2012 Draft Prospect: Marcus Denmon

[timvp]

Interesting story about Denmon. Similar to Stephen Jackson's story, tbh.




His coping skills; Missouri’s Marcus Denmon has had to overcome adversity throughout his life. He does it with a rare toughness and family.

By Sam Mellinger

COLUMBIA | Marcus Denmon can tell the difference between gunshots, even in a church, and even during his cousin’s funeral. You could too if you lived his childhood, and its why he stayed calm while grieving women screamed and even his Missouri basketball coaches ducked under pews.

This is the first time he’s talked about any of this, at least publicly. He sat in the front row that day last month, a pallbearer for a cousin killed in cold blood, when more than 70 gunshots rocked the Macedonia Baptist Church at 25th and Benton in Kansas City.

Denmon immediately recognized the shots coming from outside, knew the blasts weren’t getting closer, but not everyone grew up like him so chaos engulfed the church.

Children wailed tears. One woman jumped out a window, and a man in a suit bumped the casket containing the cousin Marcus called a brother and considered a best friend.

The box started to rock, and Marcus leaped up to steady it. All around him, 400 mourners turned into mayhem, the last respects for his beloved cousin turned into a crime scene. Anger bubbled inside.

He thinks about payback, because who wouldn’t? He’d rather whoever did this die than go to jail, he means this literally, and the pain he feels now is worsened by the isolation of being two hours from the people he loves most.

“I’m not a person that gets close to people that often,” he says. “Besides my teammates, I don’t love nobody but my family. When you’re gone for so long, you just want to be around people you love.”

Marcus Denmon thinks he’s tougher than you, and more specifically, he has to be tougher than you. This defines how Marcus plays basketball, and makes him a perfect fit for coach Mike Anderson’s Missouri Tigers.

“Not all kids have that,” MU assistant Matt Zimmerman says.

Jacob Pullen is Kansas State’s preseason All-American, and KU’s Josh Selby might be a one-and-done lottery pick, but it’s the 6-foot-3 guard from Hogan Prep who would be Big 12 Player of the Year at this point. Denmon is a self-made star now, a chance to be Kansas City’s most successful college basketball player since Brandon Rush or maybe even Wayne Simien.

He is the leading scorer for the nation’s No. 10 team and one of college basketball’s most efficient players, averaging more than 17 points in fewer than 30 minutes, and hitting 50 percent of his threes and 85 percent of his free throws.

He has more than twice as many assists as turnovers, and 246 points on just 164 shots. In one four-game stretch, he scored 79 points on just 38 shots.

Teammate Michael Dixon says Chris Paul is the only player he’s gone against who’s more compe ive than Dixon, and Anderson will gush about Denmon’s hard work and leadership. But mostly, Denmon wants to be known as tough.

It makes him sick that so many Kansas City kids seem to transfer, for instance, and the pride comes out when he talks not only of sticking at Mizzou but playing through a fracture under his kneecap that required surgery and that would’ve kept most in street clothes.

Denmon was MU’s second-leading scorer last season, and when he got the award for the team’s sixth man of the year, told the banquet audience he didn’t want to win it again. Already, and in a program built to have interchangeable parts, Denmon is the Tigers’ most indispensable player.

He led a furious comeback with 27 points in an eventual loss to Georgetown, saved the Oregon game with 19 points on seven shots, made an essential steal down the stretch in an overtime win over Vanderbilt, and the game’s biggest play with a long outlet pass to Laurence Bowers against Illinois.

Denmon is a boy grown to a man, any mark about bad grades forcing a transfer from Lincoln Prep after his sop re year now washed away by making Academic All-Big 12 last season.

He is the hardest working player on a team full of them, never done at practice until he’s made at least a few hundred extra shots, finally showing the college basketball world what he’s capable of with two healthy knees and an overflowing confidence.

“Every shot I take in a game I’ve taken that shot thousands of times,” he says.

“Sometimes he just won’t be denied,” Anderson says. “He’s just growing in front of our eyes.”

Marcus was four or five the first time someone he loved got shot, and just a year older the first time someone he knew got killed.

He says things like “bullets don’t have eyes,” and “where I’m from people come and go,” lessons embedded in him since grade school. His grandmother, Bertha, became something like a neighborhood mother, caring for five children of her own plus at least nine others she thought to be in danger.

Most of the people Marcus loves make up this inner circle, many of them marked by the same “FBL” tattoo he has on his right forearm. It stands for “Family By Love,” and the men in this fraternity might not all be technically related but call each other “cousin” and “brother.”

Marion Denmon had that tattoo. He was Marcus’ cousin, known as “Little Daddy,” and they were mostly inseparable growing up.

“You saw him, you saw me,” Marcus says. “That’s how it was.”

Marcus thinks about Marion every day. Sometime he cries, sometimes he sits with nothing but his thoughts. Marion was a good kid who sometimes made the wrong decisions, Marcus says, drawn to the streets in a way that tempted trouble.

Long before this month, Marcus worried that his being in Columbia instead of Kansas City left Little Daddy pulled in by bad choices.

Marcus felt like a calming force, and didn’t like to think about what might happen when he was away.

People ask Marcus all the time now if he’s OK, if he needs to talk about things, and he usually fibs and says everything’s fine.

Everything’s not fine, of course, but he has a lot of practice coping with loss.

Five friends grew up in Kansas City’s urban core, each with those FBL tattoos. Two are in jail. One just died from a gunshot.

“Me and Marcus look at it like God must have a plan for us,” says Justin Henderson, a junior at Central Missouri. “We’re the only ones still around.”

Marcus has been having these dreams lately. They started a year or so ago, way before Marion’s death, crazy dreams, all the time, every time he goes to sleep, stuff he can’t explain.

The other night, after the Northern Illinois game, he dreamed about meeting a guy he beat up back in the eighth grade. Only it wasn’t really that guy, just his body and name, with someone else’s face. Some ugly dude.

Anyway, Marcus told the guy they didn’t have problems any more, that was a long time ago, middle school, and they’re grown now but the ugly guy was ticked.

Then some girl ran into the room and started shooting. Little Daddy was there. He got shot. They all got shot. Only in the dream, it didn’t hurt.

“He’s been in my dreams a lot lately,” Marcus says. “Some is good and funny. Some is bad and terrible, like, ‘Why am I having these crazy thoughts?’”

Back at the church, the middle of chaos, and all Marcus could do was wait.

He remembers being furious. Sad. Frustrated. He heard something like this might happen, but you hear a lot of things when emotions are involved.

The gunshots, to him at least, clearly sounded more like disrespect than danger, someone trying to make a point more than another obituary, but it took a good 45 minutes for the mourners to calm down enough to properly let out. At least one of the limos outside had a bullet hole.

“I just wanted the service to be ended right,” Marcus says. “I just wanted to get my little bro in the ground.”

Around 400 people attended the funeral, but after the shots, only 50 or so made it to the repast. Just the people who loved Marion most, Marcus says.

He believes in God, even now, that this must be in His plan. He also believes in consequences, real consequences, the kind given out by a higher power and not the police.

Sometimes, Marcus thinks about seeing that revenge for himself.

But by now, he has too much at stake.

“I’m going to be successful,” he says. “And the people that’s at home doing the dumb, petty stuff like shooting in the air at a funeral, they’re going to still be broke with no money and be bums and just still be at home. I’m doing something. I’m going to be successful. So, why? Why get into that? Even if I want to, why?

“I’m smarter than that.”

http://mellinger.kansascity.com/entr...nmon-tomorrow/

[Mel_13]

I'd be curious to see what percentage of players make the day one roster that are taken in the late second round (ie, 50-60). I think the number might be a sobering reminder to some.

In the late second you don't draft for need, you draft whomever the you think has the talent to actually make it in the league.

Scroll thru the years (previous draft/next draft buttons at the top of the page) and see:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_2011.html

[racm]

So he's a guy who provides nasty as well as accurate shooting and capable D?

Pop must love this.

[rascal]

After some quick research, I like the pick. 99% chance he doesn't make it but he fits the typical mold of second round gems. In the second round, the players who make it are usually players who have a serious flaw that they are able to overcome. The players who don't make it are usually the ones who fit the NBA prototype but simply lack the necessary skills.

Denmon on paper has the skills to make it. Good scorer. Extremely efficient. His steals and rebounds point to him being an above average athlete. He's shown improvement from year to year. Plus, his team success shouldn't be ignored.

The only glaring flaw is his size. He's short and his wingspan isn't anything special. There's a 99% chance that flaw will kill his NBA chances. But if he is able to find a way to overcome that flaw -- either by switching to point guard or getting strong enough to defend shooting guards while shooting quickly enough to avoid length -- he has the requisite ability to make it.

@ the philosophy behind the pick

Short shooting guards often struggle in the NBA. I don't expect this pick to be any different. At pick 59 the Spurs would be lucky to draft a player good enough to make the team.

[Drz]

A couple quick points, from someone who watched 25 Mizzou games this past year:

DEFENSE -- It's very good, despite his height. He's highly athletic. Denmon should be an above average defender in the NBA.

CREATE OWN SHOT -- Yes, he can do it.

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

Interesting story about Denmon. Similar to Stephen Jackson's story, tbh.




His coping skills; Missouri’s Marcus Denmon has had to overcome adversity throughout his life. He does it with a rare toughness and family.

By Sam Mellinger

COLUMBIA | Marcus Denmon can tell the difference between gunshots, even in a church, and even during his cousin’s funeral. You could too if you lived his childhood, and its why he stayed calm while grieving women screamed and even his Missouri basketball coaches ducked under pews.

This is the first time he’s talked about any of this, at least publicly. He sat in the front row that day last month, a pallbearer for a cousin killed in cold blood, when more than 70 gunshots rocked the Macedonia Baptist Church at 25th and Benton in Kansas City.

Denmon immediately recognized the shots coming from outside, knew the blasts weren’t getting closer, but not everyone grew up like him so chaos engulfed the church.

Children wailed tears. One woman jumped out a window, and a man in a suit bumped the casket containing the cousin Marcus called a brother and considered a best friend.

The box started to rock, and Marcus leaped up to steady it. All around him, 400 mourners turned into mayhem, the last respects for his beloved cousin turned into a crime scene. Anger bubbled inside.

He thinks about payback, because who wouldn’t? He’d rather whoever did this die than go to jail, he means this literally, and the pain he feels now is worsened by the isolation of being two hours from the people he loves most.

“I’m not a person that gets close to people that often,” he says. “Besides my teammates, I don’t love nobody but my family. When you’re gone for so long, you just want to be around people you love.”

Marcus Denmon thinks he’s tougher than you, and more specifically, he has to be tougher than you. This defines how Marcus plays basketball, and makes him a perfect fit for coach Mike Anderson’s Missouri Tigers.

“Not all kids have that,” MU assistant Matt Zimmerman says.

Jacob Pullen is Kansas State’s preseason All-American, and KU’s Josh Selby might be a one-and-done lottery pick, but it’s the 6-foot-3 guard from Hogan Prep who would be Big 12 Player of the Year at this point. Denmon is a self-made star now, a chance to be Kansas City’s most successful college basketball player since Brandon Rush or maybe even Wayne Simien.

He is the leading scorer for the nation’s No. 10 team and one of college basketball’s most efficient players, averaging more than 17 points in fewer than 30 minutes, and hitting 50 percent of his threes and 85 percent of his free throws.

He has more than twice as many assists as turnovers, and 246 points on just 164 shots. In one four-game stretch, he scored 79 points on just 38 shots.

Teammate Michael Dixon says Chris Paul is the only player he’s gone against who’s more compe ive than Dixon, and Anderson will gush about Denmon’s hard work and leadership. But mostly, Denmon wants to be known as tough.

It makes him sick that so many Kansas City kids seem to transfer, for instance, and the pride comes out when he talks not only of sticking at Mizzou but playing through a fracture under his kneecap that required surgery and that would’ve kept most in street clothes.

Denmon was MU’s second-leading scorer last season, and when he got the award for the team’s sixth man of the year, told the banquet audience he didn’t want to win it again. Already, and in a program built to have interchangeable parts, Denmon is the Tigers’ most indispensable player.

He led a furious comeback with 27 points in an eventual loss to Georgetown, saved the Oregon game with 19 points on seven shots, made an essential steal down the stretch in an overtime win over Vanderbilt, and the game’s biggest play with a long outlet pass to Laurence Bowers against Illinois.

Denmon is a boy grown to a man, any mark about bad grades forcing a transfer from Lincoln Prep after his sop re year now washed away by making Academic All-Big 12 last season.

He is the hardest working player on a team full of them, never done at practice until he’s made at least a few hundred extra shots, finally showing the college basketball world what he’s capable of with two healthy knees and an overflowing confidence.

“Every shot I take in a game I’ve taken that shot thousands of times,” he says.

“Sometimes he just won’t be denied,” Anderson says. “He’s just growing in front of our eyes.”

Marcus was four or five the first time someone he loved got shot, and just a year older the first time someone he knew got killed.

He says things like “bullets don’t have eyes,” and “where I’m from people come and go,” lessons embedded in him since grade school. His grandmother, Bertha, became something like a neighborhood mother, caring for five children of her own plus at least nine others she thought to be in danger.

Most of the people Marcus loves make up this inner circle, many of them marked by the same “FBL” tattoo he has on his right forearm. It stands for “Family By Love,” and the men in this fraternity might not all be technically related but call each other “cousin” and “brother.”

Marion Denmon had that tattoo. He was Marcus’ cousin, known as “Little Daddy,” and they were mostly inseparable growing up.

“You saw him, you saw me,” Marcus says. “That’s how it was.”

Marcus thinks about Marion every day. Sometime he cries, sometimes he sits with nothing but his thoughts. Marion was a good kid who sometimes made the wrong decisions, Marcus says, drawn to the streets in a way that tempted trouble.

Long before this month, Marcus worried that his being in Columbia instead of Kansas City left Little Daddy pulled in by bad choices.

Marcus felt like a calming force, and didn’t like to think about what might happen when he was away.

People ask Marcus all the time now if he’s OK, if he needs to talk about things, and he usually fibs and says everything’s fine.

Everything’s not fine, of course, but he has a lot of practice coping with loss.

Five friends grew up in Kansas City’s urban core, each with those FBL tattoos. Two are in jail. One just died from a gunshot.

“Me and Marcus look at it like God must have a plan for us,” says Justin Henderson, a junior at Central Missouri. “We’re the only ones still around.”

Marcus has been having these dreams lately. They started a year or so ago, way before Marion’s death, crazy dreams, all the time, every time he goes to sleep, stuff he can’t explain.

The other night, after the Northern Illinois game, he dreamed about meeting a guy he beat up back in the eighth grade. Only it wasn’t really that guy, just his body and name, with someone else’s face. Some ugly dude.

Anyway, Marcus told the guy they didn’t have problems any more, that was a long time ago, middle school, and they’re grown now but the ugly guy was ticked.

Then some girl ran into the room and started shooting. Little Daddy was there. He got shot. They all got shot. Only in the dream, it didn’t hurt.

“He’s been in my dreams a lot lately,” Marcus says. “Some is good and funny. Some is bad and terrible, like, ‘Why am I having these crazy thoughts?’”

Back at the church, the middle of chaos, and all Marcus could do was wait.

He remembers being furious. Sad. Frustrated. He heard something like this might happen, but you hear a lot of things when emotions are involved.

The gunshots, to him at least, clearly sounded more like disrespect than danger, someone trying to make a point more than another obituary, but it took a good 45 minutes for the mourners to calm down enough to properly let out. At least one of the limos outside had a bullet hole.

“I just wanted the service to be ended right,” Marcus says. “I just wanted to get my little bro in the ground.”

Around 400 people attended the funeral, but after the shots, only 50 or so made it to the repast. Just the people who loved Marion most, Marcus says.

He believes in God, even now, that this must be in His plan. He also believes in consequences, real consequences, the kind given out by a higher power and not the police.

Sometimes, Marcus thinks about seeing that revenge for himself.

But by now, he has too much at stake.

“I’m going to be successful,” he says. “And the people that’s at home doing the dumb, petty stuff like shooting in the air at a funeral, they’re going to still be broke with no money and be bums and just still be at home. I’m doing something. I’m going to be successful. So, why? Why get into that? Even if I want to, why?

“I’m smarter than that.”

http://mellinger.kansascity.com/entr...nmon-tomorrow/

Good article. I agree with the Jax comparison. In a different thread I saw a video interview with him. He was really stone faced...and reminded me in demeanor of Kawhi Leonard. I mean, just like almost no expression. Put that in context with this article and it sounds like a good prospect - not just for pick #59, but more specifically for someone to be able to fit into Pop's world...that is, assuming he can actually translate his skills to the next level.

Good pick. Way better than drafting some 7' slow-footed Frankenstein. Yeah, the team needs size, but they really need a reliable backup PG. Obviously, Denmon is a SG but he's going to have to be a 1.5 to survive in the NBA. A good roll of the dice. He can't be worse than CoJo.

[elemento]

I think he will be a combo guard in the NBA in the same mold of Bradley and Bledsoe.

What i like about him is the fact that not only the boy can shoot, but he can handle the ball. What's killing Gary Neal when he plays the point is his crap ball-handling skills.

I will give the boy a chance to prove himself. I hope he can make it. Seems like a hard-worker kid. Everything i read about the boy i like.

[Bruno]

A question for people who have seen him play: how athletic and quick is he?

His combine athletic results are really great both in the jumping and speed areas but I'm always cautious with these "out of the game" numbers .

[Ouglagbok]

If he's an awesome player he wouldn't have lasted till #59. He's not helping any NBA teams win any time soon.

Manu was drafted #54 and look how he turned out... People judge and every now and then might miss some special talent. For that matter didn't MJ like not make his high school team?

[dylankerouac]

From these past few pages I am very excited about this pick and his potential. Can't wait to see him on the court.

[racm]

Manu was drafted #54 and look how he turned out... People judge and every now and then might miss some special talent. For that matter didn't MJ like not make his high school team?

57th actually.

Still, I'm not surprised most Spursfans want the next Manu when the Spurs pick 50+. Most teams would be glad to have a benchwarmer in that range, let alone a rotation player.

Take last season's squad. Two of the starters were 2009 second rounders, and a third rotation player was also a 2009 second rounder.

[Ouglagbok]

57th actually.

Still, I'm not surprised most Spursfans want the next Manu when the Spurs pick 50+. Most teams would be glad to have a benchwarmer in that range, let alone a rotation player.

Take last season's squad. Two of the starters were 2009 second rounders, and a third rotation player was also a 2009 second rounder.

TY, My bad

[Drz]

A question for people who have seen him play: how athletic and quick is he?

Very. Mizzou was possibly the most athletic college basketball team in the country last year, and he was the best athlete on the team.

What's especially nice is how that athleticism is utilized. This isn't even close to one of those players whose game is ALL athleticism and has no shot, no smarts. He uses his athleticism to be fast, to hustle, and to play great pressure D, but he doesn't rely on it as a crutch.

[Nathan89]

The big question for me is his ball-handling. If anyone has a video that displays this skill I would like to see it.

[Bruno]

Very. Mizzou was possibly the most athletic college basketball team in the country last year, and he was the best athlete on the team.

What's especially nice is how that athleticism is utilized. This isn't even close to one of those players whose game is ALL athleticism and has no shot, no smarts. He uses his athleticism to be fast, to hustle, and to play great pressure D, but he doesn't rely on it as a crutch.

Thanks.

I don't know if he will make it but he seems to be a very good fit with Spurs roster. Like the series against Clippers has shown, Spurs could really use an athletic quick guard.

[Nathan89]

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

Good to hear some positive feedback from those have followed him. Yeah, he's short but if he's fast then that's a positive in a different way. Spurs are usually slow and short. As others have said, we'll probably know right away if he can hang.

[Vic Petro]

Seems similar to Bobby Jackson.

[ace3g]

Jeff McDonald ‏@JMcDonald_SAEN

Just got off phone with Spurs' draftee Marcus Denmon. Passed over until No. 59, he's coming w/ a chip on his shoulder. This is a good thing.

Jeff McDonald ‏@JMcDonald_SAEN

For instance: "With my accolades and my body of work, I was still overlooked. I'm going in hungry and humble," Denmon said.

Jeff McDonald ‏@JMcDonald_SAEN

More Denmon: "I feel I'm better than a 59th draft pick."

Denmon, scouting Denmon: "My toughness, my compe ive nature. That's something that's going to transfer well."

Denmon says he's scheduled to report to SA on July 5. Will play for Spurs' entry in LV Summer League later that month.

Jeff McDonald ‏@JMcDonald_SAEN

Denmon admits some would rather not be drafted at all than go so late. "I definitely did. I'm definitely excited about joining the Spurs."

[CGD]

It'd by nice if a team that drafts an American player in the 2nd round could opt to keep is rights if that player decided to play in Europe for a few years instead of trying his luck in the NBA immediately. I see this kid, and other American's we're drafted late like McClinton and Gist that would have benefited from going overseas for a few years. It'd been nice if the Spurs retained there rights somehow.

[Mel_13]

It'd by nice if a team that drafts an American player in the 2nd round could opt to keep is rights if that player decided to play in Europe for a few years instead of trying his luck in the NBA immediately. I see this kid, and other American's we're drafted late like McClinton and Gist that would have benefited from going overseas for a few years. It'd been nice if the Spurs retained there rights somehow.

They can.

The Spurs did exactly that with James Gist. It does require the player to cooperate. McClinton forced the issue. The Spurs had to choose between keeping him on the roster or waiving him.

[benefactor]

The big question for me is his ball-handling. If anyone has a video that displays this skill I would like to see it.

I watched him several times last season and he looked very good handling the ball. In fact, there are very few flaws in his game from what I've seen. He was one of the reasons I had Mizzou going so far in my bracket because the times I've watched him he really looked dominant in stretches. I was actually pretty surprised to hear his name at 59. I had forgotten about him after Mizzou got upset and the Kentucky hype machine took over.

I really like this pick a lot. From a value standpoint I don't think the Spurs could have done much better...as he is easily the BPA at 59. Its not a stretch to say there is better than a 50% chance he starts the season on the Spurs roster.

[benefactor]

Very. Mizzou was possibly the most athletic college basketball team in the country last year, and he was the best athlete on the team.

What's especially nice is how that athleticism is utilized. This isn't even close to one of those players whose game is ALL athleticism and has no shot, no smarts. He uses his athleticism to be fast, to hustle, and to play great pressure D, but he doesn't rely on it as a crutch.

This is pretty well said. There are a lot of players that are athletic but play out of control because of it. Denmon is very athletic but he is smart and opportunistic. He does a nice job of recognizing when to tap into that explosiveness and when to reign it in.

[Juventini]

Another reason that the Spurs decide to pick Denmon is probably because Missouri run the same motion offense and push the ball up the court really fast. Heck, they even use small ball which Pop in love with.

[Mr. Body]

My little fwiw. This is a really good pick at the 59. The only real major flaw with this guy is his size. If he can manage to back-up the point better than Neal, this is aces.