Good breakdown for next season and AK talk | The Boneyard

Good breakdown for next season and AK talk

NIL comes down to a few key attributes for a player: likeliness, playing time, success. Alex is a 2-time champ, an iconic UConn basketball player, and widely known. That is super attractive to sponsors who use NIL to have players rep their goods: JBL, Bose, etc. If they think AK can push more product for them, $3M is not so crazy.
 
hot take, but we need a lot more out of him this year if he’s really making $3M.

that’s a lot of money for a rich man’s system player / intangibles guy.

I think his ceiling is an all conference guy, but not a conference POY or All American.
 
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Dove said:
. Just hearing a talking head say it came down to negotiations...and Alex "must be making close to 3"...

Makes me watch college hoops a little different.
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specifically who said he was making close to 3 million?
 
NJHusky said:
Top Dogs just posted about AK and team. Some interesting tidbits…including that AK had a 7 figure nba guarantee last season but still came back
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I wonder if he regrets not taking the guarantee last season..assuming his stock went down after this past season.
 
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Its great for AK.

This NIL thing though needs to be regulated with a cap though, otherwise we will have certain teams differentiating themselves with $$ from others ... something like the Yankees, Dodgers, Sox in bball.
 
The one thing I don't agree with is saying that AK isn't or can't be the best player on the team. I agree that he is most effective when he's not the only or primary scoring threat, but scoring isn't the only marker of a good player. Ball should and most likely will be the leading scorer, but I still think AK is overall the better player.
 
AK playing in his appropriate position offensively will hopefully help him surge back to a player+ that he was. He’ll be most effective when he has two penetrators on the floor. It won’t be with Stew and Solo on the floor together.

I’d expect to see the 1-3 when he’s out there being assortments of:

Mullins
Solo
Silas

Stew
Malachi
Silas

The Solo, Stew, AK grouping revisits what we were last year. Slow footed off ball shooters, easy to guard.
 
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How does one watch differently? LeBron makes a ridiculous 50M/yr and Messi even more than that, but the $ they are making doesn't really impact the basketball/soccer or my viewing of it.

Meanwhile knowing that college players were relatively poor did add a bit of guilt to the experience prior to NIL. Assuming AK is at best a 2nd round draft pick with no guaranteed money, he is exactly the type of player that most benefits from NIL. And college fans in turn benefit by continuity of a great player on the team for way more years than prior to NIL. Seems a win-win to me.
 
It is nice to have a coach on the floor. He had his best assist numbers last year and with what looks like a better shooting cast, that number should climb again. There is still space to his ceiling, I think he will be highly motivated this season.

AK has to avoid a long slump this year. He has trended down each year from the three point line. Slightly improved shooting from Alex will have a big effect in producing a really fun and effective offense.
 
Marat said:
Its great for AK.

This NIL thing though needs to be regulated with a cap though, otherwise we will have certain teams differentiating themselves with $$ from others ... something like the Yankees, Dodgers, Sox in bball.
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Yeah the sport would be non-functional if Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, wherever Cal coaches, and us get all the good recruits.
 
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Iluvsuebird said:
This was smart by him. He will do better this year because he will be the third option. He thrived in that role. I see him hitting 40% from 3 on high volume.
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Dan Hurley tried to force feed the BMOC role on him. That’s really not his game. He’s at his best when he makes other players better and contributes scoring during opportune times.

I think he’ll shine in a more 23/24 role and prob help his draft payday next year
 
NJHusky said:
It was in the first video above. Norlander mentioned it as his guess based on the market
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I don't think we should believe a media guy's "guess" without real facts. We'll never know how much Karaban got but I don't think UConn had the flexibility to give Karaban $3 million to stay. Seems a little much, doesn't it? I love Karaban but he's not worth $3 million for this roster. Would it have cost UConn that much to replace him with someone in the portal? Seems like too much but who the heck knows in this environment.
 
auror said:
Yeah the sport would be non-functional if Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, wherever Cal coaches, and us get all the good recruits.
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Don't forget the vitamin water people - slicky Ricky. But I agree with you. However, it doesn't seem to bother the SEC in football. I don't hear them saying "ya know what? It'd be great to have a North Eastern School be competitive once in a while."

I don't like where this is going and personally enjoyed the Cinderellas such as St. Peters, Yale and Farleigh Dickinson pick off top teams. That ain't happening anymore. But...if it's gonna be the schools with the biggest bags in the short term, then I'm happy we're in the game.
We need some regulation...SOME.
 
NJHusky said:
Top Dogs just posted about AK and team. Some interesting tidbits…including that AK had a 7 figure nba guarantee last season but still came back
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I am skeptical. In every draft for the last 30 years, there have been about 45 to 60 college players that one expert or another guaranteed were first round "locks". That is mathematically impossible before you get to the 2 or 3 Europeans that no one ever heard of that are picked in the first round.

If Karaban were 6'10 with the same package, I could see him being a first round lock. But there are a lot of good 6'6 to 6'8 wings/forwards out there, both in the league and in college. I can think of maybe two NBA teams that are weak at that position.
 
HooperScooper said:
I don't think we should believe a media guy's "guess" without real facts. We'll never know how much Karaban got but I don't think UConn had the flexibility to give Karaban $3 million to stay. Seems a little much, doesn't it? I love Karaban but he's not worth $3 million for this roster. Would it have cost UConn that much to replace him with someone in the portal? Seems like too much but who the heck knows in this environment.
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Yes, I suppose you are right that a very relevant data point is what it might cost UConn to replace AK with similarly experienced player, an upperclassman that with a high-program stat line of 12+ppg and Alex's other #s might indeed cost $3M?!

And given AK's veteran presence on the court in the locker room, knowledge of system and ability to make others better he may be worth more to UConn than his pure talent or per game #s imply.

I guess where that breaks down is if UConn's total $ amount is say $15M it is tough to devote $3M to AK. Yet even if it is say $1M too high it'd still be a better return on investment than say ANY of last year's freshman NIL's provided. Ultimately a win some lose some perspective might be best until or if/when a system and caps/allocation becomes the new norm.
 
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