Wonder how many millions it cost Joachim Noah to play at Florida instead of being the first pick in 2006 draft. He has had a good but not great season and I wonder just how far he will drop ?
His stock won't drop much. He'll still be a top 10 pick and likely closer to 5 than 10. And whatever he's done this season will get erased by what he does in the tournament and I'm almost certain he'll look real good in that again (the entire Florida team is just killing time until they get to actual defend their title). And I doubt he'll ever miss any money he left on the table. It ain't like he's scrounging for taco bell money right now.
He blew his draft position big time by not coming out, but obviously he cares about more things than draft position. I was a naysayer on him last summer and feel almost vindicated by this season. Noah could be a good NBA player but I don't think he's dedicated enough to his craft, which was true of his father. I don't think the 82 game NBA grind will be good to him. He reminds me a little of Rasheed Wallace when he came out, except Noah doesn't have nearly the offensive skills. Perhaps David Lee would be a good comparison.
Im with you. Noah has never showed much and its not like he has some amazing athletic potential. I couldn't believe the media would hype him up so much last year. Ya he plays hard. But thats about it. And that simply translates into foul trouble for him.
Noah was a huge part in Florida winning the championship. No small feat in itself. I don't know how you can discount all of that.
Winning college ball games doesn't always translate into NBA success. Especially when players like Bargnani, Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay were available last year. Florida was stacked. And Noah isnt even in the top 3 in scoring on his team. Im not saying he is going to be horrible, but a top 5 pick just doesnt seem warranted. Thats what my intuition tells me. Had he gone top 3 last year like expected he would (in my mind) go down in history as a bust.
Although I disagree, you have some valid points here. I just took umbrage w/ you writing off Noah as some average college player who was overhyped, as you said.
He's an excellent college player when his motor is running, but he was also way overhyped as an NBA prospect. Since Noah isn't supremely talented, he better be a hard worker or he won't do well in the NBA. I think this college season gives a better perspective on what he is and his draft position will reflect that. Then again, maybe he has a good tournament and pushes his stock back up. My mind won't be changed either way. I doubt they would have, but if he came out last year and the Raptors took him ahead of Bargnani, they would be ready to shoot themselves now.
i agree.. from everything i've seen this year, not only has noah shown nothing.. i think he's regressed. But maybe my opinion was inflated by the hype last year. Regardless, he dropped somewhat in the draft order, but his salary will be still be solid. He'll still get a 1st round contract. And most important, he's going to go to a decent team instead of a horrendous one. Which means he'll go to a team that can actually use his skills/athetlicism/hustle. Unlike Shelden Williams who can't be utilized because ATL is just so bad Who knows what Shelden, Kwame, Kandi, or a lot of these bigs could have done if they were able to go to a good team and be a backup 4/5 to start their careers instead of having such large expectations for people that never should have had that on their shoulders?
That had nothing to do Kwame and Kandi's failures. Kwame was very overrated and just didn't have the potential most people tagged him with. That's a chance teams took when they drafted high school players. Kandi was also overrated but the guy was just a plain slug. After mediocrity, he wanted a huge contract from the Clips but they made the right decision and let him go. After leaving, he became an even bigger failure. Shelden Williams future is to be determined. I never saw him being anything more than a very marginal NBA player. If you ask me, his potential is to be a better version of Chuck Hayes. For the Hawks to pass on Chris Paul & Deron Williams one year at #2 and to draft Shelden Williams at #5 the next year is amazing.
I guess my point was that IIRC, that before the draft, he was a consensus #1 - #3 pick. That was partly because of a poor top 20 draft and partly his showing in the playoffs. IMO he will not get near that money this year and that is a big chunk of dough. Probably tens of millions. A bird in the hand....
Tens of millions. I think you've severely overestimating how much a rookie gets paid in the NBA. The #1 pick is only guaranteed about $8 million over two years (the third and fourth years are team options). With the #5th pick it's about $5 million over two, and the #10th pick is guaranteed about $3 million. If we go by max possible salary and all the years get picked up, then it'll be about: #1 pick = $16-17 mill #5 pick = $10-11 mill #10 pick = $6-7 mill With each pick in between being progressively scaled. So yes, I suppose if Noah falls from the #1 pick to the 10 pick or lower, he'd have left about $10 million on the table. It's really on the second contract that NBA guys make the big money, and in that case considering the deals given to guys like Nene and Dalembert, Noah won't be hurting for cash as long as he's not a straight up bust. Rookie salary scale: http://www.nbpa.org/cba_exhibits/exhibitB.php
He's going to in the 5-10 range, this draft is actually deep...last year he still would have gone #2, the Raptors were going to take Bargnani # 1 no matter who came out (except for Oden probably)... By the way, Bargnani is going to be better than Nowitzki, BOOK IT!
He certainly is off to a better start than Dirk. He has the potential to be better because he already has a low post game, but let's see if he works hard and continues to get better over the next few seasons. I think and hope you are right because I've always liked the Raptors more than their East rivals (same for the Jays). I've kind of tuned them out this season but I'll start paying attention.
Of course, you are correct. I am also counting that he is starting 6-8 million in the hole. He has to make that much to just break even because of the lost year. That would jack it up to 16-18 millions. If he doesn't doesn't turn out to be as good as everyone expected, then he may never recover that sum. So I would have to chalk it up to bad advice from someone.
His hype will go up during the tournament this year just like it did last year. I would say he will go top seven. Which is about what he would have gone last year. The kid coasted through the season so far but, if you saw the UF/UK game last weekend you would have been impressed with him again. He's an up and down player because he plays with emotion when it counts... ie the tournament. He will never be a superstar, but yes he will need to work hard to keep his spot in the NBA.
Right now he is targeted at #4. So it probably will cost him 1 year's salary + some change for draft position. So his decision cost him a lot of money, but not near what I thought it would be. Haysfan: you are correct, he's beginning to come on in the tourny.
im so sick and tired of hearing how good noah is.....he has 0 offensive game. he cant finish around the basket. hes def got no jumper. range extends out to 5 ft. horrible shooting form. most of all NO MUSCLE everyone who said he is goin to be the next big thing should check into a hospital
