Pippen - the worst advic possible.

[porkpa]

Strictly speaking economics, Scottie Pippen's advice to Zion could not be worse.
In his short time at Duke, Zion Williamson has built a reputation than no person ever in my fifty plus years of following this team has. I think you'd have to go back to the days of Lew Alcidor(Kareem Abdul Jabbar), if then, to find a college player who has ever received so much media attention.
He has everything sponsors look for. He is a generational player. He works hard, smiles a lot and is one of the most unselfish team players I have ever seen.
I would not be surprised if he gets more endorsement offers coming into the NBA than any player ever.
If he left at this time, a great deal of that would evaporate.
I probably should not be talking about it, because there is zero chance that it will happen.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Is there a link I am missing somewhere?

[flyingdutchdevil]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.4a8e1c7c3e34

Basically, Pippen is telling Zion is stop playing because of injuries.

I get Pippen's perspective and Zion isn't playing for $$$ right now; he'll get paid regardless of whether he plays out the rest of the season or sits out. The "expected value" is likely higher with him sitting out due to injury (assuming sitting out doesn't cost him endorsement $$$).

I mean, to me, this is even more reason why kids need to go directly to the NBA from high school. Yes, it's awesome that Zion is in college and at Duke. But he shouldn't be. He is an NBA-ready player now and should be paid for it.

[nmduke2001]

Pippen wasn't the first. This dude had the idea over a month ago...

https://balldurham.com/2018/12/13/du...risks-billion/

[Jeffrey]

Strictly speaking economics, Scottie Pippen's advice to Zion could not be worse.

Now, now, let's be fair to Scottie. It's rather well known, in the finance world, that Pippen is an economic and financial expert.

[Jeffrey]

(assuming sitting out doesn't cost him endorsement $$$).

IMO, that's a major assumption. In addition, you're also assuming playing more does not earn him more endorsement money. IMO, each 360 dunk, played many times on ESPN, is money.

[golfinesquire]

I don't think it is bad advice at all. We want to see him play but there is a huge financial downside to him getting hurt and, at this point, more limited upside to the continuing coaching and exposure that he is getting. As someone pointed out, this is more ammo for the argument that the one and done rule has outlived its usefulness.

[Steven43]

Yes, it's awesome that Zion is in college and at Duke. But he shouldn't be.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ2jJtFRpUc

[martydoesntfoul]

Now, now, let's be fair to Scottie. It's rather well known, in the finance world, that Pippen is an economic and financial expert.

Though, candidly, he does have experience quitting.

[kAzE]

I don't think I've ever agreed with a single Scottie Pippen take. Rachel Nichols is an incredible sports journalist, but most of ESPN's other NBA talking heads are AWFUL. Pretty much all of the former players on ESPN are clueless (Tim Legler is the only one I can think of who actually is good). I literally have to change the channel anytime the ESPN studio crew (Beadle, Pierce, Billups, and Rose) are on. It's like they tried to steal TNT's idea of Barkley and Shaq (who often have no idea what they are talking about, but are actually entertaining), but got guys who aren't very entertaining at all, and still have no idea what they are talking about.

Jalen Rose thinks he's WAY smarter than he really is, and Paul Pierce's takes are almost as bad as Pippen. Chauncey is a genuinely likeable personality, but his player evaluations are just inexplicably way off. I'm shocked that he was even offered the Cavalier's GM job (but considering it's the Cavs, maybe not). Having him do the draft, which he did this past draft, was an embarrassment.

Totally on board with allowing high schoolers to go straight to the NBA, but come on man. Zion is the best thing in sports right now. How would quitting on his team look to NBA teams? Probably not good. The best thing about Zion is that despite his talent, he's a team player. Get that garbage take out of here.

[Steven43]

I wish I knew how to make links clickable on DBR

[lotusland]

I wouldn’t be surprised if a player bails after a dazzling first half of a season sometime if the OAD era continues but not Zion. The whole recruiting pitch seems to be getting them to the NBA as a high draft pick. Injury risk is real so if that’s your goal, there’s a good argument to be made for shutting it down. Hopefully the OAD issue will be resolved before we ever see a player bail during the season but I don’t think it would hurt his NBA draft stock or marketability at all.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Where was Pippen's college experience?

Okay then.

[Troublemaker]

I mean, to me, this is even more reason why kids need to go directly to the NBA from high school. Yes, it's awesome that Zion is in college and at Duke. But he shouldn't be. He is an NBA-ready player now and should be paid for it.

I mean, very few people disagree. But the only ones that matter -- NBA owners -- do.

[JasonEvans]

I mean, very few people disagree. But the only ones that matter -- NBA owners -- do.

Actually, if reports are to be believed, the owners would be cool with it but it must be collectively bargained and the players (rightly) think that any chance the owners want should also provide something they want. The owners don't want it enough to give up something meaningful to the players so the rule remains the same. Because it is collectively bargained, overturning it in court is quite difficult.

Whatever... we all know the players should be allowed to go to the NBA. We also all know that they do get some tangible benefits in terms of exposure, coaching, and adjujstment to a higher level of the sport from attending college.

Question -- can anyone think of a player who got injured in college and lost a sure-fire pro career because of it? I am sure there are some guys but I am drawing a blank

-Jason "Randy Livingston comes close... but he tore his ACL while playing in a pickup game the summer before arriving at LSU so I don't think that counts" Evans

[bluenorth]

Unfortunately Pippen's thought process may catch on. There have been some instances already of college football players skipping bowl games so as to not hurt their draft stock. Likewise some injured football players "shut it down" when they may have had time to rehab and return to action (Bosa at Ohio State). Mind you, when you consider the short career life of the average NFL player this probably makes some sense.

Thankfully the same is so far not the case for college basketball players. Being injured doesn't seem to really hurt their standing in the draft much. In recent years we've seen players who didn't play much in college still be lottery picks for the NBA draft. Kyrie Irving and Harry Giles come to mind just from Duke. The NBA teams seem to make up their minds very early about the status of a player relative to the rest of his draft class. Zion could not play another minute all year and still go in the top 3.

[Matches]

I wouldn’t be surprised if a player bails after a dazzling first half of a season sometime if the OAD era continues but not Zion.

Yea I agree, and have thought so for years. It won't be Zion but it will be someone. Pippen's not really wrong. Zion's brand, endorsements, notoriety etc are all sky high. Being at Duke and playing college bball has increased his visibility, to be sure, but that's really not dependent on him playing the whole season. It's already happened.

If and when something like that does happen, it's going to play havoc with college basketball and it's going to be an uggggly scene.

(I'm a little bit surprised Ben Simmons didn't do this, actually.)

[Troublemaker]

Actually, if reports are to be believed, the owners would be cool with it but it must be collectively bargained and the players (rightly) think that any chance the owners want should also provide something they want. The owners don't want it enough to give up something meaningful to the players so the rule remains the same. Because it is collectively bargained, overturning it in court is quite difficult.

Whatever... we all know the players should be allowed to go to the NBA. We also all know that they do get some tangible benefits in terms of exposure, coaching, and adjujstment to a higher level of the sport from attending college.

Question -- can anyone think of a player who got injured in college and lost a sure-fire pro career because of it? I am sure there are some guys but I am drawing a blank

-Jason "Randy Livingston comes close... but he tore his ACL while playing in a pickup game the summer before arriving at LSU so I don't think that counts" Evans

Where's your link for that sir? I've heard the exact opposite.

The NBPA wants it, but in return, the owners demand that agents release medical information on draft prospects to EVERY team, not just to the team or teams they want the player to go to. Here's my link: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...g-final-hurdle.

(Note: it's possible Marvin Bagley wouldn't have been the #2 pick if this rule were in place. He went to Sacramento in part because he wanted to be in Sacramento or at least didn't mind it.)

That makes sense to me. The owners like OAD. To get rid of it, they need to get something back.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Yea I agree, and have thought so for years. It won't be Zion but it will be someone. Pippen's not really wrong. Zion's brand, endorsements, notoriety etc are all sky high. Being at Duke and playing college bball has increased his visibility, to be sure, but that's really not dependent on him playing the whole season. It's already happened.

If and when something like that does happen, it's going to play havoc with college basketball and it's going to be an uggggly scene.

(I'm a little bit surprised Ben Simmons didn't do this, actually.)

Yup. I don't think it will be Zion, but it will happen in the next few years (unless kids-to-the-NBA reverses...again). For all we know, it's already happened, but a player used an injury to fake it.

[MarkD83]

So to make this more painful to all of us Duke fans. An honorable way to "shut it down" is to suffer an injury and then take as much time as possible to recover from the injury.

In <10 games Kyrie showed what an amazing talent he would be in the NBA. He unfortunately suffered an injury and then spent 90% of the season recovering. Somewhere in that time period he may have been able to come back at 80% or 90% of his original talent level. However if he was thinking about his future he may have erred on the side of caution. This is not a criticism of Kyrie just a thought process that needs to be considered when looking at recovery from an injury.

The painful thought is that Tre may have already shown that he has enough talent to be drafted higher in the 1st round than we think. At what point of time should we accept that Tre needs to consider his future in the NBA and adjust his recovery time to err on the side of caution.

By the way I hate thinking about this because I want this team to be great, but since the top players on Duke's team are headed to the NBA they should be thinking about their futures and we should accept that.