, and for NBA teams, that's akin to having an infectious disease. Despite his improvements on the court, scouts have been reluctant to put him back into the top 10. I understand the hesitation because of his age. Virtually every advanced metric says age is a strong predictor of NBA success or failure. But with Plumlee, I'm not so sure.

Virtually every advanced metric says age is a strong predictor of NBA success or failure. But with Plumlee, I'm not so sure.

Watching him fly up and down the court in games during this workout, seeing his eye-popping finishes above the rim and watching his handle and passing abilities, I wonder if this is a case of a player who just blossomed a little later than everyone expected.
Athletically, Plumlee is among the top two or three big men in the draft. Nerlens Noel is the only player who clearly looks bouncier. However, there are things Plumlee can do that no other big in this draft can. He has great hands, can catch and finish on the run and plays with power in the post.
He had a number of spectacular finishes in the workout, and all of them were in the flow of an up-and-down game. He can catch the ball in midair and finish.
His lack of length and shot blocking in college, as well as a work-in-progress jump shot, are legitimate fears. But Plumlee looked the part of a legitimate NBA big man for a full two hours Tuesday. If his brother Miles, who didn't produce nearly what Mason has at Duke, can get drafted in the 20s, where should Mason go?
Plumlee's agent, Mark Bartelstein, is fairly certain Plumlee is a top-10 pick, maybe even top-5. Bartelstein is so certain that he's pulling Plumlee out of the drills portion of the draft combine Thursday.
I'm not sure I see him going that high. I know most of the scouts I talk to don't. However, Bartelstein has a point. If a team wants an athletic big, how can they really pass on him?
• Tim Hardaway Jr. hears the word "pedigree" all the time because of his NBA All-Star father. But Junior says his dad's advice isn't what you'd think.
"He said just go have fun, play for the love of the game," Hardaway told me after the workout. "Basketball is a game, and you should have fun doing what you do."
Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesShould Tim Hardaway Jr. be in the same conversation with Victor Oladipo and Ben McLemore?

Hardaway showed that passion and more Tuesday. He was the best player on the floor for all two hours. He played with terrific intensity, nailed shots from all over the floor and played above the rim whenever he hit the paint. While he doesn't have his father's crossover, he handled the ball against Canaan and was able to get where he wanted on the floor. Hardaway has size, excellent leaping ability and a huge 7-foot wingspan for a shooting guard.
He has played great ever since he stepped foot in Ann Arbor, but he, too, has had a hard time convincing scouts that he should be a lock for the first round.
Hardaway isn't sure why. He played at an elite school against the best competition in college basketball. He acknowledged both Ben McLemore and Victor Oladipo as being higher on draft boards (and played against both players this season), but after those two, he feels he's right there.
"I feel like I played well against both of those guys," Hardaway said. "I feel I can play with anyone in the country."
Hardaway had 18 points on 8-for-16 shooting with just two turnovers in his first matchup with Oladipo. Oladipo had 15 points and three turnovers for Indiana. Hardaway had 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting in the second matchup.
And he had 10 points and five rebounds against McLemore and Kansas in the NCAA tournament.
Hardaway said both McLemore and Oladipo were a handful, but he would give the edge to Oladipo.
"He's impossible," Hardaway said. "McLemore is good, but if you take away his jumper, he's guardable. You just can't take anything away from Oladipo. He's trying to take it away from you. You can't lose track of him for one second. I really think that will happen in the NBA."
Will Hardaway join them as a first-round pick? Some teams have him in the late teens and early 20s. For Hardaway, it will be about convincing those other teams that he belongs in the same conversation as McLemore and Oladipo. If he plays like he did during the workout, Hardaway might be persuasive.
• I love Canaan, but I feel like we've spilled a lot of Internet ink on him in the past few weeks. Suffice it to say he was in great shape, showed incredible quickness and was shooting the ball really well in workouts. He's looking more and more like a first-round pick.
• Ditto for Carmichael. I just mentioned him in my sleeper prospects blog post, and he lived up to expectations during the workout.
Carmichael is so tough and tries to finish everything around the rim with a dunk. Despite the fact that the drills and games had nothing at stake, he was throwing his body around the floor and on several occasions tried to posterize Plumlee in the paint. Some scouts believe Carmichael could be a Udonis Haslem-type player at the next level, and he should get some looks late in the first round and definitely in the 30s.
• The other player who really stood out Tuesday was Southerland. He's the prototypical small forward. He has terrific range on his jump shot, has good size for the position and is a good athlete who can get off the floor quickly. He's probably a second-round pick, but his shooting ability and size should allow him to make a team.

[WM Wolverine]

I didn't feel Hardaway was 'quite' ready but he's certainly an NBA talent. He'll need a good bit of developing his ball handling, shooting off screens and off the dribble to be an NBA regular. If he puts in the work, he has the tools to be a solid NBA starter.

[hack]

I wish him luck, but his three-pointer is really his only NBA-level skill, and you would have liked more steady production there. He might as well give it a shot because he's a low-ceiling player, and hopefully someone sees that wingspan and takes him in the first round. But I'm surprised if he's in the league more than 5 years. If so, it's because he'll have worked his butt off to stay. Which he might do.