Brought forth since I’ve gotten so much unfounded and often humorous pushback from certain slappies…
This kid’s among a small group of LPT five-star kids who elected to return for their sophomore years. Not counting the two kids who stayed in 2011 because of the NBA lockout, there have been 10 among the 33 kids that LPT inked prior to 2017.
Lamb (lockout)
Jones (lockout)
Wiltjer
Poythress
Lee
Andrew Harrison
Aaron Harrison
Ulis
Briscoe
Diallo
Gabriel
Killeya-Jones
The outcomes for the last three are still TBD, but no one on that list except for Ulis has helped himself so far. And Ulis was an unusual situation: the smallest guy listed (guys who don’t get drafted high) and playing behind Andrew Harrison. I doubt anyone not wearing blue blockers expects Gabriel and Killeya-Jones to become world beaters.
Diallo will beat the odds if he comes back to LPT and becomes a star. Slapd!cks cheer his return, but it really proves they don’t know their own system and recent history. When a five-star kid returns—esp. after the NBA takes a hard look at him—it really means he’s probably not anywhere close to what his five-star ranking implies. I’m not saying he’s bad, he’s just overrated.
Neither Lite nor slappies should want five-star kids for more than one year; you should want those kids to jump regardless. Thank them, and get them on their way. The benefits to their return do not necessarily outweigh the costs. It's not that you don’t want kids for more than one year, you just don’t want those to be your five star kids. The ideal example was Booker who unexpectedly blew up in his freshman year and didn’t come back. Normally, that kid returns a 2nd year and helps you, maybe a lot.
But it's kinda hard to build a decent base of 3/4 star kids when you mostly recruit fives. Per Rivals, 11 of the 13 kids in LPT's last two classes are five stars. You're not setting yourself up for good kids to return a 2nd year with their heads in the right adjustment. You're just taking every high rated kid who will commit. And before a slappy apologist says "U of L would do the same thing," that's the reasoning of someone repeating the same mistake and without knowing U of L would do anything remotely close to that.
Slapd!cks can argue against their own history, but that’s just stupid. And they now have enough history with Lite and OAD kids where it’s hard to justify “stupid”.
“Elite program,” my a$$...