I may be off base on this, but I think he quit because of the lack of an inner fire, and also because he feared he would get exposed during the season if he had played.

Exposed because his reputation has been built on being taller than most of the people he played against in HS. Kids his height and skill level can rule the roost on a court against a team of normal-sized high schoolers. On the AAU circuit, there is a bit of a step up in the competition level, but they are also about the same age and his performance might just boil down to the particular matchup. I seem to recall watching the last part of a game where he was outplayed by the other team, whose big was more physical than him.

If he had played the season (after the suspension), I think he would have gotten manhandled and pushed around by some of the older, more developed/experienced bigs he would have come up against in the remaining games. I guess his handlers thinking was "let the scouts see a little taste of what you can do against SC State, UIC, and Oregon (where he ran into some competition and got in foul trouble - he had good numbers, but some of it in mop-up time at the end when we tried to come back), and then skip out on everyone to "train for the NBA on my own". Everybody knows the NBA drafts on potential, so let them dream about what his potential could be - using a limited data set.

We'll see if he pans out, but I foresee a short-lived bust in the making.

Edit: But he will make more money than I have made in 40 years, so there’s that...

I think the kid is a phenomenal talent with a very long NBA career in front of him.

I think the curious case of Mr. Wiseman is a great life study. I can't say I know the answers for others. But; in my judgement, he should have stayed out of loyalty to the guys who came to be with him. I would have. I agree he will make a lot of money. I wish him well and will call him a tiger (albeit a 3 game tiger).

...know when to hold'em, when to fold'em, when to walk away and when to run.... Seems there is sage advice in there somewhere that applies here. I think it goes without saying that to be successful they have to do all of those at some point; or you lose the ability to do any of them effectively. If Mr. Wiseman can hold'em, good, but he didn't show that as a Tiger.

(04-02-2020 07:56 PM)k2tigers Wrote:  

(04-02-2020 07:44 PM)UofMark Wrote:  Talent but no inner fire equals another Michael Olowokandi, Kwame Brown, Hasheem Thabeet, Anthony Bennett, Darko Milicic

on and on

I do not know about throwing Thabeet in there. I never saw the talent in him. He was a great college shot blocker but had seemingly no offensive skills and lacked the mobility for the NBA since he was no longer allowed to just stand in front of the goal on defense.

(04-03-2020 05:54 AM)450bench Wrote:  I think the kid is a phenomenal talent with a very long NBA career in front of him.

I don’t disagree with this. Still think he quit on all of us, his teammates and coaches.

(04-03-2020 08:38 AM)uskjtc02 Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 05:54 AM)450bench Wrote:  I think the kid is a phenomenal talent with a very long NBA career in front of him.

I don’t disagree with this. Still think he quit on all of us, his teammates and coaches.

And I agree with you. IMO, those points may impact his draft position and maybe they won't.

Once with a team and on the court, that stuff will be completely irrelevant as he becomes established. This kid is a talent, with tremendous size and uniqueness and the NBA is a business. They reward talent and ability.

(04-03-2020 09:08 AM)450bench Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 08:38 AM)uskjtc02 Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 05:54 AM)450bench Wrote:  I think the kid is a phenomenal talent with a very long NBA career in front of him.

I don’t disagree with this. Still think he quit on all of us, his teammates and coaches.

And I agree with you. IMO, those points may impact his draft position and maybe they won't.

Once with a team and on the court, that stuff will be completely irrelevant as he becomes established. This kid is a talent, with tremendous size and uniqueness and the NBA is a business. They reward talent and ability.

Yep. I’m sure he will be a top 5 pick.

I remember stating 1-2 mos back that NBA talk around ATL had dropped JW to the 3-5 pick with some saying he had even fallen further & most of you guys thought that was crazy. Seems more & more NBA prognosticators are believing it these days.

(04-03-2020 06:14 AM)ImaTiger Wrote:  I think the curious case of Mr. Wiseman is a great life study. I can't say I know the answers for others. But; in my judgement, he should have stayed out of loyalty to the guys who came to be with him. I would have. I agree he will make a lot of money. I wish him well and will call him a tiger (albeit a 3 game tiger).

...know when to hold'em, when to fold'em, when to walk away and when to run.... Seems there is sage advice in there somewhere that applies here. I think it goes without saying that to be successful they have to do all of those at some point; or you lose the ability to do any of them effectively. If Mr. Wiseman can hold'em, good, but he didn't show that as a Tiger.

It’s easy to say what we think we would have done but reality is often different. James just turned 19. He has lived in the national spotlight for the past three years. Suddenly he was thrust into a situation of adversity that he didn’t create and he could not control. People he didn’t know and had never seen suddenly had control of his life and his passion. They took basketball away from him. He was thrust into a public legal battle. They retaliated when he showed a sign of resistance. And it started looking more and more like just sitting out 12 games would not end the invasion into his life.

Maybe leaving and taking the money now was the easy way out. Maybe for him he reached a point where he thought it was the only way out. The NCAA system of inequity for certain claimed another individual victim in James and the University of Memphis.

I wish James well. I regret his life was disrupted in such a convoluted way by thread in history that precluded any knowledge he had of the Univ of Memphis. Let him go on with his life in best way he knows how. He had shown the world to be a smart, talented, genuine and humble young man before his struggle and I think he has not changed that much since.

Yeah, maybe JW thought all of those things but it seems to have cost him big $$ on those decisions, the actual draft will tell the story.

(04-02-2020 01:12 PM)gusrob Wrote:  In a vacuum, why wouldn't Golden State want a 7' kid who can spread the floor, a la work well in their offense and provide a rim protector?

May be something to the idea that JW is labelled a quitter and his motivation is questioned. However, do not base this (or other feelings) based on what front offices say and do leading up to the draft. No GM wants everyone knowing their thoughts going into draft. If they can get their guy later, they will. They do not want to create buzz around their targets.

James I say Godspeed. Your decision was your own. You don't owe anyone anything. If you had played you would not have played in the NCAA finals and they can't use your likeness on NCAA 2K20 for making money. It servers the NCAA right for pulling the high school prank on you and Penny. Many young men will not play college basketball.
They forced you into this. Give it up guys I blame the NCAA.

Good Luck James

(04-03-2020 09:34 AM)tigergeorge55 Wrote:  

(04-02-2020 01:12 PM)gusrob Wrote:  In a vacuum, why wouldn't Golden State want a 7' kid who can spread the floor, a la work well in their offense and provide a rim protector?

May be something to the idea that JW is labelled a quitter and his motivation is questioned. However, do not base this (or other feelings) based on what front offices say and do leading up to the draft. No GM wants everyone knowing their thoughts going into draft. If they can get their guy later, they will. They do not want to create buzz around their targets.

James I say Godspeed. Your decision was your own. You don't owe anyone anything. If you had played you would not have played in the NCAA finals and they can't use your likeness on NCAA 2K20 for making money. It servers the NCAA right for pulling the high school prank on you and Penny. Many young men will not play college basketball.
They forced you into this. Give it up guys I blame the NCAA.

Good Luck James

This is absolutely not true. Other kids made decisions based on his decision and then his very active recruitment of them to join him. He had a coaching staff build an entire roster around him based on his decision to come to Memphis. Fans bought tickets to see him play. This is like a coach taking credit when the team wins and then blaming the players when his team loses. You get the good and while being insulated from the bad, welcome to adulthood.

His decision to come to Memphis and then subsequently leave Memphis did not happen in a vacuum. Part of growing up is realizing that your decisions impact others whether you like that or not and when you make decisions that impact others you absolutely have a responsibility toward them at that point.

(04-03-2020 09:44 AM)SeñorTiger Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 09:34 AM)tigergeorge55 Wrote:  

(04-02-2020 01:12 PM)gusrob Wrote:  In a vacuum, why wouldn't Golden State want a 7' kid who can spread the floor, a la work well in their offense and provide a rim protector?

May be something to the idea that JW is labelled a quitter and his motivation is questioned. However, do not base this (or other feelings) based on what front offices say and do leading up to the draft. No GM wants everyone knowing their thoughts going into draft. If they can get their guy later, they will. They do not want to create buzz around their targets.

James I say Godspeed. Your decision was your own. You don't owe anyone anything. If you had played you would not have played in the NCAA finals and they can't use your likeness on NCAA 2K20 for making money. It servers the NCAA right for pulling the high school prank on you and Penny. Many young men will not play college basketball.
They forced you into this. Give it up guys I blame the NCAA.

Good Luck James

This is absolutely not true. Other kids made decisions based on his decision and then his very active recruitment of them to join him. He had a coaching staff build an entire roster around him based on his decision to come to Memphis. Fans bought tickets to see him play. This is like a coach taking credit when the team wins and then blaming the players when his team loses. You get the good and while being insulated from the bad, welcome to adulthood.

His decision to come to Memphis and then subsequently leave Memphis did not happen in a vacuum. Part of growing up is realizing that your decisions impact others whether you like that or not and when you make decisions that impact others you absolutely have a responsibility toward them at that point.

People want to make this situation so simple...

There are a ton of things that could have happened that caused Wiseman to no longer want to be in Memphis.

One scenario is:

He lost trust in Penny. I am sure Penny told his Mom that accepting the money wouldn't cause any issues with his eligibility then that turned out to be 100% wrong. Then Penny likely advised him to go to court to challenge the ruling which also didn't turn out like Penny likely told him it would. This is pure speculation but I could see this being an issue if I was in the situation.

so if james had stayed

and we finished the season 28-3

and then the season was ended

would you all be farting roses ?

If he stayed and we ended up with a similar record to what we had, and he had gotten man handled under the boards by more experienced bigs, would you?

I've said all along players play. I don't believe he helped himself at all by leaving to "prepare for the NBA draft." The time he could've had on the floor would've been the best way to prepare. There is always a risk of injury. At some point, however, you have to perform. And what better way to do that than by competing.

I don't wish him any bad luck, but I believe he's going to be in for a rude awakening when he goes from the gym to having Draymond, Embiid, Anthony Davis, etc. in his face.

(04-03-2020 10:24 AM)macgar32 Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 09:44 AM)SeñorTiger Wrote:  

(04-03-2020 09:34 AM)tigergeorge55 Wrote:  

(04-02-2020 01:12 PM)gusrob Wrote:  In a vacuum, why wouldn't Golden State want a 7' kid who can spread the floor, a la work well in their offense and provide a rim protector?

May be something to the idea that JW is labelled a quitter and his motivation is questioned. However, do not base this (or other feelings) based on what front offices say and do leading up to the draft. No GM wants everyone knowing their thoughts going into draft. If they can get their guy later, they will. They do not want to create buzz around their targets.

James I say Godspeed. Your decision was your own. You don't owe anyone anything. If you had played you would not have played in the NCAA finals and they can't use your likeness on NCAA 2K20 for making money. It servers the NCAA right for pulling the high school prank on you and Penny. Many young men will not play college basketball.
They forced you into this. Give it up guys I blame the NCAA.

Good Luck James

This is absolutely not true. Other kids made decisions based on his decision and then his very active recruitment of them to join him. He had a coaching staff build an entire roster around him based on his decision to come to Memphis. Fans bought tickets to see him play. This is like a coach taking credit when the team wins and then blaming the players when his team loses. You get the good and while being insulated from the bad, welcome to adulthood.

His decision to come to Memphis and then subsequently leave Memphis did not happen in a vacuum. Part of growing up is realizing that your decisions impact others whether you like that or not and when you make decisions that impact others you absolutely have a responsibility toward them at that point.

People want to make this situation so simple...

There are a ton of things that could have happened that caused Wiseman to no longer want to be in Memphis.

One scenario is:

He lost trust in Penny. I am sure Penny told his Mom that accepting the money wouldn't cause any issues with his eligibility then that turned out to be 100% wrong. Then Penny likely advised him to go to court to challenge the ruling which also didn't turn out like Penny likely told him it would. This is pure speculation but I could see this being an issue if I was in the situation.

He wanted to play but he did whatever his Mom told him to do. She was the main problem and she was pissed about the whole situation. He needs to tell his mom that he is a man and can make his own decisions.

(04-03-2020 10:43 AM)Hoots Wrote:  I've said all along players play. I don't believe he helped himself at all by leaving to "prepare for the NBA draft." The time he could've had on the floor would've been the best way to prepare. There is always a risk of injury. At some point, however, you have to perform. And what better way to do that than by competing.

I don't wish him any bad luck, but I believe he's going to be in for a rude awakening when he goes from the gym to having Draymond, Embiid, Anthony Davis, etc. in his face.

You have stated my thoughts better than I have been able to. Thanks!

Here's another one where he is barely mentioned as an option for lottery teams. The opinion of these guys only but still.

CBS ARTICLE LINK

I don’t give a **** what happens to him.

F him and the horse he rode out of town on.