McRoberts vs. Filipowski

Pick for what? College or Nba career? Earnings? Date my sister (too soon?)?
If one of them "had to" come back for their Jr. year, which would you pick?

Lots of similarities, including the draft, they both ended up slipping to 2nd round after high expectations for Soph. year.
 
Flip performed better for a better team.
Josh was a fine player at Duke, and had a nice long NBA career. I hope Flip has a career that goes as well or better than McBob's.
 
From what I've read, Josh had more chemistry issues with the team that affected his production. The chemistry on last year's team wasn't great either, but Flip always brought it. Both struggled with the physicality of playing as a true 5 and both did much better as freshmen when they had an elite rim protector next to them. Flip is more suited to the modern game with his ability to stretch the floor and handle some from the perimeter (though that needed improvement).

With the roster we have next season, Flip would be an interesting fit next to Flagg. Both very versatile and would just require players around them to play roles. We probably don't land Brown or Gillis or maybe we get neither. But our 2007-2008 team could have REALLY used a junior McRoberts so that Singler wouldn't have to play the 5. We had very little inside that year. So I guess if I had to choose it would be McRoberts primarily based on need.
 
From what I've read, Josh had more chemistry issues with the team that affected his production. The chemistry on last year's team wasn't great either, but Flip always brought it. Both struggled with the physicality of playing as a true 5 and both did much better as freshmen when they had an elite rim protector next to them. Flip is more suited to the modern game with his ability to stretch the floor and handle some from the perimeter (though that needed improvement).

With the roster we have next season, Flip would be an interesting fit next to Flagg. Both very versatile and would just require players around them to play roles. We probably don't land Brown or Gillis or maybe we get neither. But our 2007-2008 team could have REALLY used a junior McRoberts so that Singler wouldn't have to play the 5. We had very little inside that year. So I guess if I had to choose it would be McRoberts primarily based on need.
I love Brown and Gillis, but jr Flip would be insane on this team. McBob is an interesting player. He did a lot of things very well but didn't seem to love being the man. Maybe if he's Robin to Cooper's Batman we would get to see the best version of McBob.
 
From what I've read, Josh had more chemistry issues with the team that affected his production. The chemistry on last year's team wasn't great either, but Flip always brought it. Both struggled with the physicality of playing as a true 5 and both did much better as freshmen when they had an elite rim protector next to them. Flip is more suited to the modern game with his ability to stretch the floor and handle some from the perimeter (though that needed improvement).

With the roster we have next season, Flip would be an interesting fit next to Flagg. Both very versatile and would just require players around them to play roles. We probably don't land Brown or Gillis or maybe we get neither. But our 2007-2008 team could have REALLY used a junior McRoberts so that Singler wouldn't have to play the 5. We had very little inside that year. So I guess if I had to choose it would be McRoberts primarily based on need.
Both McBobs and Flip played substantially better as So. than they did as Fr. Just because neither met expectations of everyone not named them doesn't mean they didn't have better years as Sophs than as Frosh.
 
Flip is more suited to the modern game with his ability to stretch the floor and handle some from the perimeter (though that needed improvement).

Gosh, did you see McRoberts' handles in the open court? I'd say McRoberts was just as suited to the modern game as Flip.

Both guys seemed to have chemistry/attitude issues. Josh's were more forgivable, to me, because some of his teammates were not up to snuff.
 
in my opinion, McRoberts squandered his skills. Flip made better use of more limited capabilities. McRoberts was more fluid and athletic than Flip. But his head often didn’t seem to be in the game. And I’ll never forget the home game against Clemson that McRoberts appeared to intentionally try to give away several times.
 
in my opinion, McRoberts squandered his skills. Flip made better use of more limited capabilities. McRoberts was more fluid and athletic than Flip. But his head often didn’t seem to be in the game. And I’ll never forget the home game against Clemson that McRoberts appeared to intentionally try to give away several times.
Did I read that correctly? You think Josh Mc Roberts "appeared to intentionally give away [the Clemson game] several times?" Was he shaving points? Just not like Coach K? I'm open to other suggestions for what seems to me to be a preposterous and borderline libelous take.

Or maybe just human error by a young man in a charged atmosphere.

By the way, Duke's winning basket in that game came when McRoberts inbounded to Jon Scheyer who hit David McClure for the layup. The kind of hockey assist for which McRoberts became well known in the NBA.

Not a giving away-the-game-kind-of-play.
 
Flip all day. McRoberts had his moments of brilliance, and was plenty talented/skilled, but for my money also had more head-scratcher plays and games.
 
I think Flip had better leadership skills and would add more value as a Junior and probable team captain. I was more disappointed when Flip left.
 
I believe Singler followed McRoberts and may not have come if McRoberts had stayed. That worked out pretty well for Duke.

Flagg and Brown followed Flip and although we haven't played a minute yet, I'm happy with that trade.
 
I think McRoberts is one of the more underrated and underappreciated players in Duke bball. He had the misfortune of being the best player on a team that simply lacked any sort of sufficient supporting cast (Paulus just cratered in an expanded role as a sophomore; Nelson was never more than a complementary player; and the freshmen weren't quite ready). And he dealt with back problems during his brief time at Duke, including offseason back surgery. Really hard to play at your best when your back isn't right.

By the advanced metrics, McRoberts and Filipowski had very comparable sophomore years. Filipowski the better offensive player, McRoberts the better defender. For me, it is a tossup. I liked both players a lot.
 
I think Flip had better leadership skills and would add more value as a Junior and probable team captain. I was more disappointed when Flip left.

I think what we learned about Flip's off-court relationship, and the fact that said relationship seemed to prevent him from spending time with the other guys on the team outside of official team practices and events, would have precluded him from being named a Captain. I thought it was very telling that he wasn't named a captain as a sophomore and it made a lot more sense when we found out about his girlfriend.

As for McRoberts, I couldn't find any of the sources I remember reading about the following, but it seems like there was regret he expressed later in his career for having come to Duke, that it was not the right fit for his personality. He was kind of in that last era where K was a traditional coaching tyrant, right before K seemed to (relatively) mellow a few years later. I'll always remember McRoberts crying on the bench during a home loss to Carolina, with the camera fairly close to his face, and Wojo coming over and aggressively grabbing the towel off his face and essentially saying, "No crying allowed!" I felt bad for him. Today's game suits him much better with a more prominent role for skilled big men. Too bad he had so many injuries...but he made over $30MM in his NBA career so he's got that going for him...which is nice.
 
Back
Top