Duke Wins NCAA Tourney

Re-Live the great 2015 NCAA Tourney with me & listen to this Podcast please enjoy! http://coreyscourtside.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-07T10_02_23-07_00

The Biggest Decision Chad Lott Will Make In His Career

    

First to start this blog off right, responsible, and respectable let me say Chad Lott had an amazing high school career at C.E. Byrd in Shreveport, Louisiana. In fact if numbers don't lie his stats over his high school career says that he was the very best high school player from Shreveport, Louisiana of my generation; which I would say is the high school players who played in Shreveport/Bossier from years '08-2015 excluding Jalan West, because at times his awesomeness can be underrated. If that didn't resonate with you or you thinking that is just untrue watch the video on my YouTube page here ( http://youtu.be/UEbHfAPTpmU ). In that video you can see Chad Lott's stats also his highlights, and just simply compare them to any player you know from Shreveport/Bossier you'll probably be disappointed to find out your favorite player barely averaged 20PPG if he did.

 

     Now in Chad Lott's seemingly successful basketball career comes probably the most important decision he will ever have to make. I say that because the decision to choose what college he's taking his talents to will either literally make him or break him. Seriously!

 

     Let's put things into a perspective where the most simple basketball mind could understand. The city of Shreveport, Louisiana prized jewel of the moment right now is Arkansas Razorback's guard Mike Qualls. Qualls and I graduated from the same graduation Class Of 2012. I remember that year in 2012 two of the best players in the state were Qualls, and a kid from down state named Ricardo Gathers. I think it's safe to say at the time their game was pretty much identical. To be completely honest they both played on the same AAU team, but Gathers had bigger schools interested in him he was also ranked higher. Gathers ended up going to Baylor who had more than a couple of future NBA drafted players while Qualls signed with Arkansas who simply didn't have true NBA prospects. Seems like Gathers made a good choice but this past '14-2015 basketball seasons was both their junior year at a high major D1 school, and we all know who’s more famous. Not only is Michael Qualls, more famous than Gathers, he is also playing better. NBA draft projections and overall stats will prove that point and a lot of credit for that can go to the schools each player selected to go to. The perfect fit for a player matters so much, but back to my point to how this is relevant to Chad Lott's situation on finding the right school to go to.

 

     Chad is a stud on the court we all can agree to that, especially if you watch the YouTube video mentioned earlier. Now before I go any further let me tell you the top 6 schools that are in Chad's interest which he announced before his senior year. The schools are LSU, UNLV, Creighton, SMU, Texas Tech, and University of Houston. I'm about to impose a quick question on you. When it comes down to it where would you go? No you're not Chad, but based solely off what you know about the school’s basketball programs where would you take your talents?

 

LSU or SMU for me although ultimately a regular good ball player from Shreveport, Louisiana will take their talents to Dallas which is only three hours away from home and go to SMU. This year LSU was in the NCAA tournament turning their program around for the better not to mention they have the #1 overall player in the country already committed to coming next year. If you're a real basketball fan you know Larry Brown is the coach for the SMU Mustangs, and they are the only team that was ranked in the last AP Polls out of Chad's top six schools.

 

Now if I'm Chad Lott's dad or best friend or someone extremely close to him who opinions matter I'm putting LSU, UNLV, and Creighton envelopes on the table. After I put those envelopes on the table I'm telling him to watch those teams’ games so he can pay attention to how much free will each team backcourt has or doesn't have. Making sure they're not too dependent on their big men but still look for the big men because that means they do not have a guard that can take over yet. Let's be honest even though the NBA really loves to draft the big men as of recent years the college game is dominated by guards. Also look at the rotation systems; do they play close to seven players or more like ten players? The only way a ten man rotation can be a good thing is if you're at Kentucky or plan on coming off the bench so that's out of the way if you plan on dominating. Rotations where you're bringing four or five people off the bench will be nearly impossible to average good stats to get the needed attention to advance to the next level. On the contrary it is a good winning method, and is really great if you're starting from the bottom. Coming off the bench doesn't mean you failed unless you let it get to you negatively. Michael Qualls came from the bench. Let me be clear the only reason I ruled out SMU, if you didn't know Head Coach Larry Brown is being investigated for the same violations they just nearly destroyed Jim Boehim's career over. If you don't know about that please read up on that horrible punishment they gave one of my favorite coaches in basketball. With that being said if Larry Brown go down his players go down with him so that means no NCAA tournament. The NCAA Tournament is some players’ ticket to the NBA for a player who doesn’t get the daily exposure. Ultimately I think it will come down to Las Vegas or Baton Rouge, and Baton Rouge is so close to home so boom there you have it I think Chad Lott to LSU is his best bet.

The Strange Development Of A NBA Point Guard

                I'm about to ask you something that is going to do at least one out of three things to you after I answer my own question for you;

•        You will either recognize my genius

•        Your basketball IQ would not allow you to think on such a high level and you'll stop trying to understand

•        You will heavily disagree, and say something blasphemous in my twitter feed

                Has there ever in the history of NBA basketball been a PG drafted into a starting position that was blatantly suck at the beginning of his career that soon after became a " Dog " ( dog meaning extremely good) on the court ? I want to state that I haven't done any research I'm going off my plain sight of basketball knowledge that I possess. Now before you start doing your  “I’m going to prove him wrong research.”  Remember I said a dog on the court! I asked a few friends this very question the best answer I got was Tony Parker, but that was yet wrong because he only had one down year with that being his rookie year.

                My real question I have for you is can that even happen? Is it possible to draft a PG to the NBA then put him into the starting line-up, and expect him to become great after having several bad years? Matter of fact I'll give you Tony Parker, but I won't take Mike Conley because he is very good, but he is not great. So now with the exception of Tony Parker  because he an all-time great, and this can be his claim to fame that he was the only one to make that tremendous improvement. We've seen this happen with PG's that was slept on that came off the bench then started to become great examples being Steve Nash, Rondo. We have also seen people get drafted expected to be great from the start that wasn't great but were very good until they grew into their true greatness examples would be Kyrie Irving along with Derrick Rose. We've seen player be great from the start players like Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd, and Chris Paul.

                I think no you cannot draft a PG in the NBA into a starting position that started his career off playing bad then expect him to grow into a great player. My reasoning would be because when you put a point guard in that starting position it's really no development that's going to happen. Follow me here, because if he's in the starting position, and he's been there for a while he is already playing like he's going to continue to play. He hasn't shown you anything he can't do because the ball is in his hands at all times. Trust me with the ball in a players hand at all times he's going to do whatever he can. How can he improve will be to develop the skills he already possess to make his role a good important piece examples Mario Chalmers, Kyrie, Steph Curry, Derek Fisher. Those guys didn't necessarily get better they just got really good at what they were already doing. Developments of those sorts you can give credits to mind things like chemistry or confidence. So tell me, what do you think? Do you think a PG can be drafted into a starting line-up have several bad years then all the sudden become great? Has it been done? Or do you simply agree with my genius?