Karaban still weighing decision whether to return or go pro

[UconnU]

It's a real problem. We need AK to announce he's coming back or announce he's leaving. We need that 4 spot filled by him or a player who is in his talent/productivity range. We aren't getting that type of player to come here unless AK says he's leaving and there's only like two options left since AK has dragged this out so long.

We haven’t been in contact w any of the stretch 4s, I believe he is coming back and staff knows. Just wants to make the announcement extra special.

 

[husky99]

There’s a point at which Alex’s indecision will affect UConn’s ability to replace him and we’re probably pretty close to that point.

If a kid can put pen to paper at another school and we’re still telling him to hold on, that will be a problem and we’re there with a couple of recruits.

Absolutely

 

[Beowulf]

when he does decide, half of us will say he should have stayed, half of us will say he should have gone. so sorta makes sense why it's taking so long

 

[Zonepress]

A program is made up of many lives that depend on each other.

maybe in the past but everyone is a free agent every year and will do what’s best for them

 

[Kenny11]

A lot of money for him if he stays...more than late first round picks are making year 1 in the nba. And he is not a first round pick.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

We haven’t been in contact w any of the stretch 4s,

We have.

 

[Fishy]

We aren't out of roster spots so I'm not sure that's a real problem.

That’s not how it works.

Recruits want to know the status of the three year starter who is the incumbent at the position they play.

 

[bendm]

We haven’t been in contact w any of the stretch 4s, I believe he is coming back and staff knows. Just wants to make the announcement extra special.

Besides smith we’ve only shown interest in 4s: Hall, Watts, Williams, now Miller

 

[husky429]

AK is being shown a ton of grace from the fanbase because he was a member of back to back. Jaylin, Solo, and Tarris all made their decisions weeks ago. I don't believe any of them would he shown this kind of grace if they were holding out like this and the staff couldn't complete the roster.

Let's all just hope this doesn't cost us a legit starting power forward and a chance at preseason #1 and a team poised for a title run.

I hadn't thought about it this way. But, yeah, if Solo or Reed had taken this long the fanbase would have lost their minds. He needs to grow up and make a choice. The grace he's receiving is understandable considering he stature in the program, but jeez kid.

Rule #1 of decision-making. Once you have all the information available, you sit down with your family and have 24 hours to make a decision. Alex is sitting on two weeks of no new information at this point perseverating for what exactly? No NBA scout is going to suddnely throw him into the first round. UConn isn't going to find an extra 3 milli in the pocket to give him in NIL tonight.

Smart kid that we all like. At this point if he chooses to leave I'll have a real sour taste in my mouth about how he went about this process.

 

[cullaville]

when he does decide, half of us will say he should have stayed, half of us will say he should have gone. so sorta makes sense why it's taking so long

I hope he is not basing his decision on what has been or will be said on the Boneyard

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I hope he is not basing his decision on what has been or will be said on the Boneyard

It's rather surprising how few posters are actually, explicitly saying, "Alex, we want you back."

It's not too late. I'll go first:

"Alex, I want you to return, and others do too."

Who else wants to declare that they want Alex to return?

Salesmen know they've got to ask for the order.

3, 2, 1, go ...

 

[amishboy]

when he does decide, half of us will say he should have stayed, half of us will say he should have gone. so sorta makes sense why it's taking so long

As he makes his decision, I hope that he’s ignoring ALL of us!

 

[Icehawk]

I'd love for Alex to return! I think he is going to, hopefully we will know for sure in a few more days.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there are some people who will test the draft and decide to return to school - won't we have an opportunity to acquire these guys? They'll be the top players.

 

[bendm]

I'd love for Alex to return! I think he is going to, hopefully we will know for sure in a few more days.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there are some people who will test the draft and decide to return to school - won't we have an opportunity to acquire these guys? They'll be the top players.

They can return to college but they can only transfer to a different school if they also already entered their name in the portal. We already know who these guys might be eg RJ Luis and Derrion Williams. These are the guys we’re already going after, at least Williams.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Defense starts in the paint. I don't know why the Knicks thought that KAT could be the paint defender they needed.

The look fine with Mitchell Robinson in the game but KAT is TERRIBLE at defending the pick and roll. Knicks aren't going anywhere unless they can have him play mostly the 4 and start Mitch with him.

Should've never trade for him in the first place. Set their culture back for no reason.

Agreed look at what Hartenstein is doing for OKC. KAT is an incredible offensive force but he has to play the four like he did at MN with Gobert. He is such a liability that it makes elite defenders like OG and Bridges look pedestrian. They should have signed Hartenstein added Bridges and maybe one more legitimate bench player and they would have been better.

For the Knicks KAT has the same impact as Carmelo. As a person Melo seemed ok always said the right things but he could not cover anyone. True 4’s made him look small and most 3’s were too quick for him to guard.

They are going to struggle to beat Detroit but who cares they could not beat the Celtics even if Brown and Tatum don’t play. The reason the Celtics will make it to the finals is because they can coast with 80% effort and beat the Knicks.

 

[Hunt for 7]

It's rather surprising how few posters are actually, explicitly saying, "Alex, we want you back."

It's not too late. I'll go first:

"Alex, I want you to return, and others do too."

Who else wants to declare that they want Alex to return?

Salesmen know they've got to ask for the order.

3, 2, 1, go ...

Alex has earned the right to do whatever he wants. Just that simple if Hurley is on board and good with how this is playing out that coupled with what Alex has been part of in his three years playing and one year red shirting makes it an easy decision. Come back Alex and let’s start working on #7.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Absolutely

Well that is unfortunately a short term consequence of loyalty. The fact that we are stalled and St Johns is getting better pretty quickly will put us below being the favorite to win the BE next year. StJohns added another big piece today and who knows if slick Rick is done yet. Seems to have unlimited funds.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Well that is unfortunately a short term consequence of loyalty. The fact that we are stalled and St Johns is getting better pretty quickly will put us below being the favorite to win the BE next year. StJohns added another big piece today and who knows 8f slick Rick is done yet. Seems to have unlimited funds.

Tbh, who cares about being the favorites or preseason #1 or Vegas odds.

Are we going to win next year or not lol

Right now I'm very excited about next year’s roster even if Alex declares. All we need is depth at 4/5 and we’re all set. Hopefully we can get Baba and have him be okay with a big time reserve role.

 

[Ewekon]

It's rather surprising how few posters are actually, explicitly saying, "Alex, we want you back."

It's not too late. I'll go first:

"Alex, I want you to return, and others do too."

Who else wants to declare that they want Alex to return?

Salesmen know they've got to ask for the order.

3, 2, 1, go ...

So Alex, what is the 1 thing preventing you from making a final decision NOW?

Sales Q 101.

Yes Alex. Come back. Ring X 3.

 

[Fishy]

Well that is unfortunately a short term consequence of loyalty. The fact that we are stalled and St Johns is getting better pretty quickly will put us below being the favorite to win the BE next year. StJohns added another big piece today and who knows 8f slick Rick is done yet. Seems to have unlimited funds.

First, we have to acknowledge that this is now purely a business. These guys are on seven figure contracts and we have to sign a million dollar player to replace Alex if he leaves because the competition is out there pitching these kids right now.

As for SJ…meh. Feels like they’re building another Memphis where they run people in and out and get nowhere in the end.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Alex has earned the right to do whatever he wants.......

Sorry but he says he loves UConn, so help the school out and make a decision. Enough already.

 

[superjohn]

First, we have to acknowledge that this is now purely a business. These guys are on seven figure contracts and we have to sign a million dollar player to replace Alex if he leaves because the competition is out there pitching these kids right now.

As for Samson Johnson…meh. Feels like they’re building another Memphis where they run people in and out and get nowhere in the end.

Memphis was runner up and a second away from winning it all. Pitino is a much better coach than Cal and he brought St. John's their first Big East regular season title in over 25 years, their first Big East tournament title in 25 years in just his second season and he'll have them preseason top 3. I would say he's already gotten them somewhere.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Agreed look at what Hartenstein is doing for OKC. KAT is an incredible offensive force but he has to play the four like he did at MN with Gobert. He is such a liability that it makes elite defenders like OG and Bridges look pedestrian. They should have signed Hartenstein added Bridges and maybe one more legitimate bench player and they would have been better.

For the Knicks KAT has the same impact as Carmelo. As a person Melo seemed ok always said the right things but he could not cover anyone. True 4’s made him look small and most 3’s were too quick for him to guard.

They are going to struggle to beat Detroit but who cares they could not beat the Celtics even if Brown and Tatum don’t play. The reason the Celtics will make it to the finals is because they can coast with 80% effort and beat the Knicks.

Completely agree. They had all the momentum and flopped this offseason with the chips they had.

I don't get how teams/organization miss on what make them good. The Hartenstein/Robinson combo is what made them so tough.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Memphis was runner up and a second away from winning it all. Pitino is a much better coach than Cal and he brought St. John's their first Big East regular season title in over 25 years, their first Big East tournament title in 25 years in just his second season and he'll have them preseason top 3. I would say he's already gotten them somewhere.

I believe he's referring to recent, Penny Hardaway versions of Memphis.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Memphis was runner up and a second away from winning it all. Pitino is a much better coach than Cal and he brought St. John's their first Big East regular season title in over 25 years, their first Big East tournament title in 25 years in just his second season and he'll have them preseason top 3. I would say he's already gotten them somewhere.

Think Fishy is referring to present day Memphis with Penny.

Pitino is doing amazing by St John’s standards. But I'm sure he wants a FF and championship. Changing his roster every year probably won't get it done.

Its surprising that he's going this right seeing how great of a guard developer he was at Louisville. It'll be hard to coach players up like he's down in the past getting new ones every 1-2 years.

 

[Ewekon]

5 lb’s of muscle right?

Iirc, it was 15lb. of muscle under JC.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Completely agree. They had all the momentum and flopped this offseason with the chips they had.

I don't get how teams/organization miss on what make them good. The Hartenstein/Robinson combo is what made them so tough.

They couldn't offer Hartenstein more than some percentage increase over the deal they signed him two a couple years earlier, which started at a little more than $10 million in year one and had whatever the standard increase (15%? 20%?) Year over year. One of the weird things about the NBA cap rules as IH was signed to a two way G league deal that converted to a full NBA deal.

As an unrestricted free agent, any team under the apron could sign him for what the Thunder gave him (I believe ~$27 million year one with annual increases). The Knicks would have needed to find a way to shed about $30 million in guaranteed 2024-2025 salary to drop to where they could math that offer. The only realistic way to have done that would have been to have planned ahead by trading a player under contract before the 2024 deadline for an expiring contract.

 

[superjohn]

I believe he's referring to recent, Penny Hardaway versions of Memphis.

Penny is an awful coach.

Pitino is working with the system in place. He isn't going to get Duke recruiting classes at St. John's. This is the best way for him to win and the results have been really good so far.

I think Pitino can coach up any group, maybe the best ever at it and this is an incredibly talented group.

 

[Deleted at users request]

They couldn't offer Hartenstein more than some percentage increase over the deal they signed him two a couple years earlier, which started at a little more than $10 million in year one and had whatever the standard increase (15%? 20%?) Year over year. One of the weird things about the NBA cap rules as IH was signed to a two way G league deal that converted to a full NBA deal.

As an unrestricted free agent, any team under the apron could sign him for what the Thunder gave him (I believe ~$27 million year one with annual increases). The Knicks would have needed to find a way to shed about $30 million in guaranteed 2024-2025 salary to drop to where they could math that offer. The only realistic way to have done that would have been to have planned ahead by trading a player under contract before the 2024 deadline for an expiring contract.

They dropped the ball in getting rid of Randle to keep him on then.

Big time mismanagement of the surplus of assets they had. AND they got their superstar to sign for a discount.

Looking into this more its actually not surprising they went and got KAT who is another CAA client if you're into the agencies being the decision makers for certain orgs thing.

 

[444JR]

So now if we do somehow land Miller it would be despite Alex taking his time by getting lucky that a last minute entrant just happens to fit perfectly, and the staff pulling off a Hail Mary at the buzzer.

Cam Spencer rings a bell as precedence for this