Given the Lakers are still trying to win now given LeBron/AD, I don’t think they could have really done much better than Knecht. He’s a finished product but he just dominated the SEC last year with his shot.

He reportedly had a promise in the top 20, which is why he stayed in the draft in the first place. Falling out of the 1st is potentially gonna cost him millions (particularly when he could have stayed at KU and very well have been a lottery guy next year with some improvement).

Counter point: would it be any better for him next year in what projects to be a significantly stronger draft?

His entire draft stock is potential and a pretty good 10-12 game stretch from around January.

He might get better by coming back or he might have a reduced role with the transfers that Self brought in (who can actually defend). Hell, he might even get further exposed (defensively especially).

Plus, no NIL dollars to collect.

Agent’s job to figure that out.

Depends if we should see more of the version of Furphy from mid-season where he looked like a top 10 pick for about a 6 game stretch. I suspect we would have.

Anyone remember Marcus Fizer?

Whatever happened to that guy.

Turd

I’m happy this happened honestly. Should have stuck around kangaroo boy

Plus it's a stupid name that sounds like Furry

The NBA has established enough of a developmental program that I question the value in coming back for another year for MOST players.

Because ultimately, if he's an NBA caliber prospect, ball don't lie. He can get to the G-League and prove it. He can work on the same stuff he would've had to work on at KU to get himself a lucrative deal.

And those G-league deals are typically shorter, so if he DOES prove it, he'll have an opportunity to cash in on a similar timeline. Moreover, my memory serves, that 2nd round picks actually have a chance to get to big money SOONER than 1st round picks. The old Gilbert Arenas thing.

Now maybe they've closed some of that stuff up. But my memory is that a 2nd round pick his RFA status a year sooner than a 1st rounder and RFA contracts are getting awfully rich in their own right. A guy can play his way up and still vault quickly into the high-earner ranks if he has the tools for it.

If he's a ballplayer, he'll be able to show it. If not, another year at KU wasn't going to change that.

Good passer but he’s torn his ACL 2 times already. He’s pretty finesse too

Unfortunately for him, it seems teams actually watched tape of him on court in the months outside of January.

What's with the guys from KU and their awful names Dick and Furphy?

Yes, if he's destined to be a NBA player, this won't change much in the end. However, his path to that will now be a much more difficult one without a guaranteed multi-million dollar contract to fall back on. And if he ends up being a scrub after all a few years down the road, it's gonna hurt.

Yup.

Those are the guys that are hurt by slides - the guys that just aren't very good. In which case it wasn't really a slide - it was NBA teams being smarter than Stephen A Smith or whoever else did a mock draft that day.

And ultimately if he IS a scrub, going back to KU wasn't going to help him. Might have even hurt him going into a tougher draft next season WITHOUT as much promise as of the unknown. Right now you can say "Hey, maybe he becomes an NBA player someday" but if he goes back to KU next season and disappoints, you probably know he can't. And now you're looking at a post-draft contract in the G-League.