Josh Okogie to hire agent and stay in NBA Draft

Gold1

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Man we got screwed. So many teams are getting their star players back and what do we get? An average player that decides to leave. Will It ever end?
 

OG-T

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With Bosh, Young and Favors, I felt they were gone. I feel fairly good about the other pieces on this current team, but the sense that Okogie’s return would keep our trajectory going at an encouraging arc, and then to have him now disappear- and possibly derail our progress - has an eerie feeling like when Austin Jackson was to be critical to our Hewitt-era momentum, only to have Jackson choose the MLB over hoops. COMPLETELY left us without a major PG talent, and the tailspin started. Hope we don’t experience Deja Hew.
 

Peacone36

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Average?

17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.5 steals per game.

Shot 38% from deep on 173 attempts.
27% usage rate and was able to maintain a 1-1 A/TO ratio.
Put up scoring numbers on par with Kenny Anderson and other GT greats.
2017-18 had 1.7 Wins shares. What does this mean? Joel Berry was at 1.8, Trae Young was at 1.9, Marvin Bagley at 1.7.

He may go down as one of the best statistical players GT has seen in the last 30 years as well as the most under appreciated.
 

Gold1

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Average?

17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.5 steals per game.

Shot 38% from deep on 173 attempts.
27% usage rate and was able to maintain a 1-1 A/TO ratio.
Put up scoring numbers on par with Kenny Anderson and other GT greats.
2017-18 had 1.7 Wins shares. What does this mean? Joel Berry was at 1.8, Trae Young was at 1.9, Marvin Bagley at 1.7.

He may go down as one of the best statistical players GT has seen in the last 30 years as well as the most under appreciated.
I'm talking in the landscape of college basketball he was an average player. No CBB fans around the nation talked about Okogie at all.
 

MWBATL

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This program is on the upswing. You can almost feel it in the air...you can taste it if you close your eyes and take a deep breath....don't know how far we'll get next year with JO leaving (and best of luck to him!) but I like the rest of this team and this coaching staff.
 

whitegoldsphinx

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This program is on the upswing. You can almost feel it in the air...you can taste it if you close your eyes and take a deep breath....don't know how far we'll get next year with JO leaving (and best of luck to him!) but I like the rest of this team and this coaching staff.
Losing okogie could cost us to some wins, but will accelerate the development of the younger players since okogie's minutes will be up for grabs.
 

lv20gt

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Okogie was a really good player for us but a big reason he is going early is because the lack of talent we had the past two years. With a healthy program Okogie doesn't get as much playing time as he did the first two years, especially as a freshman, and without that exposure I doubt he even tests the waters as a sophomore. That's by no means an insult to him. We need to reach the point where we have the talent where guys like Okogie come in and aren't asked to carry the load right away. Unfortunately, with Okogie leaving I could see a similar thing happening with Devoe.
 

orientalnc

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This argument that JO was an average player, by any measure, is silly. There are over 300 D1 teams. If you just count the starters on thise teams, there are 1500+ basketball players on that level. He is clearly in the top quintile. If you just judge by the guys who declared for the NBA draft, he is one of the top few dozen players on any collegiate level.
 

slugboy

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We really needed JO to stay and help in a transition yr (w/0 Lammers) to show recruits progress.Now it will be an uphill battle for JP to show progress to the recruits he wants and we need. It may even be a fatal blow long term to him added with all that crap this yr.
I don't understand this. He should go late first round or early second as a Sophomore. If I'm a potential recruit, I think that's progress. It should help recruiting.
If you're thinking "make it to the NCAA's" as progress, that might be next year anyway, and JO would be gone by then even if he stayed this year.
I'd look more at backcourt progress for this year.
 

alagold

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I don't understand this. He should go late first round or early second as a Sophomore. If I'm a potential recruit, I think that's progress. It should help recruiting.
If you're thinking "make it to the NCAA's" as progress, that might be next year anyway, and JO would be gone by then even if he stayed this year.
I'd look more at backcourt progress for this year.

I call progress as winning more in ACC than last yr. and/or tournament at yr end.I don't see that happening.If you do-wonderful.
I don't see any relationship between JO going pro and a recruit that might come in?If he is that good then he already is thinking pro--he doesn't need GT to get him there.In fact,it might be a negative as a TREND here for guys to leave us asap.
Now do you understand?
 

lv20gt

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I don't understand this. He should go late first round or early second as a Sophomore. If I'm a potential recruit, I think that's progress. It should help recruiting.
If you're thinking "make it to the NCAA's" as progress, that might be next year anyway, and JO would be gone by then even if he stayed this year.
I'd look more at backcourt progress for this year.

The problem is that the benefit of him getting to the pros is there whether he leaves now or next year. I think you greatly undersell the cost of missing the NCAAT in recruiting. Just by being inn the NCAAT you get a lot of exposure and we're looking at 8 years of not making the tournament. We're reaching the point where recruits do not remember a time where GT was a NCAAT team. That is not good. With Okogie I could see a trio of him, Jose, and Devoe leading the way to a NCAAT berth. I just don't see that without him. Too much reliance on young players or players who aren't really ACC level players.
 

slugboy

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The problem is that the benefit of him getting to the pros is there whether he leaves now or next year. I think you greatly undersell the cost of missing the NCAAT in recruiting. Just by being inn the NCAAT you get a lot of exposure and we're looking at 8 years of not making the tournament. We're reaching the point where recruits do not remember a time where GT was a NCAAT team. That is not good. With Okogie I could see a trio of him, Jose, and Devoe leading the way to a NCAAT berth. I just don't see that without him. Too much reliance on young players or players who aren't really ACC level players.
a] James Forrest stayed in school and went from being a probable first-round pick to a European player. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
b] I think Jose Alvarado is a bigger factor to making the NCAA tournament this year that Okogie would have been. Last year, we didn't have the outside shooting or a deep backcourt.
c] I also don't think we're one Josh Okogie away from making hay in the NCAA tournament. It's more about getting a style that we all play as a team that works, and going 6-7 players deep in talent.
d] We just added one of our better recruiting classes in a long time, but they're all Freshmen.
e] You get a lot of attention in the sweet 16. You get some in the round of 32. Just making it and leaving in the first round of the NCAA doesn't get you a lot of attention unless you're a Cinderella team.

I'd have loved for him to stay, but I think we were looking at more of an NIT year than an NCAA year, and I think we're still in that category.
 

lv20gt

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a] James Forrest stayed in school and went from being a probable first-round pick to a European player. You have to strike while the iron is hot.
b] I think Jose Alvarado is a bigger factor to making the NCAA tournament this year that Okogie would have been. Last year, we didn't have the outside shooting or a deep backcourt.
c] I also don't think we're one Josh Okogie away from making hay in the NCAA tournament. It's more about getting a style that we all play as a team that works, and going 6-7 players deep in talent.
d] We just added one of our better recruiting classes in a long time, but they're all Freshmen.
e] You get a lot of attention in the sweet 16. You get some in the round of 32. Just making it and leaving in the first round of the NCAA doesn't get you a lot of attention unless you're a Cinderella team.

I'd have loved for him to stay, but I think we were looking at more of an NIT year than an NCAA year, and I think we're still in that category.

a] And? That's an exception rather than the rule.
b] It's not one or the other though. Also, losing Okogie doesn't help with our outside shooting. He was a fairly good outside shooter.
c] We're possibly an Okogie away from making the tournament.
d] And they are all Freshmen,hence why losing a rising junior hurts.
e] Getting to the NCAAT doesn't get you the same boost as making the sweet sixteen but not ever even making the tournament is killer in recruiting. Where we are as a program just getting back to the NCAAT would be huge. More so than getting someone drafted in the late first or second round.
 
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