Anthony Davis: What's his ceiling?

I'd like to see a list of the players who went pro straight out of high school since 1995-96. For every Kobe, Garnett, Dwight Howard and LeBron, there are tons of guys who never did were drafted or became huge disappointments, who might have benefited from a year or two in college.

 

Maybe it will be as successful as when Maurice Clarett sued the NFL.

 

You mean like a huge portion of kids who went to school? Regardless whether it is good for them or not is not the point.

 

How many of them would have benefited and how many would have been exposed and never made the money they did if they spent a year in college?

 

This is crazy. They benefit from the "real pressure" of playing in front of "passionate crowds"? Pressure that the NBA experience "cannot duplicate"?

Yes, I'm sure that the experience of absolutely owning pressure cooker metropolises like Syracuse, N.Y., or Chapel Hill, N.C., or Lawrence, Kan., generates pressure that a man making millions of dollars to produce in New York City or Philadelphia or Chicago or Houston could never relate to.

 

Exactly, even if some of them flame out horribly, that shouldn't be a decision that David Stern gets to make for them.

 

Name some high school players who came out and made the wrong choice.

Leon Smith comes to mind. Who else? Not all that many.

 

Here's the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_high_school_draftees#List. There really aren't many where they just completely bombed and amounted to nothing.

 

I would be curious to know what Leon Smith, who according to Wikipedia has not played basketball professionally since 2007, is doing now. Curious and worried.

 

Ah, good old Ndudi Ebi, a highlight of McHale's GM reign. The guys taken right after him: Kendrick Perkins, Barbosa, Josh Howard.

To pern's point about players being exposed, I'd like to think Kwame Brown would not have been the top draft pick if he had played some college ball, since most scouts and GMs would be hesitant to draft a big man who is unable to catch a pass. Then again, knowing his skills as a talent evaluator, if Jordan was still the one holding that pick, he'd still take Kwame.

 

I've got to assume the few who do leave early and flame out horribly would not have become valedictorians had they stayed in school.