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Some Notes on Warren, James, and Lucas

Posted by Trips Right on April 16th, 2009 under Basketball

Sounds like a law firm, I know. My lord what a salty bunch that would be in the Legal Eagle rec. league.

But in case you missed it, Willie Warren one-upped his galactically stupid decision to attend Oklahoma University in the first place, with the even more galactically stupid decision to stay at Oklahoma University instead of taking lottery money. Seriously? Is Norman, Oklahoma recession proof? Are cars flying off the Big Red Auto lot at a pace fast enough to compete with 8 figure basketball salaries?

Jeff Capel doesn’t need the Glengarry leads he’s already a hell of a saleman. First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado with rims, second prize is a Dusty Dvoracek Louisville Slugger, third prize is you lose two scholarships. Fuck you, that’s Jeff Capel’s name. “Who Shot” Willie Warren must not have heard that Capel has a McDonald’s all-American point guard coming in. I wonder if Capel told Willie that TMG will slide to the two to accomodate Warren’s desire to be a lead guard.

Shifting gears, let’s talk about Damion James’ decision to put his name in the draft and not hire an agent. Good move by James because there is no downside to seeing where you’re at in your career. Damion will be able to work out with and against other aspiring wings under the watchful eyes of NBA scouts and front office folks. He’ll be matched against SF’s like Sam Young, Terrence Williams, and Chase Budinger and these workouts will make or break his chances to get into the first round. A second round grade and James will find his way back to Austin. Bohls talks about the Junior’s uncertainty here.

If you’re handicapping this deal and you’ve watched Damion with any sort of critical eye, you know that he’ll struggle in comparison to these type of highly skilled wings and small forwards. The aforementioned can all put the ball on the deck, get to the bucket, and shoot the basketball. Damion, quite frankly, isn’t in the same skill league as these 3. Can he rebound and play bigger than most 3’s? Sure. But teams aren’t looking for 3’s to just rebound and play bigger. They’re looking for offense. Hell, SF’s and hybrid forwards like Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, Danny Greene, and even Tyler Smith have better small forward face up games than James. And with the exception of Daye, they all project in the second round.

If Damion is smart, he’ll come back to Texas and play a face up 4, hell it’ll basically be a face up 3 on the offensive end, where he can catch the ball and triple threat against slow footed 6-8 power forwards and make them look like surburban white kids in an And 1 mix tape.

Some will say Damion should go because Rick will make him play power forward. My reply to that is, yeah, so? Will Damion be guarding power forwards? Sure. Will he be used as a low post guy? No. Will he be gaming block to block with another post in a 3-2 look? Hell no. We’re 4 out 1 in all day baby. Pittman is the only sheriff in town.

I mean come on people, use your noode. Is Kyle Singler a power forward? Mebe. Does Kyle Singler get an assload of good looks against other power forwards? Oh hell yes. Would he get them as a 3 in college? Probably not. Does Kyle Singler look like he can play the 3 in the NBA? Yep. See where I’m going with this?

On to Jai Lucas, ESPNU did a signing day piece with Rick Barnes and Hickory’s finest had this to say about the transfer point guard. He said Jai’s teams usually win the pick up games he’s playing in, so I’m inferring that Jai’s the leader of his team and that he gets his players involved at the correct times in the correct places. That is certainly an element this team missed last season.

Coach Barnes also called the young PG “a gym rat” which is high praise from a guy that’s not prone to any kind of praise.

I’ve said it before, but Jai has “it” as a basketball player. He’s small, but his basketball skill and IQ are off the charts. He’ll be a force for the Horns next year.

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16 Responses

  1. NateHeupel said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm

    Factors that the ignorant fail to consider:

    1) Warren’s ego.
    Warren has implied more than once that he wants to prove that he’s a Blake Griffin-esque badass who can dominate the court every night on his own. This may be the first time a college basketball player’s ego helped his collegiate team.

    2) Nostalgia…so to speak

  2. NateHeupel said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Cont’d
    Warren has stated his excitement to play with AAU teammates coming in as part of Capel’s class. A homecoming of sorts.

    3) “Give me the green liiiiight. Give me just one niiiiiight. I’m ready to go right now.”
    Who do you think Capel’s giving the keys to the car to? Tony Crocker? Juan “I can haz play time” Patillo? No. Willie Warren is going to get to do pretty much what the hell he wants…on the court. Off the court, it’s just business as usual.

  3. the Bobs said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    I must admit, it’s kind of scary whenever a sooner says: “Off the court, it’s just business as usual.”

  4. Real McCoy said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    Is it just me or will Barnes have a sickly talented squad next year? He better bring his A game – because I have had a sneaky suspicion Rick needs to sharpen his X’s and O’s to be an elite (read cut down the nets) coach. He may have the talent to prove my suspicions wrong.

  5. Kafka said:

    April 16th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    Merging all these new guys with the returning veterans is going to be a fun but challenging task for Barnes.

    I’m guessing that if Damion determines that he is a first round draftee then he is gone, otherwise happy days are here again (for horn fans). I guess it depends on how well he does in the workouts.

    Watching Ron Artest (who outweighs Damion by around 30 pounds) play defense convinced me that Damion can (at some point after serious effort) guard NBA small forwards fine.

  6. HenryJames said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 5:22 am

    What about Jordan Hamilton?

  7. Trips Right said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 6:04 am

    HenryJames with the nice penetration and the wrap around dime.

  8. Mr Funny said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 6:16 am

    The reach around maybe

  9. jc25 said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 6:48 am

    Per Chad Ford:

    23 Austin Daye
    29 Terrance Williams
    35 Sam Young
    37 Chase Budinger
    42 Kyle Singler (returning to school)
    44 DaJuan Summers
    46 Damion James
    53 Tyler Smith
    73 Danny Green

    I think it’s interesting how the opinions on BC veer strongly to Damion needing to return to school, whereas the opinions on BON veer strongly to Damion going to the Association now. There’s strong arguments for both sides, to be sure, but it pisses me off that OU has the recent history of hanging on to its guys while we see ours ride off into the sunset.

  10. Tortilla Thrower 1990 said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 7:29 am

    OMG?!?!?

    an “A Few Good Men” reference in a legal tinged post? Good one!

  11. Facebook User said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 8:36 am

    On Jordan:

    He practiced with the team at Dominguez and played pickup ball against high-level competition at the Hangar Athletic Exchange gym near Los Angeles International Airport.

    That’s awesome. I know just the kind of place this is. A better workout there than playing high school ball.

  12. BoomerFreakinSooner said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 10:38 am

    http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Bulletproof_Vest_Test_Goes_Wrong

    Hook ‘em Horns!

  13. Kafka said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    HJ:
    I meant to talk about Damion guarding small forwards in the NBA. For sure he is playing power forward for the horns if he should return.

    I had written in another thread that Damion could not guard a small forward in the NBA so he would have to play power forward in the NBA. After being reminded about how great Artest plays D on small forwards, I realized that maybe Damion could, too.

  14. Kafka said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    “Watching Ron Artest (who outweighs Damion by around 30 pounds) play defense convinced me that Damion can (at some point after serious effort) guard NBA small forwards fine.”

    I just realized that I already specified that Damion would be guarding an NBA small forward so maybe I did not understand HJ’s question after all (i.e. what does Jordan Hamilton have to do with guarding NBA small forward’s next year?).

    I’m pretty sure that HJ was making a good point because Trips credited him with an assist (but I don’t actually get the point, I’m ashamed to admit).

    HJ or Trips, could you explain what Jordan Hamilton had to do with my point?

  15. ponderos said:

    April 17th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    You freaking kill me.

  16. huge said:

    April 20th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    the problem with DJ playing defense isnt his athletic ability. 3 or 4.

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