Michigan Basketball: Confidence still rising with Hunter Dickinson

Everyone knows that Hunter Dickinson doesn’t owe Michigan basketball anything else. He’s proven that he’s one of the best college players in the Big Ten and in college basketball, and if he wants to go to the NBA, all power to him.

I personally believe he could have staying power at the next level.

Whether he becomes a superstar at the NBA level is unlikely, but at the very least, I think he could at least offer some NBA team a very consistent and solid option off the bench that could occasionally start games at the NBA level in a pinch.

I also know that if Hunter Dickinson were to come back to school one more season, he could be the face of the Big Ten, and one of the faces of college basketball, make his NIL money, and Michigan basketball would instantly become one of the national championship favorites.

It’s funny how one guy’s upcoming decision of whether to stay in school or to go to the NBA can affect a team so much, but Michigan is in a unique situation, as almost all of their potential hopes and dreams depend on Hunter.

By Sunday, April 24th, Hunter has to decide whether to test the NBA waters or stay in school. My confidence is growing that Hunter Dickinson will ultimately decide to stay at Michigan.

He was at Michigan football’s spring game a few weeks ago, he went to a Detroit Tigers game a little over a week ago, and very recently, he sat down with Jett Howard, and ate a meal with transfer portal option Terrance Shannon.

Just because a player does all of these things doesn’t mean that he is surely coming back, but in the case of Hunter, I just have a feeling that we haven’t seen the last of him.

I honestly don’t think he would sit and have a meal with a potential transfer option if he wasn’t going to stay at that school, but ultimately, who knows.

We’ve already covered our growing optimism about his potential return, but I want to reiterate that further.

NIL is a game-changer for Hunter Dickinson

I think this NIL has been a game-changer because it has allowed Hunter and other athletes to make money without having to force themselves to leave and seek an NBA contract to garner generational wealth.

At this point, Hunter Dickinson knows what his stock will ultimately be. For comparison, Luka Garza won National Player of the Year last year and was only taken in the second round.

Hunter Dickinson’s game is comparable to Garza’s, so he would probably only be a second-round pick. Second-round contracts aren’t guaranteed, and the pay isn’t always great, so Hunter could honestly make more in NIL anyways, or at least as much.

I’m sure Hunter sees this and it has made him double and triple-check his decision to possibly leave.

I think before this season, Hunter thought this would be his last season in Ann Arbor for sure, but with how much he probably made in NIL earnings, his potential value in the NBA, Michigan’s incoming class, the potential decisions of Caleb Houstan and/or Moussa Diabate, and the way his second year ended, I think has caused him to at the very least really rethink potentially leaving.

To have Hunter back would be one less headache for Juwan to have to deal with in the transfer portal. Hunter could reveal his pending decision later today after this article is released or he could do it on Sunday right before the deadline, but very soon, we will know what he will do.

Let’s hope he runs it back one more time, as this could potentially be Juwan’s best squad yet in 2022-23, but if not, we here at GBM Wolverine wish him all the best in his future endeavors.