Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players
-
I’m seeing so many takes on Flory that make me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. He is fine and will get better but what he was last year is more than replaceable. He was downright bad down the stretch.
-
I 100% agree with this. He was not very good the last 4 weeks or so. He is replaceable, but it would have been nice to keep for his potential. If he stays two more years, he will be a pretty good college player.
-
@BShark I think most of us were in love with his upside. We haven’t always come out great living on a dream.
His upside was defense and rebounding.
On offense… realistically… he could go from being effective at 3-feet (dunks) to being effective around 7 to 8-feet.
I think we really liked the contrast he showed comparing him to Hunter. What would have to be addressed this coming year is all the offense we lose by losing Hunter!
-
We said the same about Zuby.
-
@BShark Oh come on now. A BEAST who averages 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game is worth at least 3 mil. By those standards, my boss will surely up my pay to 837 billion per year.
-
Flory was electric. Great determination and effort. I’ll take that x1000 any day of the week.
-
Everyone who thinks Flory is a $3 million dollar player is betting against Bill and staff’s assessment of talent. Given the last 3 years, can you blame them?
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
We said the same about Zuby.
I always liked Zuby. Said we should have kept him but not Udeh. Worth noting though that Zuby went off year 3 and KU is all in on next year for many reasons.
-
Zuby bolted over competition for minutes. Flory bolted for money. I find one more troubling.
-
Seeing possibly it’s between that Weasel Pearl and KU for Flory.-- Auburn or coming back? just talk but also heard possibly some tampering goin on with the hole Flory thing.
It a down to Ku & Auburn coming out of High School and lookie here— here we are again, Hearing right now Auburn is the one to beat if we want him back.
-
Might be wise to recruit more sophomores and juniors than true freshman until the portal calms down. Maybe. Dunno
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
Everyone who thinks Flory is a $3 million dollar player is betting against Bill and staff’s assessment of talent. Given the last 3 years, can you blame them?
Dang this sounds like something I would have said lol I’m wearing off on you and that’s not good! Only enough room for 3-4 negative guys not the owner of the site too now!
-
Also what if Flory just wants to be at Auburn
-
What if other transfers would want to play at KU if we had Flory?
-
I just dont get writing off Florys importance or value. His departure is devastating imo. And looking at his per game stats over the year is not an accurate metric of value.
-
I agree. He played the most minutes for a freshman big at KU since Cliff Alexander in 2014. He’s only been playing the sport 3-4 years and would seem to be in the early stages of reaching his full potential. He can be developed into an NBA talent in 1-2 years I believe.
Personally, I think his departure is not just about money but that’s me. I seem to remember we put a together a sizeable NIL deal to get him to KU in the first place and figured we would have done a lot to try and keep him here given the promise shown as a freshman. If another program is willing to pay him above what KU feels they are comfortable paying then that’s certainly an issue. We’ll have to wait and see who has the last laugh.
-
My thoughts on Flory… if we had a quality GM… none of this was necessary. They could have renegotiated his NIL contract and he would never have to be in this mess. He would have received a big bump in his money and would have kept his Jayhawk family love in perfect shape. It also makes his image look like he isn’t all about money, which might help him at the next level. Maybe I’m wrong… maybe players need to get out there and get offers to determine their best money.
-
There are more players in the portal than starting positions in D1. The system is broken and there is no loyalty. (Also some benches must be more comfortable)
-
After reading more, I feel this current portal craziness is a one off. It will settle down a bit next year when the schools can pay athletes directly. Remember there’s a cap coming per school for all sports.
I’m going to hope for the best possible KU outcome and move on.
-
Remember how excited most of us were at the start of last season? … all looked good, especially our scoring potential.
I know there were other prominent teams with marquee transfers who had a bust season, but it feels like we were the leader in that catagory.
-
"Kansas, the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks in the round of 64, becoming the second team in college basketball history to lose in the first round after beginning the season atop the rankings. The other team to suffer that fate was the 2005 Kansas squad. "
We have some work to do.
-
@nuleafjhawk said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
"Kansas, the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks in the round of 64, becoming the second team in college basketball history to lose in the first round after beginning the season atop the rankings. The other team to suffer that fate was the 2005 Kansas squad. "
We have some work to do.
True, but there was preseason #1 who didn’t make the tournament at all. Looking at you, NC, the year after we beat yo ass down 15 at the half.
-
Flory is a player with a bright future, but at this point, he’s not worth $3 million in NIL at this point. It does suck to lose him because of his future, but he doesn’t still have enough holes in his game that if someone else is offering that to him, then he should take it.
-
Jason Werth wasn’t worth his contract in his mid thirties when the Nats paid him. But he was a domino that led to building a championship roster. Sometimes you need to pony up.
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
Jason Werth wasn’t worth his contract in his mid thirties when the Nats paid him. But he was a domino that led to building a championship roster. Sometimes you need to pony up.
Considering what we went through the last 2 years with Hunter and AJ taking the majority of NIL, I think Self might be a bit gun shy committing that much money to one player, especially one who wasn’t going to be a focal point of the roster.
The potential is there, but Flory was still bullied by stronger players and his offensive game is still pretty raw. This isn’t meant as saying Flory is a bad player because he’ll likely be in the NBA one day, but he’s not going to the NBA in 2026.
For that $3 million KU could add 2 or 3 other players that would collectively contribute more than Flory would next season and in the future. So while I’d like to have him back, it doesn’t make financial sense to the staff when there’s so many other needs they have this offseason.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 thanks for a well considered rational counter-perspective. I’m still unclear exactly how much cheddar we are operating with. How does Auburn have that much more than us?
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
@Texas-Hawk-10 thanks for a well considered rational counter-perspective. I’m still unclear exactly how much cheddar we are operating with. How does Auburn have that much more than us?
I don’t know if Auburn actually has more NIL than KU doesn’t for basketball. I think it’s more that KU doesn’t think Flory is worth what his handler is asking for in 2025-26 and the money they have would be better spent on other talent.
We know Darryn Peterson is making a crap ton of money in NIL and someone who’s projected as the #1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft is worth that much money, or however much he’s getting in NIL.
-
@BShark I agree, would’ve liked to keep him but not for what the rumor mill says he getting money wise. Auburn is rumored to have offered him 3 million and Indiana 2 million. With how he played down the stretch and his no contact clause in the portal. I’d bet good money he knew what he was doing as soon as the season was over.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 so my thought was that Auburn probably has a more competitive, complete roster and we have 3? scholarship players so far. I take your point that Darryn is expensive but I dont think I fully appreciate the point that we could get 3 other useful players for the 3 million for Flory. If Auburn has the same amount of NIL as us, Im confused how paying for Flory 3 mill wouldnt leave them short on other impact players, something which would surprise me if it happened.
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
@Texas-Hawk-10 so my thought was that Auburn probably has a more competitive, complete roster and we have 3? scholarship players so far. I take your point that Darryn is expensive but I dont think I fully appreciate the point that we could get 3 other useful players for the 3 million for Flory. If Auburn has the same amount of NIL as us, Im confused how paying for Flory 3 mill wouldnt leave them short on other impact players, something which would surprise me if it happened.
Auburn is losing a minimum of 10 players this offseason based on the roster. I don’t know how many of those seniors are scholarship vs. walk ons and 8 underclassmen, again not sure how many scholarship or not. I think it’s safe to say Auburn is replacing a lot of players. This year is also their first time past the 2nd round since 2019 so it’s not like Pearl has been knocking his roster construction out of the park every offseason.
At the end of the say, KU’s staff simply doesn’t think Flory is worth $3 million and I agree with them in this case. KU has made their pitch and offer, Auburn probably has or will in the near future and Flory and his guardian will decide where the best option is.
As for Auburn, committing $3 million to Flory may very well cost them other players in the portal, but they Flory worth that investment whereas KU’s staff doesn’t believe Flory is worth that.
-
I’m thinking the NCAA ruling will be coming down soon and schools have $20.5 - $23.1 million for internal NIL. That is separate $$$ from individual player NIL earnings. I wonder what Flory is earning on his individual NIL earnings? I know he started a nice deal with Freddy’s. I wonder if that deal stipulates he has to stay at KU?
-
@approxinfinity said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
@Texas-Hawk-10 thanks for a well considered rational counter-perspective. I’m still unclear exactly how much cheddar we are operating with. How does Auburn have that much more than us?
Auburn right now is willing to SPEND MORE right now. Sounds like Self is being judicious after some previous high profile flame outs…
The kid we just got wasn’t cheap fwiw. The cost of doing business these days is high, especially for good players.
-
@kjayhawks said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
@BShark I agree, would’ve liked to keep him but not for what the rumor mill says he getting money wise. Auburn is rumored to have offered him 3 million and Indiana 2 million. With how he played down the stretch and his no contact clause in the portal. I’d bet good money he knew what he was doing as soon as the season was over.
Kansas 1.2 Auburn 1.8
-
Thanks guys. Let the dominoes fall!
-
This thread might be embarrassing soon
-
@BShark Not Amy more embarrassing than college sports in general.
-
@BShark That’s not a good allocation of resources if White is fairly expensive. 30 other guys I’d rather have than him at similar or $100k more in cost
Adding: Guys been to 4 schools in 4 years and sounds identical to aj storr. TOS had a guy that went to Illini games and said the dude struggled with effort consistently
He should play the 4 based on his lack of offense but we won’t put him there. Sounds like we are running it back with just different names at the 3 spot
-
Flory straight to the NBA?
-
@BShark said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
This thread might be embarrassing soon
Look at this dummy
-
@BShark lol. I appreciate your takes. Please keep them coming.
-
@BShark said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
@BShark said in Hot Take: We Overvalue our own players:
This thread might be embarrassing soon
Look at this dummy
Self deprecation/humility is a sign of maturity Many people can never admit they are wrong
I hope to be wrong on Bill this upcoming year!
-
@kuballin10 I do still think this topic is generally true as a whole tbh. People expect huge leaps from returning players and that has happened with some guys it’s because they put the work in. Others like KJ were just genuinely about already maxxed out when they got here. His per 40 stats are pretty similar every year for example and he was a hard worker. Some guys just can’t develop in some aspects.
