Austin Rivers to turn Pro

According to this mock draft, he could fall to #22, owned by the Celtics.

Doc coaching his son? Hmm.

http://www.nba-draft.com/2012MockDraftRound1.html

Draftexpress has him going at 17, just before our #18 pick.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2012/

bob

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This is too funny. Is Austin claiming family hardship. I guess he told Coach "K" and the NCAA that Wyc doesn't pay his father enough and he has to go "hardship" to support the family. (ROFLMAO)!

MD

Bob,

Quite a shocker to me. I thought he would stay another year or two. I don't think he's quite NBA ready.

If he's still available when we pick, I think our first choice could very well be someone like Arnett Moultrie. He would be the type of frontline player we could use right away. He can probably be either an effective center or power forward in the NBA. Wherever he goes he'll have a chance to be in the regular rotation quickly. Unfortunately for us I think his draft stock has been rising, although missing the tourney might help mask him just a little.

I wonder if our order of preference might be Moultrie (PF/C), Tyler Zeller (C), Festus Ezeli (C), Andrew Nicholson (PF/C), Terrence Jones (PF) and Mason Plumlee (PF). 2 or 3 from that list might be around by the time we end up getting our first pick. Jones and Plumlee being candidates would probably depend on our thoughts about Johnson and Plumlee needs some seasoning.

I think Zeller stands a good chance of being gone before we pick, but I'm not certain he's officially declared for the draft yet. From what I've seen, he might take a couple of years to develop yet. Moultrie would give us a guy that can play center on day one.

If we were to go with a shooting guard I think Doron Lamb is a good possibility. Now is a good time to catch him with Kentucky in the tourney. I think he's been under-rated in most draft capsules I've seen so far, Kentucky is just too deep for any one player to get the exposure the draft-niks look for.

Regards

This is a BAD idea. Austin would be a lottery pick if he stuck around another year.

MRKLEEN:

Poor Austin has to give up his scholarship to support the family. (LOL)

MD!

NYCelt wrote:Quite a shocker to me. I thought he would stay another year or two. I don't think he's quite NBA ready.

I too am shocked. I thought that Doc would counsel his son to enjoy the benefits of college life for another couple of years and take advantage of playing for coach K. I haven't seen him play enough to have a definitive opinion about whether he's NBA-ready. What I've seen has me leaning the same way as NYCelt, though I've been wrong on that score before.

I'd be really hesitant to have anyone coach their own son in the NBA. Bringing that into the picture would make it very hard on Doc and bring unneeded issues into other players' attitude toward both of them. Maybe they could handle it, but I see a lot of red flags.

A quick search didn't come up with any significant instance of a father coaching his son in the NBA. Coby Karl was signed by the Nuggets at the end of the 2009-10 season, but he was never activated, and George Karl was on leave getting treatment for cancer. I also found an instance of Patrick Ewing, Jr. on the Magic summer league team while his dad was a Magic coach, but the son didn't make the regular season roster, plus it would be less of an issue if the dad was an assistant instead of the head coach.

I did find an article where Mike Dunleavy Sr. and Jr. were asked about the possibility. Junior wasn't keen on the idea.

"Not really," Dunleavy Jr., an Indiana swingman, said Sunday when asked if it's a dream to one day play on an NBA team coached by his dad, Mike Dunleavy Sr. "There could be a lot of issues with it. If it were to happen, you'd make the most of it. But it's not something that I'm trying to do... If you were on a great team and you're winning, to do it with your dad, that would be great. But when things aren't going well, it could be kind of like hit or miss.''

Dunleavy Jr. didn't disagree situations such as playing time could provide a distraction if he ever were to play for his father.

"There just could be issues," said Dunleavy Jr., a nine-year man with a career scoring average of 12.1. "I'd prefer not to play for a family member. But if it happens, it happens... It's not something that I don't think either one of us is trying to make happen.''

The father, though, has a different take. He said the two have talked at times about one day being on the same team, but understands why his son wouldn't say it's a dream to play for his father.

"It would have to be the right situation. It wouldn't work if you had a mentally weak team in which guys would point at things.... You wouldn't want players thinking they have to be careful what they say (to Dunleavy Jr.) because it could get back to (the coach) or that there could be more minutes, more shots (for the son of the coach).''

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/25/father-more-gung-ho-than-son-about-any-possible-dunleavy-pairing/

I think that does a good job of pointing out some of the potential pitfalls. It's not like Austin Rivers is a singular talent, so I think everyone would be better off if he played elsewhere.

Outside

I still doubts he comes out

And if he does he won't be a Celtic.

beat