Michigan Basketball: Why former Wolverines are thriving in the NBA

The difference in the NBA

Now, why does it seem like Michigan has more players doing better in the NBA than college? Well, it’s a variety of things. The main thing is college basketball is different than NBA (obviously). In college basketball, teams pride themselves on finding the best quality shot possible, which means sharing the basketball much more, as the scoring is usually distributed evenly among the starters.

In the NBA, the style is more of a free-for-all, as almost every team has a superstar or at least a very good player that gets fed the ball and can get buckets. The NBA is much more of an iso league, where there are more 1-on-1’s, as each team’s best player tries to outduel the other.

Another reason is there are way more NBA games than college basketball games in a season. A rookie can start the season on a sour note for half the season, but once they start to adapt to the game and get better, then the production takes off. College basketball is a 30-something game season at the most. In the NBA, there are at least 82 games (not including playoffs) so there is much more of an opportunity for a rookie or young player to thrive in a season.

Also, as mentioned before, college basketball is much more of a team game than the NBA. Players sacrifice their potential production and buy into a program where sharing the basketball is key, especially at a place like Michigan.

That is why Michigan basketball has had so many different leading scorers over the years. Yes, there’s usually at least one constant scorer, but sometimes, it is sporadic, and Michigan can get their leading scorer from any position on the court, and this is usually backed up with other college teams as well.

You don’t see a Michigan player averaging over 20 points a game. There’s a reason for that. It has to do with recruiting obviously, as there are talented players at every position so the scoring load is balanced, but it is also systematical as well, as that was John Beilein’s philosophy (sharing the basketball, no ball-hogging or free-for-all style of basketball) and Juwan Howard has taken up a similar philosophy.

Lastly, the NBA is very situational. A great player can be drafted by a bad team and/or bad situation and never pan out like they should. A player’s first four years in the NBA (rookie contract) are usually their most important years in terms of development and earning playing time.

If a player is drafted to a bad team (like the Sacramento Kings), then that could have significant impact on their development, as these players need the proper coaching and proper playing time to be productive in the league.

But if a player is drafted to a team with a historically good track record of developing players (like the Warriors and Heat) than more than likely, that rookie or young player will end up panning out.

Now, the player may never be an all-star, but, depending on the team, an all-star is not what that NBA team would absolutely need. A very solid role player is fine as well. That’s exactly what Jordan Poole and Duncan Robinson are for their respective teams (although Duncan might not remain on the Heat that much longer because Max Strus has made Duncan Robinson expendable).

Franz Wagner is in a unique situation as well, because he is on a tanking team, and earned a lot of minutes that most rookies usually wouldn’t receive when they first enter the league.

That is another way for rookies or young players to be successful early in their career too. Playing a lot of minutes. Franz took advantage of a team devoid of top-tier talent, and he became the Magic’s go-to scoring option.

Now, fans can also point to Michigan basketball and say that sometimes lack of development and/or the player not being used the right way has caused Michigan to not earn their player’s full development, but sometimes, some players take longer than others to finally produce.

Remember what I mentioned earlier. The NBA season is 82 games. That gives players way more time to settle in than a college season ever could. The coaches get so much more time to develop these players during the season in the film room, during practice, and in games.

It’s not like Franz, Jordan, and Duncan weren’t playing their hardest when they were at Michigan. No, those players always gave Michigan 100%, even when it didn’t always seem like it, as Jordan has become an all-around scoring threat for the Warriors when he was mostly a 3-point shooter at Michigan.

Duncan Robinson is still a deadly 3-point shooter and still takes a large volume of threes, but if need be, he can get to the basket, as he has expanded his game to attack the basket and take contact in stride for a layup or a foul and free throws.

Franz has learned how to fully utilize his body’s length, has become more of a facilitator and has gotten so much stronger at the rim (we saw how toned up he got last summer before the draft on his Instagram account, looks like it’s paying off) and has become an even better defender at the NBA level than he was at Michigan.

This was a ton to take in but moral of the story is: A lot of Michigan’s players have been more successful at the NBA level for a variety of reasons. Some of it has been lack of development, some of it is the way the NBA game is played compared to college, and some of it is situational (example: Klay Thompson got hurt which helped Jordan Poole earn more playing time and he has gone OFF for the Warriors (Check this out from yesterday’s playoff game in case you missed it).

In the end, though, we still appreciate all that these former alumni did for Michigan and we continue to root for their success in the present, and the future, in the NBA. Obviously, we all want Michigan’s players to be as good in college as they are in the pros, but life doesn’t always work out that way.

Despite Michigan basketball not churning out tons of NBA talent year-after-year like some of those other blue bloods, it is okay because the talent that does get drafted is usually highly successful, and Michigan very rarely has had a draft pick completely bust, unlike these other programs that have players bust left and right.