Duke is the BEST at producing pro athletes [article]

[FearTheBeard]

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Duke-is-best-at-producing-NBA-Draft-talent-in-modern-era-37925275

The article is from before the Draft, so SIAP.

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Duke has had the most players selected in the NBA Draft since the advent of the three-point line in 1986-87, commonly referred to as the "modern era of college basketball". With 38 picks over that time period, Duke is tied with Arizona, but based on quality of pick the Blue Devils clearly stand ahead of the pack according to Mike Rutherford of CardChronicle.com. Here's his methodology:

To ensure that both quality and quantity were taken into account appropriately for these rankings, I developed the simplest possible scoring system: three points for a lottery pick (the lottery included 14, 13, 11 and nine teams at various points over the past 26 years); two points for a non-lottery first-round pick; and one point for a second-round pick. In instances of ties, the tiebreaker is the overall number of players selected.

And the top ten:

1. Duke - 83 (38)
2. North Carolina - 79 (34)
3. Kentucky - 76 (36)
4. Kansas - 73 (33)
5. Arizona - 66 (38)
6. UCLA - 61 (36)
7. Connecticut - 60 (28)
8. Syracuse - 48 (24)
9. Michigan - 46 (23)
10. Georgia Tech - 45 (22)

With three projected first round picks this year (and Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow projected to go in the lottery) Duke should be able to hold on to their lead over Kentucky, who will jump over North Carolina.

 

[LONMUNU]

Maybe Phil Jackson should have read the article?

 

[Rhavicc]

Maybe Phil Jackson should have read the article?

He never said they can't get to the NBA, he said they don't live up to expectations. Also consider, Kentucky didn't start loading the NBA up with players until Calipari. In that time, a half dozen Kentucky players have signed max contract deals, whereas, no Duke players have.

Kentucky:
Anthony Davis (highest paying contract in NBA history)
John Wall
Demarcus Cousins
Eric Bledsoe
Brandon Knight
Enes Kanter

In the past 2 years, 6 Kentucky players have signed contract extensions totaling up to over $500 million. I would say that Kentucky produces higher quality NBA talent.

EDIT: There's Kyrie Irving for Duke who signed one in 2014.

 

[HuffyJB]

Enes Kanter never played one single second of basketball for UK.

 

[DevilDJ]

He never said they can't get to the NBA, he said they don't live up to expectations.

And he's wrong. Wanna judge Duke's NBA talent? Look at the players who EXCEEDED expectations...Miles Plumlee , Shavlik Randolph , Lance Thomas , Seth Curry , Andre Dawkins. These are kids who many thought would never even sniff an NBA roster. Yet all , at one time or another , have cashed NBA paychecks. Hardly surprising that John Wall and Kyrie Irving get to the league and do well. Look at the "role players" Duke gets in. K can tell a recruit that even if you're not a lottery pick chances are playing here will prepare ya for getting into the league. Look , I got nuthin' against UK or Calipari or their fans or their players or any of 'em. But Duke is A ( if not THE! ) pipeline to the NBA. UK , obviously , does a great job too but Duke is 2nd to no one. And this notion that Duke guys don't live up to expectations is just flat-out wrong. Phil Jackson is old and in the way. Needs to stfu. The Knicks are straight azz.

 

[DukeJim99]

He never said they can't get to the NBA, he said they don't live up to expectations.

And he's wrong. Wanna judge Duke's NBA talent? Look at the players who EXCEEDED expectations...Miles Plumlee , Shavlik Randolph , Lance Thomas , Seth Curry , Andre Dawkins. These are kids who many thought would never even sniff an NBA roster. Yet all , at one time or another , have cashed NBA paychecks.

Agreed. I posted this in a different forum:

There shouldn't be an anti-Duke bias in the NBA. Lots of recent Duke overachievers in the NBA. Mason Plumlee was picked #22 two years ago and was second in rookie of the year voting, if I remember correctly. Carlos Boozer was a second round pick but has been a starter for 12 years and a two-time All star. Kyle Singler was a second round pick and worked his way into a starting role for the pistons before getting traded. Ryan Kelly was a mid second round pick and but has been starting for the Lakers.

Then you have Kyrie, Elton Brand, Luol Deng, all of whom are multiple-time all stars.

I'd probably put JJ on the over-achiever list as well, in all honesty. I remember how many people wrote him off as a typical Duke "great in college, will suck in the pros" guy.

Edit: I should probably have included Duhon on that list. You don't pick a guy 38th and expect him to start 300+ games in his career.

 

[pisgah101]

Singler wasn't in the second round

 

[DukeJim99]

Yes he was. 33rd overall pick, 3rd pick in the second round.

 

[pisgah101]

Oops my bad I honestly always thought he was a first rounder! Lol

 

[timo0402]

Phil is like a lot of big time coaches, they have huge egos that are bruised very easily. K saying that he won b/c of Jordan and Kobe is the truth, that's all it is. Yes you have to be a decent coach but if you dont have talent you aren't winning anything, period....it's pretty simple. We dont win the title without Justise, Tyus and Jah, as great of a coach as K is, he'll admit that and has on multiple occasions. What did he say on that dagger 3- we just said tyus run high ball screen and do your thing....great coaching (i paraphrased but thats the jist of what he said).

Congrats Phil, you had Jordan & Pippen, Shaq & Kobe, Kobe & Pau, thats why you won.

 

[jamsession3]

Phil is like a lot of big time coaches, they have huge egos that are bruised very easily. K saying that he won b/c of Jordan and Kobe is the truth, that's all it is. Yes you have to be a decent coach but if you dont have talent you aren't winning anything, period....it's pretty simple. We dont win the title without Justise, Tyus and Jah, as great of a coach as K is, he'll admit that and has on multiple occasions. What did he say on that dagger 3- we just said tyus run high ball screen and do your thing....great coaching (i paraphrased but thats the jist of what he said).

Congrats Phil, you had Jordan & Pippen, Shaq & Kobe, Kobe & Pau, thats why you won.

I will say one thing on Phil's behalf, he needs a strong ego/attitude to win, that's why he gave MELO the big contract. The jury is still out on the Knicks

Many critics have a hard time giving Duke players, particularly in the last 10 years, their props. BE CLEAR, Duke has made some very good(almost great) consistent pros in the last 15 years. When you look at Shane, Duhon, Boozer, Mike, Deng, JJ, Josh, Hendo, etc...those guys have been consistent. You can hate Duke all you want, but those guys will get NBA pensions when its all said and done! Can you say the same for UK, UNC, 'Cuse, UCLA, Gtown, Florida, etc...Duke players play 10 plus years in the LEAGUE!

 

[pharm727]

This years draft is over, why don't you update your stats?

 

[pharm727]

I'd also like to see the total earnings?

 

[youngman42]

If not for injuries, Grant Hill would have been one of the best to play and would have for a period taken over the mantle from Jordan (until Kobe came into his prime).

Elton Brand was a great all-star. And, I would argue that even Boozer exceeded expectations. I did not think he would be as good as he was and he was much more productive offensively in the NBA than he was in college. Shane Battier was somewhat of an offensive disappointment (I thought he'd be a bit more effective), but overall, I thought he had a great career. Very good defender and one of the smartest most cohesive players in the league. Every coach would love an unselfish defensive talent like Battier. JJ Redick started out slow but has blossomed into just about the player one would expect. Deng was about the same.

However, the reality is, Duke has not been a school that typically recruits several one-and-dones; or necessarily the most explosively talented players. Duke's recruiting is somewhat limited for several reasons (academics; type of players; etc). They have only recently begun to recruit more one-and-done (OAD) players.

Furthermore, there was a general dearth of NBA talent recruited between 2002 and 2010. JJ, Deng, and Singler. Not that there were 'bad' recruits; there were several very good ones. But, generally, they were not what one would describe as sure fire NBA talent. Even Singler, the #8 recruit in his year, was not considered a big-time NBA talent. At 6'8, a player is going to have to be either super strong (ala, LeBron), super quick 2G type (Deng; etc.), or an insane shooter and ball-handler.

And, Duke has rarely signed big body NBA types (Okafor was an exception to the rule).

UK should have more in the NBA than Duke because they have regularly been signing 4-5 OAD type recruits since Calipari went there.

 

[DukeJim99]

If we're going to do the "if not for injuries" thing, I think Jay Williams could perhaps have been a top-5 PG in the league for a time. That might be optimistic, but he certainly had the tools to be a starter for a decade or more.

 

[lkc1234]

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Duke-is-best-at-producing-NBA-Draft-talent-in-modern-era-37925275

The article is from before the Draft, so SIAP.

-------------------------

Duke has had the most players selected in the NBA Draft since the advent of the three-point line in 1986-87, commonly referred to as the "modern era of college basketball". With 38 picks over that time period, Duke is tied with Arizona, but based on quality of pick the Blue Devils clearly stand ahead of the pack according to Mike Rutherford of CardChronicle.com. Here's his methodology:

To ensure that both quality and quantity were taken into account appropriately for these rankings, I developed the simplest possible scoring system: three points for a lottery pick (the lottery included 14, 13, 11 and nine teams at various points over the past 26 years); two points for a non-lottery first-round pick; and one point for a second-round pick. In instances of ties, the tiebreaker is the overall number of players selected.

And the top ten:

1. Duke - 83 (38)
2. North Carolina - 79 (34)
3. Kentucky - 76 (36)
4. Kansas - 73 (33)
5. Arizona - 66 (38)
6. UCLA - 61 (36)
7. Connecticut - 60 (28)
8. Syracuse - 48 (24)
9. Michigan - 46 (23)
10. Georgia Tech - 45 (22)

With three projected first round picks this year (and Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow projected to go in the lottery) Duke should be able to hold on to their lead over Kentucky, who will jump over North Carolina.

Kentucky has put the most players in the NBA since Cal has been at Kentucky. It is not even close.

 

[aah555]

K expressed an opinion about the Triangle that may be considered a subtle shot at Phil based on the context of the conversation, and Phil Jackson seems to have responded in kind. I don't think there's much more to that here.

In terms of meeting "expectations" point, I think that's a pretty hollow criticism at this point. While there may have been some truth to that criticism 20 years ago, I think the majority of Duke players over the past 10-15 years have at least met or exceeded expectations. For instance, say what you want about Dunleavy, but he's a career double figure scorer who'll end his career earning close to $100 million under the old cap structure, the only one in the top 6 of his draft class who's still in the NBA, and one of only a handful of guys from that draft class who even made it to double digit years in the NBA. Battier was a consistent starter on teams that made the playoffs for about a decade, and while there were a few guys drafted below him that arguably had better careers, there's little doubt that he too was far better than some guys who went ahead of him (Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry) -- i.e., if you redid that draft based on NBA career, I bet Battier would still go top 7-8. Obviously Kyrie, Brand, Boozer, and Luol have all made a couple all-star appearances and certainly lived up to expectations, with Boozer (a 2nd rounder) far exceeding expectations. I think Redick and Henderson have basically met expectations, and then you've got guys like Duhon, McRoberts, Mason Plumlee, Miles Plumlee, or Lance Thomas who, IMO, have far exceeded the respective expectations for them when they left college. IMO, since about 2000, the only real NBA busts (i.e., did not play even close to their draft status when compared to how the rest of their draft class performed) have been J-Will (off-court), Shelden and Nolan -- which is frankly a pretty good hit rate when you consider how many guys we've had go to the NBA over the past 10-15 years.

 

[JustthefaxMa'am]

Enes Kanter never played one single second of basketball for UK.

I'm guessing UK hold the record for being the only school to ever put a student assistant coach in the lottery. Btw he did attend UK and practiced with the team 20 hours per week.

 

[dukiejay]

Good for him. But it still stand to reason that he never, ever played a single minute for UK. Ever.

 

[aah555]

I'm guessing UK hold the record for being the only school to ever put a student assistant coach in the lottery. Btw he did attend UK and practiced with the team 20 hours per week.

No Cal is just the first to try and call an ineligible basketball player a "student assistant coach."

 

[ioliva]

how can you put austin rivers and henderson as didn't live up to expectations? Rivers is still young and Henderson was a good player for a really bad charlotte team for the time he was there ( basically always starting) When hansborough really hasn't done anything yet he's met expectations? Brandan Wright has apparently also met expectations as the #8pick in the draft yet he's never averaged more points than henderson lol.

 

[d24martin]

Total earnings? I believe I'm right in saying Duke players in the NBA were the first to make total earnings of a billion dollars.

 

[HuffyJB]

No Cal is just the first to try and call an ineligible basketball player a "student assistant coach."

UK got very, very lucky that his ineligibility was determined BEFORE the season, because Cal's history shows he would have played him otherwise and they would have had a Marcus Camby/Derrick Rose type situation.

 

[FearTheBeard]

This years draft is over, why don't you update your stats?

They're not "my stats." Contact the author of the article I linked.