Daniel Hamilton signs guaranteed deal with Hawks

[Rico444]

He played the point in the D League this past season and nearly averaged a triple double.

Do you think he's going to be able to play the point at the NBA level?

I never said he couldn't be a good NBA player, just that I didn't think he would be a first-round pick. He also had that NBDL success after a few years of developing after college.

 

[Scrutineer]

He played the point in the D League this past season and nearly averaged a triple double.

I always felt he should play the point because of his passing ability and his inconsistent shooting. Let's hope he becomes the next big point guard star in the NBA.

 

[spudzj6]

I think the proper way to state this is that he didn’t make an awful decision. I still think he left too early. Based on this Forbes article, even the last player in the first round is guaranteed 3.5m. That may be more than he ever makes in the NBA. 2018 NBA Draft: First-Round Rookie Salary Projections

If he had overlapped with Jalen more there is an argument to be made that he would have been much more efficient based on not having to force it all the time and having the opposing team having to stretch their defense on two players who can penetrate.

I think he could have been a top 20 pick which would guarantee him almost $5m.

I wish him the absolute best and loved watching him dump it off to Amida, but the jury is still out on his early move. If he ends up making $10m+ On his career you can say he did it his way, he wasn’t into college and it was gonna be too much of a distraction. If he flames out this year it will still be a bad move. Either way i believe it will have cost him a couple mill.

I agree. The way DHam and Jalen took over the OT in the Cincy game, imagine those two together for another year or two. Granted, then we may have lost Jalen sooner than 4 years? You can always second guess, but happy for any UConn grad to see results of hard work at their craft.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Remember when some here said he was scared off by Larrier? It's enough to make me wish for Larrier to be next.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

So since leaving UConn he's probably made at least $1.25m. Not bad for a kid who "left too early." I'll happily eat some crow on this

Certainly from a UConn pespective he left to early.
The 2016-17 team is a very different team with him .
But let say he played one more year and was a first round pick In the 2017 draft .
He probably would have signed a three year deal for 5million a year .
15mm>1.25m
In that case from his perspective he left to early

 

[RichZ]

But let say he played one more year and was a first round pick In the 2017 draft .
He probably would have signed a three year deal for 5million a year .
15mm>1.25m
In that case from his perspective he left to early

I'm not sure I can envision any believable (much less likely) scenario in which he would have been a 1st rounder. Especially with the kind of player development we saw under KO.

 

[HooperScooper]

Certainly from a UConn pespective he left to early.
The 2016-17 team is a very different team with him .
But let say he played one more year and was a first round pick In the 2017 draft .
He probably would have signed a three year deal for 5million a year .
15mm>1.25m
In that case from his perspective he left to early

I understand what you are saying but your salaries from the 2017 draft picks aren’t correct.

Only the first 2 years are guaranteed. Teams can extend draft picks for each of the 3rd year and 4th year at a predetermined salary. Even at 4 years you’d have to be a top 10 pick to make $15 million.

See this article and the graphic at the end.

2017 NBA Draft 1st Round Rookie Salary Projections

 

[gtcam]

Liked your post... except for the line quoted above. I think it was becoming quite clear that the coaching was not up to standard by the time he decided to leave. I think most of us cringed and hoped it would change when Ollie shuffled his coaching staff...or that a light might go on that he needed to pay attention to the details. IMO, DHam and his father believed that was a long shot and decided his alternative route to the league was a better option than investing more time with Ollie. The transfers were harbingers of the same thing. I'm not sure how DHam could have developed into a first round pick with Ollie's lack of player development style...no matter how hard DHam worked. Just listen to JA about what finally getting a good developmental coach means to him. JA was at a similar point this off-season and chose to come back because of Dan Hurley. I'm not sure DHam wouldn't have made the same choice if we had a coach like Dan Hurley in place back then. Good for him on recognizing the situation, then working hard enough to achieve his dream!

He would have made that choice even if The Wizard of Westwood was coaching
The kid hated college - plain and simple
JA was going nowhere no matter who coached
Enough already KO is gone

I am so happy for DHam - he is a very private person but if you ever talked to him and he was comfortable he opened up. He works really hard at improving his game and he has high respect for KO - still interacts with him regularly for help and support

 

[MadDogRevival]

For the guys who are still hammering at the point, "he left too soon," consider this . . .
His way, he now has 1.35 million. Proven. Real.
The other way, he speculatively could have made 3.x million IF he was drafted in the 1st round.
Big ifs, particularly given how terrible our team became. Hard to stand out when you're on a disjointed, horribly coached team with no heart. Hamilton took a mass amount of abuse on this board for being a "high volume, low % scorer with an iffy 3 pointer." I constantly retorted with - yeah, but the team is garbage, so he is forced to play that role and the other team can zero in on him because nobody else can score.
Would 2 more years of playing in the same awful system have made him a better player? Probably not, and it may have had the effect of branding him as a 4 year sub NBA talent who didn't improve in college.
At the time, I thought the decision wasn't clearly the best one for him, financially, but I didn't think it was clearly wrong either - the D league certainly provided him with better talent and more exposure that UConn would have.
Retrospectively, knowing what we know now, getting off of the KO Slow Motion Train Wreck ASAP was almost certainly the best move for him at the time.

Get over it.

 

[Kitaman]

Vince Carter?

Father and Son type duo signed together.

 

[Chief00]

He would have made that choice even if The Wizard of Westwood was coaching
The kid hated college - plain and simple
JA was going nowhere no matter who coached
Enough already KO is gone

I am so happy for DHam - he is a very private person but if you ever talked to him and he was comfortable he opened up. He works really hard at improving his game and he has high respect for KO - still interacts with him regularly for help and support

DHam hated class. Unless you go to UNC, there’s not a lot a coach can do about that. As for player development failures, quite frankly it would be counterproductive for me to comment at this time. The important thing right now, is reaching a settlement.

 

[2Infinity]

He would have made that choice even if The Wizard of Westwood was coaching
The kid hated college - plain and simple
JA was going nowhere no matter who coached
Enough already KO is gone

I am so happy for DHam - he is a very private person but if you ever talked to him and he was comfortable he opened up. He works really hard at improving his game and he has high respect for KO - still interacts with him regularly for help and support

It's nice to think that the ramifications of a prior leaders actions end right when they leave, but that's not quite the case. There is no way that anyone can say what he would have done with certainty unless they knew his plans before he even arrived. A winning team and personal development can influence a kids decision and those were not so great when he was here. Very happy for him to have made it to the league through his alternative route!

As for JA...another ironclad statement...but you missed my point. Had JA developed as he thought he would have by the end of his junior season, I have little doubt that he would have been off to the league. The kid's got enormous talent...but he needs to be developed. The prior coaching did not contribute much on that front, plain and simple. I'm glad he saw the light with Hurley and decided not to give up his eligibility for an outside shot at the league, the G or overseas.