Qualls Signs With Team In Israel

[chiefhawg]

HogStats.com ‏@HogStats  36m36 minutes ago
Michael Qualls has signed with Israeli team Hapoel Galil Gilboa. http://www.eurobasket.com/Israel/basketball.asp?NewsID=457683&showcomments=1 ...


http://www.eurobasket.com/Israel/basketball.asp?NewsID=457683&showcomments=1

Good news for him and his son.

[Hogs run wild]

Good for him. he can make a decent living playing overseas. sux that it's overseas, but better than nothing.

[yraciv]

Sounds about right! I hated it when he left early because being a star overseas was always his calling.

[hogwood]

Yes it is. I hope he has a great career.

[FineAsSwine]

Great news. Save those checks and finish that degree!

[hoglady]

Hopefully Qualls does well - wish him nothing but the best.

[rzrbackramsfan]

The best thing about this is that he's getting healthy.  I bet you his career won't end in Israel.

[Hawg Red]

Sounds about right! I hated it when he left early because being a star overseas was always his calling.

Wow, really?

You have the book written on him before he's played a second of professional basketball. We're talking about a kid that was looking like an early-to-mid second-round pick before he hurt his knee.

No one here thought Coty Clarke would play in the NBA and he did, so let's give Qualls, a player with a higher ceiling, a chance to do his thing before we write off his "calling" as being an overseas player. Nothing wrong with that but no reason to think he can't be more.

[Rawker]

Wow, really?

You have the book written on him before he's played a second of professional basketball. We're talking about a kid that was looking like an early-to-mid second-round pick before he hurt his knee.

No one here thought Coty Clarke would play in the NBA and he did, so let's give Qualls, a player with a higher ceiling, a chance to do his thing before we write off his "calling" as being an overseas player. Nothing wrong with that but no reason to think he can't be more.

Indeed.  DeMarre Carroll, another MA player, worked his way from the bottom of the professional options for more than three years until he finally was a solid on an NBA bench....he's worked his way up to 12 points a game and a $60-mill contract.  It can happen.  Maybe it will for Qualls.

[PonderinHog]

I was hoping he'd go to China or somewhere else in the Orient, so I could dub him "Mr. Wokkin' on Air."  My Hebrew is lacking.     Any help here would be appreciated.


Good for Mr. Qualls.  Hope he makes it to the NBA some day.   :razorback:

[poloprince]

Good for Mike, I still hate he didn't have a senior season.

[lynbug]

I think IF he stays healthy and injury-free (and drug-free) we will be watching him again someday closer to home.  I hope the drug possession incident was just a one-time occurrence.

[The OTR]

why the heck did he leave early?

[PonderinHog]

why the heck did he leave early?

His draft stock was rising.  See Hawg Red's post above.

[Hawg Red]

why the heck did he leave early?

It sure looks like a bad decision now, but before he blew his knee out, he's getting heavy buzz in the 35-45 range in the second round. Philadelphia had 5 second round picks in that draft. Qualls is totally a guy they would target and sign to a cheap 4-year deal and let develop either in the NBA or in Delaware for their D-League team. The problem is that while Qualls had gained positive traction with NBA teams drafting in the second round, he isn't so good that they would draft him anyway or come back and sign him after his knee healed. An entire wave of new, healthy draftees has passed him by.

Hard to really say for sure where Qualls would be if he hadn't of blown his knee out, but I'd have to think he'd at least be going to training camp with some team after a year in the D-League (if not still under NBA contract). Had he returned, he could have still gotten hurt or just fallen out of favor with scouts. Or moved himself into the first round. We'll never know, but he had a better than fair shot at getting drafted before he got hurt.

[rude1]

It sure looks like a bad decision now, but before he blew his knee out, he's getting heavy buzz in the 35-45 range in the second round. Philadelphia had 5 second round picks in that draft. Qualls is totally a guy they would target and sign to a cheap 4-year deal and let develop either in the NBA or in Delaware for their D-League team. The problem is that while Qualls had gained positive traction with NBA teams drafting in the second round, he isn't so good that they would draft him anyway or come back and sign him after his knee healed. An entire wave of new, healthy draftees has passed him by.

Hard to really say for sure where Qualls would be if he hadn't of blown his knee out, but I'd have to think he'd at least be going to training camp with some team after a year in the D-League (if not still under NBA contract). Had he returned, he could have still gotten hurt or just fallen out of favor with scouts. Or moved himself into the first round. We'll never know, but he had a better than fair shot at getting drafted before he got hurt.

If you are working your way into the middle of the second round of a two round draft, that's evidence enough you should have been going back to school and leaving early was a bad decision.

[Hawg Red]

If you are working your way into the middle of the second round of a two round draft, that's evidence enough you should have been going back to school and leaving early was a bad decision.

How so?

Only 60 players get picked. Being an NBA draft pick means more than it does for any other pro sports league. But having a successful NBA career and getting drafted are not mutually exclusive.

You're a horrible detective if that is enough evidence to lead you to that conclusion, nevermind all of the facts that say you're wrong.

How many players that decide to comeback for their senior year make into the first round? Must be pretty damn high by your logic....

[ShadowHawg]

How so?

Only 60 players get picked. Being an NBA draft pick means more than it does for any other pro sports league. But having a successful NBA career and getting drafted are not mutually exclusive.

You're a horrible detective if that is enough evidence to lead you to that conclusion, nevermind all of the facts that say you're wrong.

How many players that decide to comeback for their senior year make into the first round? Must be pretty damn high by your logic....

No kidding. Draymond Green anyone?

[scorekeeper]

If you are working your way into the middle of the second round of a two round draft, that's evidence enough you should have been going back to school and leaving early was a bad decision.

Opportunity Gain vs Opportunity Cost.

[rude1]

How so?

Only 60 players get picked. Being an NBA draft pick means more than it does for any other pro sports league. But having a successful NBA career and getting drafted are not mutually exclusive.

You're a horrible detective if that is enough evidence to lead you to that conclusion, nevermind all of the facts that say you're wrong.

How many players that decide to comeback for their senior year make into the first round? Must be pretty damn high by your logic....

It really isn't that hard to follow, if you are so lowly thought of in the pre draft that working your way up means a mid second round pick where there is no guaranteed money then coming back to school to get your degree and perhaps work your way into a first round pre draft player where there is guaranteed money should be your logical choice. Waiting another year would have given you another season to show the scouts you had improved your weaknesses and ready to be a first round pick. Before anyone throws another exception to the rule player out there, for everyone of those guys who caught lightening in a bottle and made it, there are hundreds who tried it and failed.

[rzrbackramsfan]

Because qualls in his mind knew he'd be good enough to go in the mid second.  Which he was proving right.  If in his mind he thought he wouldn't get drafted then yes he would've made the wrong decision.

[Hawg Red]

It really isn't that hard to follow, if you are so lowly thought of in the pre draft that working your way up means a mid second round pick where there is no guaranteed money then coming back to school to get your degree and perhaps work your way into a first round pre draft player where there is guaranteed money should be your logical choice. Waiting another year would have given you another season to show the scouts you had improved your weaknesses and ready to be a first round pick. Before anyone throws another exception to the rule player out there, for everyone of those guys who caught lightening in a bottle and made it, there are hundreds who tried it and failed.

Man, so much ignorance in this post.

I'll try to tackle of all of it.

1. Mid-second round picks are not guaranteed money.....but they can (and have very often recently) receive guaranteed money. If you'd like, I could give you some numbers on that. Even some undrafted guys are getting guaranteed money now.

2. Coming back to school and getting a degree is completely meaningless and irrelevant to the topic at hand (becoming a professional basketball player). He was ~13 hours away from getting his degree. Give him 4 months and he's got that done. As far as I'm concerned, he basically accomplished that since the goal is that much within reach.

3. Not too many seniors get drafted in the first round. Don't believe me? Let me know and I'll smack you across the face with the facts. Qualls might or might not have been able to get himself into the 1st round by coming back.

4. To the point above, and the point about another season to show the scouts improved weaknesses, that also give scouts more time to pick your game apart and actually lower your stock. Players and agents have both echoed those concerns in the past. Again, it's a 50/50 kind of deal. Coming back to school when you've already put in 3 full seasons is not necessarily the right choice to make.

Qualls decided it was better to go get paid play basketball and develop (because you can still do that after you leave college and actually devote all of your time to it) than to come back and risk damaging the draft stock that he did build up after his junior season and do it with no compensation. You want him to get a degree, great. He's like 90% of the way there, but his profession of choice is basketball player and he had already graduated with that degree by going from unheralded prep recruit to All-SEC player in 3 years. He made the choice to go pro, things were going well for him, and then he got hurt. It happens. But there are also plenty of guys that come back to school to "get better" and end up, for whatever reason, lowering the draft stock. Look at Marcus Smart. The guy was going to be the #2 overall pick after his freshman season, came back, and then ended up the #6 overall pick. That's still great, but that move cost him about 10 million dollars over the life of his rookie contract. Nothing to sneeze at. These kids have to make tougher decisions than most any of us did at starting at around age 17, and as these decisions go, Qualls did not make anywhere near a bad decision. Even good decisions don't work out sometimes.