Trevor Lacey to turn pro – 2016 excitement deflated

15-16 Basketball283

. @TrevorLacey5 plans to declare for #NBADraft –> http://t.co/B6zeNfZ8a9 pic.twitter.com/iVnsWCJ1NP

— NC State Men's Bball (@PackMensBball) April 15, 2015 ” target=”_blank”>Link

N.C. State announced Wednesday that guard Trevor Lacey, who turns 24 in October, plans to enter the NBA Draft.

The 6-foot-3 Lacey averaged 15.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists as a redshirt junior during the 2014-15 season, when he made the All-ACC second team and led the Wolfpack to the Sweet 16.

“I would like to thank the coaching staff, university and fans for a wonderful experience the last two years at N.C. State, but I’d like to declare for the NBA Draft,” Lacey said in a school-issued release.

“I had a great group of teammates the last two years, and they’ll always be like brothers to me. This has been the toughest decision of my life. But I feel like pursuing this new journey in my basketball career is what is best for me.”

Lacey played two years at Alabama before transferring to N.C. State, and he sat out the 2013-14 season per NCAA rules. His age, along with a skill level that made him the nation’s most efficient and effective isolation scorer, are factors in the decision to turn pro.

He doesn’t have elite athleticism or foot speed, though, one reason he is ranked No. 96 on ESPN analyst Chad Ford’s list of top-100 draft prospects. There are only two rounds and 60 picks in the NBA Draft.

Only two of the top 10 players from a 22-14 team in 2014-15 were seniors, but Lacey joins fellow wing Ralston Turner, the team’s second-leading scorer, and backup guard Desmond Lee in departing. It’s still unclear if point guard Cat Barber will return following a strong sophomore season, and post player Kyle Washington saw his minutes drop as he became the Wolfpack’s fourth interior option late in the season, although he did have a significant impact in two NCAA tournament games.

Without Lacey or Turner available, the Wolfpack could replace them in the starting lineup with 6-4 guard Terry Henderson, who sat out the 2014-15 season as a West Virginia transfer, and one of the Martin twins. Caleb Martin started one game and ranked sixth on the team with a 4.8 scoring average as a freshman, and Cody Martin made three starts as a defensive-minded wing.

N.C. State hasn’t signed any Class of 2015 recruits.

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Home › Forums › Trevor Lacey to turn pro – 2016 excitement deflated

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  • 04/16/2015 at 1:03 PM #85141
    Rick
    Keymaster
    MISTA WOLF wrote:

    I beg to differ about Anya. The only guy we have that has a legit future in the league is Abu (maybe Cat). We call him Aladdin around the house. I blame my daughter. Anya doesn’t have the work ethic needed and the NBA game is way to dag on fast for him. Sorry guys. He can waste away in Iceland or Serbia if he chooses to go.

    Yeah, speed is king. You can offset height but not speed. Anya will struggle to guard anyone in the league and I also love the big guy. About the only thing he will be able to do is help side shot blocking but that will leave his man wide open for an offensive rebound (which we have seen play out for 2 years).

    04/16/2015 at 1:05 PM #85142
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster
    Tau837 wrote:

    When we expected them back…

    It was always a horrible assumption to assume that everyone would be back. People that are foolish enough to make this assumption will usually be disappointed.

    The inability to recruit freshmen good enough that they could expect to earn some playing time is disconcerting. While it is foolish to extrapolate from one data point…it is still a bad data point.

    04/16/2015 at 1:24 PM #85146
    StateRed44
    Participant

    Uggh. Hate what college ball has become. One reason I was pulling for Wisconsin. We should seriously over sign each year and cut those at the end of the year deemed insufficient. Rinse, repeat. You recruit 2 top 75, 2 top 150 guys per years and 2 of them will be likely contributors. One every 3 years will be a star. Run off the runt. Gives you 12 guys of 4 year players.

    04/16/2015 at 1:28 PM #85148
    ryebread
    Participant

    I’m with you VAWolf. When we were having the Gott debates during the mid-season slide, I was in the camp that the best thing for the program was probably to miss the tournament. We were going 0 fer in recruiting and a coaching change may have kept some of this together or at least moved us to a candidate that a portion of the fan base hadn’t already soured on.

    We seemingly hit the best case scenario of what could have happened in the season. The problem is that we still have that 0 fer recruiting class, we’re seeing attrition, whatever is keeping players away is still keeping players away (and I NEVER believed that was PT), and the fan base is seemingly still divided. The Sweet 16 run was great, but it is starting to look like we won’t build on it.

    Gott’s bulletproof at this point given 4 tourneys and 2 Sweet 16s. If we’re back on the bubble again next year, it will be more of the same infighting though. I don’t think that’s good for the program long term, but it could just be that my opinion is skewed because of the 10 years we gave HWSNBN.

    I still believe we’ve got a good feel for about where Gott can get us. It’s better than anything we’ve had since V, but the question is whether it is good enough?

    04/16/2015 at 1:28 PM #85149
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    Yes, gone are the days when one can assume anything. You really never know from year to year, which is why you must cash in when there is a golden opportunity.

    I have long since given up in trying to figure out how guys will do in the pros. Seeiously, it is impossible. Look at some of the rosters. Watch the playoffs. You are going to see guys that you have never heard of before.

    Anya would obviously be a project. He doesn’t even start for us. You have to play him in spurts due to his weight. He is constantly in foul trouble. He has no offensive game outside of offensive rebounding. In the pros, he would not be a center, so he’s going to be going up against the Kaminski’s of the world that can beat you off the dribble or from the outside.

    Abu, to me, is the real pro prospect on the roster. If he allows himself the necessary time to develop, and really works on his game, he is going to be a real stud.

    04/16/2015 at 1:29 PM #85150
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    Damn Rent-A-Players

    04/16/2015 at 1:35 PM #85151
    ryebread
    Participant

    I’ve argued for years (since our sentencing to basketball purgatory) that the ideal recruiting model for NC State is to try for 1 MCD AA, 2 top 80 type players and one top 150 player. We should target two guards and two forwards.

    Some years you’d miss on the McD AA or there might have an early defection to the NBA. Most years that 150 kid won’t develop or someone will transfer. You’ll always have 10-12 players though who are grizzled and you may get enough top line talent to occasionally be a threat to break through.

    I understand this isn’t video game basketball. You may have a recruiting model and may not have the kids bite. I just haven’t seen this be the approach. Sid was kind of throwing stuff against a wall. Gott is only going after top line talent. Ironically HWSNBN was the closest to actually implementing this model. His offensive system just held him back such that he wasn’t recruiting across the positions properly.

    And I also think taking transfers (outside of the graduate transfer) is a huge risk. They’ve already “quit” one place, which to me is a red flag. Most transfers do better by moving down the ladder a few rungs. Unless they’re coming from one of the blues, where are we pulling from where getting PT at NC State is that much easier? The ACC opponents we play are likely tougher than most of the opponents that the kids have faced. We’ve been lucky because Lacey and Turner worked out, so the staff found some good ones. It’s just not a strategy I’d like to use often.

    04/16/2015 at 1:47 PM #85154
    Rick
    Keymaster

    Recruiting is obviously a concern

    We went from 3 MCD AAs
    to 1 MCD AA
    to 0 McD AA
    to 0 recruits

    Another bad trend. I do not know how anyone cannot be concerned by this.

    04/16/2015 at 1:50 PM #85156
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    I like the transfers because: (i) older players are more developed; (ii) older players are theoretically less impulsive in their decision-making; (iii) they can’t really transfer again until “grad school” year; (iv) helps with scholarship class spacing.

    As long as you screen personalities for your Kenny Drummonds, it should work out very well.

    You can say “they’ve already shown a red flag” but basically ALL kids have that red flag in them from jump street. Every recruit is impulsive and impatient, every one of them expects to be featured very early in their career. NONE of them is gonna come in and just be all “yes sir, no sir” 24/7. You adapt, or you die.

    The transfers IN are the least of our f-cking problems now. Without them, we wouldn’t have a program at all, pretty much.

    04/16/2015 at 2:00 PM #85159
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    Rick, I think the plan was to target ONLY the cream of the crop (high value, low probability) targets this class, HOPEFULLY with backup grad school transfer or juco guys on file as backup. We shall see.

    The plan being, we would show well this March, then show REALLY WELL early next season, leading to a much better class for 2015-16 than we could have signed otherwise with a regular signing philosophy.

    Was it a gamble? YES. But haven’t we really, truly always wanted somebody to make a high stakes gamble on NC State like that? Rather than settle for the comfort of mid-table safety (as one would say in European football)?

    And I’m not saying there should be no consequences for failure. Just acknowledge that at least he f-cking tried something. I appreciate that much, at least. Who knows, maybe he can pull enough transfers out of his ass to keep this thing alive after all.

    04/16/2015 at 2:17 PM #85161
    MISTA WOLF
    Participant

    And I’m not saying there should be no consequences for failure. Just acknowledge that at least he f-cking tried something.

    Amen to that. I like the fact he had the testicular fortitude to have faith in the guys returning. It’s a GD Greek tragedy the way things are playing out 🙁

    I’m ready for some football. Fins up!!

    04/16/2015 at 2:29 PM #85165
    Rick
    Keymaster

    BJD,
    I agree that we want someone to “go for the gold” so to speak but it is pretty naive to assume no players are going to leave given both the college climate and his track record.
    It is what it is. Gott seems to have found a pretty high level. The question is can he exceed that level or will he drop from that level. The announcements in the past two days have made the latter far more likely than the former.

    04/16/2015 at 2:44 PM #85166
    StateRed44
    Participant

    Damn BJD, that post makes me feel better. You right. Rick, I don’t know he assumed no one would leave. They did evaluate and recruit this year, just at a high level. Eric Davis was a miss tho.

    04/16/2015 at 4:05 PM #85170
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    To sum up the depression, I always suggest this:

    04/16/2015 at 4:06 PM #85171
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    Or maybe this:

    04/16/2015 at 4:19 PM #85172
    Tau837
    Participant
    VaWolf82 wrote:

    The inability to recruit freshmen good enough that they could expect to earn some playing time is disconcerting.

    Gott hasn’t shown an inability to do this. He signed Lewis with Lo Brown on the roster. He signed Cat with Brown and Lewis on the roster, before Lewis had been exposed as overmatched. He signed Warren with no clear starting role available to him. He signed the twins with no clear starting role available to them. He signed Abu with Anya, Freeman, and Washington all rising sophomores.

    Recruiting for the 2015-16 class isn’t over.

    04/16/2015 at 4:21 PM #85173
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Wolfpack ish kabible.

    I have no problem taking even money on a 2016 ACCT double bye.

    04/16/2015 at 4:24 PM #85174
    Tau837
    Participant
    ryebread wrote:

    whatever is keeping players away is still keeping players away (and I NEVER believed that was PT)

    Do you think Raymond transferred because he wanted more PT and didn’t expect he would get it at State?
    Do you think Harris transferred because he wanted more PT and didn’t expect he would get it at State?
    Do you think Lewis transferred because he wanted more PT and didn’t expect he would get it at State?
    Do you think Washington is transferring because he wants more PT and doesn’t expect he will get it at State?

    IMO those four transfers were very clearly about PT. There may have been other issues, but IMO the driver was PT.

    I think PT was a factor for TDT as well, but IIRC there may also have been some personality conflict(s).

    If you don’t agree, what do you think these transfers were about?

    04/16/2015 at 4:30 PM #85175
    Tau837
    Participant
    Wulfpack wrote:

    Anya… In the pros, he would not be a center

    He will play center in the NBA, provided he gets himself in better shape. He has a center’s size and wingspan and doesn’t have the requisite quickness to play forward.

    If he improves his weight and conditioning as much this offseason as last offseason, he could be a lottery pick next year. Perhaps that is a big if, but Howell, Vandenberg, and Warren all transformed their bodies under Gott, and I am expecting the same from Anya.

    04/16/2015 at 5:05 PM #85176
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Tau… You got this covered.

    One thing is for sure. If we pull up last year’s April threads, we should find the same names repeating the same mantras, without a skip.

    That’s consistancy in behavioral pattern, I tell ya…If patterns are what one looks for, I could graph it with a do rag over my eyes.

    If I where a statistician, that is.

    04/16/2015 at 5:48 PM #85178
    ncsu1987
    Participant

    ^I’d pay money for a pic of Mr. Dog, mechanical pencil in hand, do rag around his head, searching in vain for the old green engineering grid pad on the desk in front of him….”A graph, a graph, my tomatoes for a graph…”

    Anybody else want some of that action?

    BUT, I will not give him the even money on the bet he suggested earlier in the thread. I like my money too much…

    04/16/2015 at 5:54 PM #85179
    Fastback68
    Participant
    TheCOWDOG wrote:

    Wolfpack ish kabible.

    I have no problem taking even money on a 2016 ACCT double bye.

    I have no problem with paying you a grand for a State double bye. Since I don’t have a garden, you’ll have to accept cash money. No maters, okra, peppers or taters.

    Gott has a rabbit farm btw.

    04/16/2015 at 5:55 PM #85180
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    ^Hahaha, my thoughts exactly before I scrolled to see your reply 87. 🙂

    04/16/2015 at 6:28 PM #85181
    ncsu_kappa
    Participant

    The sky isn’t falling and this signing period isn’t over yet. Our past has stung us all bad and I think that evidence is coming out on this board and Trevor Lacey’s twitter feed.

    Gott hasn’t only offered 5* recruits this year. If you think that you really haven’t paid attention to our recruiting as the year has gone on. We just happened to have missed on a lot of kids. He even extended offers well into this basketball season and as the high school season ended. We just didn’t convert. Its not the end of the world yet.

    Losing KW sucks. TL was one of the best players in the ACC so not having him sucks but guys people make the best decisions for their lives. Who knows how many guards are declaring next year?

    I say this to say, due to consistency and playing together I had higher expectations with only one new key piece being added to the team. I hate relying on unknowns because they can turn out like Lacey did or like Rodney Purvis.

    Now, we need to wait and see what Gott brings in over the next few weeks. Even if that turns out to be nothing. I have a hard time understanding the the extent of the pessimism here. Its like you guys want to forfeit the games before they are played and fire the coach before his next class arrives in ’16.

    I’ll trust Gott until our performance on the court tells me we shouldn’t.

    04/16/2015 at 6:33 PM #85182
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    LOL boys. See…as long as Gott keeps his rabbits out of my patch, we’re good.

    You may take it any which way you want, but so far…no prob.

    ’87, I swear, the theme is so redundant, from the same people, I could do it with telepathathy and auto -write!

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