Tyus officially declares
- Thread starter Laettner
- Start date
Congrats to Tyus! Thanks for an unreal year, something we all hoped for, but thanks to the STONES he has, we are hanging number 5 in Cameron next year. Absolutely the right move for him to strike while the iron is hot and chase his dream. He earned it and can't ask for anything more from him and what he gave to Duke this year. Way to go!
I'd like to see him in Milwaukee,Cleveland, San Antonio. I'm glad we got to enjoy him for the time we had. It was a blast.
Don't blame him one bit, I think out of the three that have left he could have used the extra year to tone his skills the most. However as far as stock wise goes, I don't think he could have raised it to be within the top 10. Maybe top 15, but who knows.
Congrats, Tyus! Thank you for an incredible season. It was a pleasure.
Now that it's official that all three are gone, I can't help but be nostalgic. I'm really going to miss this group. But I'm trying to look on the bright side - imagine how it would feel watching all three declare having NOT won a National Championship! That would be a true punch in the gut. But thank you to these guys for giving us one fantastic season and hanging a fifth banner in Cameron as a parting gift!
Now that it's official that all three are gone, I can't help but be nostalgic. I'm really going to miss this group. But I'm trying to look on the bright side - imagine how it would feel watching all three declare having NOT won a National Championship! That would be a true punch in the gut. But thank you to these guys for giving us one fantastic season and hanging a fifth banner in Cameron as a parting gift!
Selfish, that's what most of us are, but it is now final, and we can get closure and move on to the "next play". I for one will really miss these 3 Freshmen, and have so much enjoyed this year.
Tyus, I wish you the best in everything you do, and thanks for the memories!
Go Duke!!
JC-OFC
Tyus, I wish you the best in everything you do, and thanks for the memories!
Go Duke!!
JC-OFC
I could see him being a Mike Conley type point guard. He's only 18 so he can get stronger and faster
Our boy Luke just gave props to all 3 on Twitter and offered his assurance to us fans that we will be fine..
Luke Kennard[/B] @Luke_kennard10 11m11 minutes ago
Congrats to the guys that have declared to pursue their careers in the NBA.. We will be ready next year I can promise you that! #DukeNation
Luke Kennard[/B] @Luke_kennard10 11m11 minutes ago
Congrats to the guys that have declared to pursue their careers in the NBA.. We will be ready next year I can promise you that! #DukeNation
I really love that, that is really cool move by Luke.
Congrats Tyus, you were a Devil for but a year and still established yourself as as clutch a player as anyone who ever wore Duke Blue not named Christian Laettner. I'll think of you fondly when I look at banner #5!
"I knew coming in I would be a part of a great team, but I never envisioned I would be a part of such an incredible family. Even though I am entering the NBA draft, I will forever be a Duke Blue Devil."
-Tyus Stones Jones
-Tyus Stones Jones
His situation reminds me a little of Trey Burke's after he had such a great year at Michigan. People looking at Trey saw that he had some big hurdles to overcome to be an NBA point guard. Size and athleticism were both below par for the NBA. But neither of those things would have improved with another year at Michigan.
Same with Tyus. He has a lot of positives to his game and his negatives aren't going to get much better with another year at Duke. Sure, he could improve his shot some and his defense a little. But the NBA drafts on potential and estimations of Tyus's NBA potential aren't going to get much better than they are today, even with another great season next at Duke next year.
Good luck to him. What a year at Duke. Hope he comes back for a degree at some point down the road.
Same with Tyus. He has a lot of positives to his game and his negatives aren't going to get much better with another year at Duke. Sure, he could improve his shot some and his defense a little. But the NBA drafts on potential and estimations of Tyus's NBA potential aren't going to get much better than they are today, even with another great season next at Duke next year.
Good luck to him. What a year at Duke. Hope he comes back for a degree at some point down the road.
I'm convinced he is the best PG we've ever had. He won't set records at Duke, but we all know he would have if there was no NBA.
Love Tyus's moxy, but I think that's a bit hyperbolic. His freshman year clearly doesn't stand up to the best years of Hurley and Jay Williams and, if we're just going on most ability, both Jay Williams and Kyrie pre-injury were better overall players (offensively and defensively) as freshman than Tyus. Tyus's intangibles compare favorably to our all-time greats, but I don't it's fair to our put him up there with our past greats at the PG position.
Eh. I actually think Trey Burke would be the posterchild for staying in school for a second year. After his freshman year, Burke was a late first round / early 2nd round guy who was coming off a tremendous season (14.8 ppg, 4.7 assists on a better shooting percentage). There were some who thought Burke probably would never be a lottery pick b/c of his size / athleticism, and that he risked sliding down draft boards if he failed to significantly improve on his rookie numbers. Burke returned, and ended up having an even better soph. year that culminated in Michigan's first final four in a couple decades. Burke finished his soph. year as a consensus first team AA and put up 18.6 ppg, 6.7 assists, on 46% from the field, and ultimately went #9 in the draft -- far higher than anything thought was possible for Burke.
We've debated the Tyus situation ad nauseum (and no point in rehashing it), but, in my view, the Burke example is the one you would have picked as the poster child for returning.
This post was edited on 4/15 3:22 PM by aah555
I am hoping that big Oak ends up with the Bucks. I still want to see Oak and Parker running together. Would have loved to have seen it this year but hey who can complain about this year. Best of luck to all 3 freshmen and Quinn as I feel certain he will also be pretty good at the next level.
I couldn't be happier for him. Tyus Stones is one bad mofo, and I wish him the very best at the next level.
@Aah, I disagree with your assessment of Tyus as compared to B. Hurley, Kyrie, & J. Williams. I think his freshman year stacks up pretty well with their freshman years...and he delivered a natty to boot. It's hard to predict what would have happened if he had stayed, but my gut feeling tells me he wouldn't have had to take a backseat to any pg that played at Duke.
OFC
This post was edited on 4/15 2:38 PM by OldasdirtDevil
@Aah, I disagree with your assessment of Tyus as compared to B. Hurley, Kyrie, & J. Williams. I think his freshman year stacks up pretty well with their freshman years...and he delivered a natty to boot. It's hard to predict what would have happened if he had stayed, but my gut feeling tells me he wouldn't have had to take a backseat to any pg that played at Duke.
OFC
This post was edited on 4/15 2:38 PM by OldasdirtDevil
Sure, to be clear, my point is only that it's a bit hyperbolic to say that Tyus is the "best PG" Duke's ever had (b/c his freshman year doesn't compare to the soph. / jr. and / or senior years of guys like Hurley or J-Will) or suggest that we know definitively that he would have broken the records of guys like Hurley and Williams if he had stayed. Those guys did stay and grew into all-time great players who not only had great potential, but realized that potential. For historical perspective, I don't think its fair to those guys to basically give Tyus credit for what he may have done.
Moreover, if we were to enter a world where career accomplishments are irrelevant and we're just taking about talent / most gifted, then (i) Kyrie Irving is clearly the best PG to ever play at Duke; (ii) Jahlil Okafor is the best C to ever play at Duke; and (iii) Jabari Parker is, at worst, the 2nd best forward to play at Duke. I wouldn't say that b/c (i) Kyrie only played 11 games; (ii) Parker didn't stay long enough to round out his game, and (iii) b/c Okafor, as great as he was, probably wasn't as good as a Sr. Laettner. But, if we're being honest, Okafor as an 18 year old is significantly better than Laettner at 18.
Also, just for the record, as great as Tyus was -- J-Will was better even as a freshman IMO. As a freshman, J-Will averaged 14.5 PPG, 6.7 assists, and 4.2 rebounds and played ferocious defender. Tyus averaged 11.8 ppg, 5.6 assists, and 3.5 rebounds and was often a defensive liability. Kyrie, by comparison, averaged 17.5 ppg, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and remarkably shot 53% from the field and 46% from 3. I'm a bit biased here b/c my college experience briefly overlapped with J-Will, but I do think he and Kyrie were clearly the best overall PGs we've had here -- though, you can throw Hurley in the mix b/c of everything he accomplished here.
IMO, as I said before, it may be fair to say that Tyus had as much composure as any player we've had here since Laettner, or that he's the best freshman, late-game shot maker we've ever had. However, while his team's accomplishments will always be remembered, I'm not sure he's done enough individually to put himself in that kind of conversation.
This post was edited on 4/15 3:46 PM by aah555
I live 20 minutes from Ann Arbor and the people at the time around me were never discussing Trey leaving after his freshman year because he was projected to be a second round pick, from what I remember, and at least the UM fans I talked to weren't seriously concerned about him leaving. It was only after his sophomore year that people around here were seriously debating whether he should stay or go.
While most people realized Trey should declare, a LOT of people were saying he didn't have a good enough jumper, his skills wouldn't translate to the NBA, etc., based on his size and athleticism. So, these people were saying he should stay one more year. To me, as much as I hoped he'd stay personally, those arguments didn't make sense. Trey wasn't going to get taller. He wasn't going to get quicker. And his jump shot would develop a lot more playing bball full time for a living than it would when his practice time was limited due to classes, tests, etc. Trey had a better than expected year his soph year, so his stock was high despite his physical limitations. Get while the gettin's good.
I feel like it's the same for Tyus. He's not going to get taller. He's not going to get more athletic. Any downside a team sees to drafting Tyus this year will also be there a year from now. He had an amazing year and an even more amazing NCAA run. So even if you look at him and wonder whether he's really ready for the NBA considering his size and athleticism, to me you still have to conclude that it's clearly the right decision for him to go now, as far as NBA draft stock is concerned.
I'm not sure what people in Ann Arbor were debating around the water cooler, but the reality is that Burke was all bet set to leave after one year and had a change of heart at the last moment. Although Burke's draft stock was a bit worse than Tyus (probably about 8-10 spots worse), the reasoning was pretty similar.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/18299209/did-sullinger-stay-too-long-is-burke-leaving-too-early
In reporting that Burke was leaving, this is what CBS Sports said:
We at CBSSports.com have no doubt that Burke has not formally declared for the NBA Draft and that he's still enrolled at the University of Michigan, but Goodman's sources insist Burke will formally declare before the April 29 deadline, meaning the Wolverines will drop when we update the Ridiculously Early Preseason Top 25 (and one). It also means Burke might've learned a lesson from Sullinger. Burke, unlike Sullinger, doesn't seem interested in delaying a paycheck to try to lead his school to a Final Four. His stock is high in a weak draft for point guards, so he's going now. Consequently, he won't be over-scouted as a sophomore like Sullinger was over-scouted as a sophomore, and so two Columbus natives who attended different Big Ten universities will both be rich soon.
In a different article, this is how his decision was described: This is also an extremely weak point guard crop, so Burke -- according to several NBA executives -- has a chance to be taken in the first round.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/18297608/trey-burke-expected-to-leave-michigan-for-nba
Another article from the following year: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/22065554/that-extra-year-at-michigan-did-trey-burke-good
It was around this time last year when Burke was very close to entering the NBA Draft but returned to the Big Ten in part because he was only considered a borderline first-round pick. Had he slipped into the second round, Burke would've been guaranteed nothing. But now, even if he's the final pick in the lottery, Burke will get a guaranteed two-year deal worth more than $3.2 million. In other words, he made money this season while leading the Wolverines to the national title game and winning various National Player of the Year awards, among them the Naismith Award and the Wooden Award.
This is all public record, and Burke even acknowledged that he had a change of heart after initially deciding to declare. Really, the major difference between the two is that Tyus had a good NCAA tourney and was the star in the 2nd half of the national title game -- which moved his projections up from around 26-30+ to a bit more solid footing of around 20-25. If Duke had gone out in the Sweet 16, Tyus / Burke would have faced nearly identical decisions.
This post was edited on 4/15 4:51 PM by aah555
Best news this Tar Heel fan has heard in a while. As good as Winslow and Okafor are, Jones was your most important player in our matchups and several others.
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