Illini in the NBA

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#76      

the juiceman cometh

T
the juiceman cometh
altgeld88 said:
It's the Captain Obvious comment of the morning but man is it good to see those two succeeding on the big stage. Malcolm's had a long road to The Show and it's great finally to see him there and turning heads. And Ayo, well, šŸ˜
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Is Malcolm the best Illini player to never make the tourney? He's gotta be right?

I loved watching him play for us. He was a beast. It's a bummer he never got to experience that when he was here, so it's awesome he's finally made it to the NBA. He deserves every bit of this and then some.
 
#77      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
the juiceman cometh said:
Is Malcolm the best Illini player to never make the tourney? He's gotta be right?

I loved watching him play for us. He was a beast. It's a bummer he never got to experience that when he was here, so it's awesome he's finally made it to the NBA. He deserves every bit of this and then some.
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Since the field expanded in '85, could well be. I felt badly for him. He was indeed a beast. He honored his commitment to Weber and then played on struggling Groce teams.
 
#84      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
altgeld88 said:
Since the field expanded in '85, could well be. I felt badly for him. He was indeed a beast. He honored his commitment to Weber and then played on struggling Groce teams.
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going through the records, seems pretty clear that he is tops during the expanded period.

We went to one tourney from 1952-1981 so lots of names in the rafters that never saw the tournament.
 
#85      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decisionā„¢
Joel Goodson
#87      

Keisersose

Keisersose
Keisersose
Last night I went to my first bulls game. It was a blast.

Ayo is awesome man. Bulls marketing highlighted him a lot. First ā€œfan camā€ of the game showed fans in Illini gear holding a sign up for Ayo.

Ayo had a great 1st half. The Hawks were clearly trying to get Ayo off of Trae Young running double screens and checking Ayo. He took one pretty significant hip check from an Atlanta big guy.

So awesome to see an Illini as a crowd favorite on the Bulls.

Also Malcom Hill played a ton of minutes and looked the part.

Good times!
 
#88      

bringbackoldkams

B
bringbackoldkams
Keisersose said:
Last night I went to my first bulls game. It was a blast.

Ayo is awesome man. Bulls marketing highlighted him a lot. First ā€œfan camā€ of the game showed fans in Illini gear holding a sign up for Ayo.

Ayo had a great 1st half. The Hawks were clearly trying to get Ayo off of Trae Young running double screens and checking Ayo. He took one pretty significant hip check from an Atlanta big guy.

So awesome to see an Illini as a crowd favorite on the Bulls.

Also Malcom Hill played a ton of minutes and looked the part.

Good times!
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Malcolm certainly looked the part of an NBA player last night and at the very worst is showcasing himself to the other 29 teams. Plenty of guys right now are bouncing around team to team to fill spots with so many players on the COVID list across the league.
 
#90      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
altgeld88 said:
He was the most underpriced asset in an NBA draft since ______?
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The NBA draft is a longer term proposition. So these determinations aren't made for a few years.

As fun as it is to watch Ayo and as proud as I am for what he's doing, he's not particularly a huge outlier. It took me just a moment to find that Eric Paschall, 41 in the '19 draft made first team all Rookie in 2020. Like Ayo, he was an older player in a good college program who probably was able to adjust earlier faster.
 
#91      

Illiniguy13

Illiniguy13
Illiniguy13
BretMyBeachHouse said:
The NBA draft is a longer term proposition. So these determinations aren't made for a few years.

As fun as it is to watch Ayo and as proud as I am for what he's doing, he's not particularly a huge outlier. It took me just a moment to find that Eric Paschall, 41 in the '19 draft made first team all Rookie in 2020. Like Ayo, he was an older player in a good college program who probably was able to adjust earlier faster.
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Good find on Paschall. He and Ayo fall into the same bucket as 2nd round picks, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many other 2nd round picks beyond those two in recent memory who have had this type of impact on *good teams*. It's one thing if you're a rookie getting a lot of available tick on bad young teams like the Thunder or Rockets, tougher to do on more experienced playoff caliber teams. I'm ready to call those two outliers
 
#92      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
Keisersose said:
Ayo is awesome man. Bulls marketing highlighted him a lot. First ā€œfan camā€ of the game showed fans in Illini gear holding a sign up for Ayo.
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Ayo is becoming the face of the Bulls. Every day, more of an impact player. On both ends of the floor. And not just Illini fans are noticing.

And with league elders like Lebron moving ever closer to exiting the Association stage, it is someone like Ayo that could one day be the face of the League. Not just for what he can do on the floor, but because of the type of person he is. The NBA could use a virtuous, Why-Not-Me kind of hero right about now as the Gee-Look-At-Me players have had their day.
 
#93      

Chieeeeffffff

C
Chieeeeffffff
Roundball Sage said:
Ayo is becoming the face of the Bulls. Every day, more of an impact player. On both ends of the floor. And not just Illini fans are noticing.

And with league elders like Lebron moving ever closer to exiting the Association stage, it is someone like Ayo that could one day be the face of the League. Not just for what he can do on the floor, but because of the type of person he is. The NBA could use a virtuous, Why-Not-Me kind of hero right about now as the Gee-Look-At-Me players have had their day.
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GIF by SundanceTV
 
#94      

Piotyr

P
Piotyr
Roundball Sage said:
Ayo is becoming the face of the Bulls. Every day, more of an impact player. On both ends of the floor. And not just Illini fans are noticing.

And with league elders like Lebron moving ever closer to exiting the Association stage, it is someone like Ayo that could one day be the face of the League. Not just for what he can do on the floor, but because of the type of person he is. The NBA could use a virtuous, Why-Not-Me kind of hero right about now as the Gee-Look-At-Me players have had their day.
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Let's pump the brakes there, just a bit. He's been better than expected and has cracked the rotation.

He's still probably the 6th or 7th most important player on the Bulls (DeRozan, LaVine, Vucevic, Ball, Caruso for sure, Javonte Green has started 17 games and been slightly more productive in his time as a borderline), and he's still probably just outside the top 10 rookie contributors in the league at this point (of which Franz Wagner is currently at the top, no, really), mostly due to the current state of the Bulls as a team and other rookies getting most of the usage and playing time on their teams.

As far as the league goes, the top 2 players right now are Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokuompo, and they've basically lapped the field in overall efficiency, while Durant and Curry are the top scorers (DeRozan is 5th and LaVine 6th in scoring).
 
#95      

BretMyBeachHouse

B
BretMyBeachHouse
Illiniguy13 said:
Good find on Paschall. He and Ayo fall into the same bucket as 2nd round picks, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many other 2nd round picks beyond those two in recent memory who have had this type of impact on *good teams*. It's one thing if you're a rookie getting a lot of available tick on bad young teams like the Thunder or Rockets, tougher to do on more experienced playoff caliber teams. I'm ready to call those two outliers
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Not sure how much more to go into this. Malcolm Brogdon and Mitchell Robinson are also second rounders who made all rookie team.

And let's not forget, as fun as it is watching Ayo right now and as good as he's doing, he's not likely to make All-Rookie this year. he's 19th in ppg, 24th in apg among rookies.

He's having a great year and a great start to hopefully a great NBA career. But his current performance as a second rounder is not that remarkable historically.
 
#96      

Illiniguy13

Illiniguy13
Illiniguy13
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Not sure how much more to go into this. Malcolm Brogdon and Mitchell Robinson are also second rounders who made all rookie team.

And let's not forget, as fun as it is watching Ayo right now and as good as he's doing, he's not likely to make All-Rookie this year. he's 19th in ppg, 24th in apg among rookies.

He's having a great year and a great start to hopefully a great NBA career. But his current performance as a second rounder is not that remarkable historically.
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Robinson and Brogdon certainly had better rookie campaigns as 2nd round picks, that is true. Iā€™d argue itā€™s not apples to apples if we look at the teams they played on. The 2018 Knicks went 17-65, Robinsonā€™s rookie year. Their roster was abysmal and full of young players. Full on tank mode & play the young guys type situation. The 2016 Bucks were a pretty average team finishing barely above .500. Brogdonā€™s main competition at the shooting guard spot were guys like Tony Snell and Rashad Vaughn. While Brogdon and Robinson were better rookies as 2nd rounders, they did so on worse rosters with far less positional competition. Itā€™s likely Robinson and Brogdon wouldnā€™t have had nearly the impact they did had they played on good teams in their first years. To have the impact Ayo is having on a top 5-6ish team with one of the deeper backcourts in the NBA is a different story.
 
#97      

IlliniShelt

I
IlliniShelt
Roundball Sage said:
Ayo is becoming the face of the Bulls. Every day, more of an impact player. On both ends of the floor. And not just Illini fans are noticing.

And with league elders like Lebron moving ever closer to exiting the Association stage, it is someone like Ayo that could one day be the face of the League. Not just for what he can do on the floor, but because of the type of person he is. The NBA could use a virtuous, Why-Not-Me kind of hero right about now as the Gee-Look-At-Me players have had their day.
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Face of the league??? I'll drink what you're drinking
 
#98      

ktal

ktal
ktal
urbanite said:
There was a year gap. Malcolm was a senior in 2016-2017, Ayo was a freshman in 2018-2019.
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So while Ayo was in HS, he was watching Hill carry the load on and off the court for Illinois? What a great example to follow!

Honestly, between Malcolm, Ayo, Damonte and Trent the Illini have been blessed with some great players who work hard and set a high standard. I don't know how long we'll remain so fortunate, but I'm grateful to these men for what they've done at Illinois.
 
#99      

KevinC

KevinC
KevinC
BretMyBeachHouse said:
going through the records, seems pretty clear that he is tops during the expanded period.

We went to one tourney from 1952-1981 so lots of names in the rafters that never saw the tournament.
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For most of those years, you had to be the B1G champion to make the NCAA tournament.
 
#100      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
just looked up the Bulls schedule for the next few days...........

Friday 12/31/21 away game @ Pacers 2 pm CT

Saturday 01/01/22 away game @ Wizards 6 pm CT

Monday 01/03/22 home game @ Magic 7 pm CT

Wow , 3 games in 4 days , with 2 being away games..........

AYOOOOOOOOOO SILVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYY..........

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