Ran across this article and thought it was interesting that a college player of some ability and size is uneligible for the draft and is a FA who could be signed while playing his Kentucky season. Weird.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
"The NCAA rules let him back into the college game, but the NBA's collective bargaining agreement prohibited his re-entry into a future draft. Right away, Morris was a free agent."
wow. Pretty weird situation. If he really improves, he can avoid getting low-balled with a rookie contract.
spurs should offer what they offered jav for him
this can also be applied to greg oden, even though he hasnt declared yet, but theres nothing stoppin him or us from signin him as a undrafted free agent, just like how teams are signin euros who are not in the draft....
WTF are you talking about?
Oden hasn't declared for the draft yet, because he can't. If he did, he would be drafted, and therefore not a free agent.
Nobody drafted Morris, which is why he became a free agent. And because he also didn't hire an agent, he was eligble to go back to school.
What about his talent? Would his skills--and current at ude--make him a first rounder as some scouts are saying? I haven't seen him play.
Sounds like a Spur
Facts:
While his game is all power, he is soft-spoken off the court and is a very good student. A member of the Beta club in high school, Morris is prone to reading Dostoevsky and Victor Hugo novels in in his spare time.
j/k. Props to him for having a mind.
Yeah, it did. The point is that he is clearly a different player now.
you mean players can develop after you draft them and they play ball
gee who would have thought that
It's hard for a 6'11" guy with reasonable talent in the low post to NOT be a first round pick.
The article said he pwned two probable lottery-pick forwards from UNC, so the question is whether he is moving to lottery-pick equivalent.
My God, it could be the return of...gasp...David Robinson.
Here's the scoop on Morris. I am a Kentucky fan and have watched him play for the last 3 seasons. His freshman year, he was lazy, lathargic, and unmotivated. Somehow he thought he could declare for the draft and get picked on size alone. Apparently he had a few private workouts for some teams and showed absolutely no fire or motivation at all. Rex Chapman was quoted early on saying that Morris would go undrafted, and he did.
After some legal manuevering, the NCAA restored his eligibility and suspended him for the first half of last season. The strange part is that he immediately became a free agent who could be signed by any NBA team at any time.
His sop re year, he only played half the season, and the Wildcats had an awful year. He didn't show much improvement, so the NBA thing didn't come up.
This season, he has shown great improvement in his agrressiveness, scoring, rebounding, and ability to not pick up early fouls. That is why all of this talk of his FA status is flying around. He looks like he might be able to become a good player, and it isn't often you find a 6"11" guy that good available without having to draft him, while you can still watch him progress in college.
He could sign today with an NBA team, leave Kentucky, and play tomorrow. He has stated publicly that he has no intentions of taking an offer if it came his way, but I have doubts about that.
Bottom line: I'm not sold on his ability to get motivated and go for it night in and night out. He has improved light years, even in Tubby Smith's slow down offense. If any team makes a play for this guy, it would be a wise move, just don't think he is a sure-fire superstar. Worth the risk? Definitely.
One of the new rules under the CBA is that if an underclassman enters the draft and goes undrafted he can return to school and technically be a FA simultaneously. Morris is the only player so far to ever do so.
Y'know, I 'm trying to imagine a scenario where a guy does what Morris did, except on purpose. It would have to be somebody who isn't ready for the NBA, but has the potential to be a legitimate draft pick in 1-2 years. He'd then roll the dice by declaring for the draft, hoping that he wouldn't get picked, with every intention of going back to school and improving his lot, then cashing in.
It'd be a big gamble 'cause if somebody made him a second round pick he'd be screwed.
Eh, anyway I expect the NBA will probably close that loophole in the future so that if you aren't picked and you go back to school, you're no longer a free agent.
On purpose? Morris entered the draft because he wanted to go pro, not to play the system. He was foolish enough to enter a deep draft and as a result did not get picked. Had he been in this year's draft he probably would have gone in the first round (judging by some of the garbage players that people drafted).
This isn't really a loophole. It's not like writing off a family vacation on your taxes as a business expense or anything, it's just how the rules work. Most players want to be drafted in the 1st round for guaranteed money, as a FA the contract can be tailored to offer no or very little of such.
If Morris puts himself in a position where he's considered a first-round or lottery pick, he will get a better contract as a FA then he would have as a draft pick. That's just plain economics 101.
I don't know how the CBA is worded exactly. If they specifically spelled out this scenario, then it's not a loophole. But if they didn't, and they didn't intend for this to happen (as is implied in all the stories) then it would be considered one.
What you have with Morris isn't an NBA loophole. They let him enter the draft and when he went undrafted, it was no different than any other player having suffered the same fate.
What you have is an NCAA goof up. The NCAA allowed him back into college, even though he had accepted expenses during his private workouts. The NCAA caused this unusual loophole by letting him back in at UK.
That makes sense, thanks.
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