Thoughts on Payne being groomed to play C

[dirtypuppet]

The two bolded are things Payne doesn't have for the PF position much less NBA centers. Anyone saying Payne can play center is probably on the boat that Coach Bud can coach Josh Smith into a great decision maker. While it's ideal, it's highly unlikely. 

Which is why my thinking as that Payne can play the 5 in some matchups but you can't under value things like positioning and strength which I'm surprised Pero does quite well and Payne at this stage, does not.

[High5]

It's kind of a silly argument when Chris Bosh is a championship center. Physically there's nothing stopping Payne from playing at least some quality minutes at center and he's only going to get stronger. He's going to have to learn how to play defense and rebound in the NBA whether he's playing PF or C. 

[jy23]

Recruiting is the single most important thing a college coach does so I wouldn't minimize that. As an aside, I think that is the single biggest favor Lebron James ever did for Calipari: get all the young guys thinking about how their chances are enhanced by forming super teams. Now you have more concentration of talent than I can remember and for anyone who admires James his endorsing Calipari just further thrusts that notion of putting together super teams at UK. Duke, Kansas, UNC, etc. are all looking to take advantage of this as well, just not to the same extreme.

Anyone who thinks Coach K is some different animal who works with a lesser talent pool needs to learn a bit more about the guy and stop underselling him as a recruiter.

1994 Recruiting Class - 3 McDonald's All-Americans

1997 Recruiting Class - 3 McDonald's All-Americans

1999 Recruiting Class - 4 McDonald's All-Americans

2002 Recruiting Class - 4 McDonald's All-Americans

2005 Recruiting Class - 3 McDonald's All-Americans

2006 Recruiting Class - 3 McDonald's All-Americans

2007 Recruiting Class - 3 McDonald's All-Americans

etc.

Yes Coach K is a great recruiter no doubt....thing is I think he does a lot more with the talent that he gets than Cal could ever do. To me that's the difference. Not a big gap in their levels of recruiting but when it comes to Xs and Os Coach K runs rings around Cal.

I think people get confused on Coach Ks recruiting bc we don't produce the best pros but I've tried to tell people great college player doesn't mean great pro. He still recruits top notch COLLEGE ball players. Look out this year, we're loaded.

Edited July 15, 2014 by jy23