As the Michigan fan who first posted about Levert on this board before his sophomore year started, allow me to share my thoughts:
1) The general feeling amongst those in the know with Michigan basketball is that Levert will be staying for his senior year. However, it is not a done deal, and the Michigan coaches have been recruiting (although not offering scholarships to) some extra players in case he does leave.
2) His foot seems like a real issue. He had surgery last summer, had to stay off it for a couple of months, and then broke it again in January. I've seen some misinformation around here that he'd been playing injured all year -- this is not the case. He was injured, healed, and was reinjured on a specific play.
3) I very much like Levert. He's one of those players who does a lot of things to help a team win games. I would be very surprised if he ever became a star. But he can give you minutes at the wing or the point, and has the length and agility to defend all three positions, but currently does not have the technique. Really, he's got a lot of Evan Turner in him. His upside might be higher than where Evan Turner currently is, but I think that's what he projects to. That's a useful NBA player -- I question if you'd pick that at 15 or 16, but he's useful. There's a chance he turns into Paul George, but there's a bigger chance he has serious foot problems that keep him down. If there were no injury concerns, yes, you take Evan Turner with Paul George upside at 15, or even 12.
He's a great kid tho. Terrific work ethic who's very coachable. If he doesn't pan out, it will be because of injury and not effort.
And since i'm talking about Michigan, allow me to throw out two other names to watch for in coming drafts. The first is Zak Irvin. At the beginning of the year, Irvin was talked about as a potential 1st rounder this year, but he quickly fell off the draft boards as his game stagnated in the beginning of the year, as he was largely a spot up shooter who didn't contribute any other way in the box score. However, after Levert and Derrick Walton (Michigan's starting point guard) went down within a week of each other, Irvin took on a lot more responsibility, and increased his scoring, efficiency, rebounds, and assists. Rather than taking only spot-up shots, he started to create off the dribble for both himself and teammates. If he plays like he did the last 10-15 games all of next year, he will be a first-rounder.
The second name is Aubrey Dawkins, son of Johnny Dawkins. His scoring exploded over the same period as Irvin's game began to flourish. He was lightly recruited out of high school, but is a lights-out shooter, and was good for 1-2 thunderous dunks a game. Definitely prone to some mistakes still, but he has definite NBA potential after probably his junior year, but maybe after his sophomore year.
Topic: Take a risk and draft Levert at 13-15? (Read 2216 times)