Ed Davis tweet
Believe it or not that might all come down to Davis’ wrist. Before I go on, I know this story is a way late, which is very ironic since it comes from twitter where everything is so instantenous, but I have to chime in on it. From a tweet Ed Davis told the world, or better said, who follows him on there, that he was getting his cast off three days ago. Another great UNC blog, Tar Heel Fan wrote a nice piece about this, make sure to see what he had to say. I doubt that this news is going to make any difference on what team will play one (hopefully two) games at Madison Square Garden this coming week. Ed Davis’ wrist is nowhere close to being ready to play for head coach Roy Williams, but the real question, the one that probably the young man, his family, coach Williams and the fan base are asking themselves, is the wrist going to be good enough to show up and show off his talents for the NBA scouts?
At first I didn’t think it would matter, since this is Y2K and that means that any video that a team wants of the power foward they can have, heck, you can see plenty of Davis just by going to YouTube. That to me meant that he really didn’t have to go and show what he can or can’t do to the thirty teams. But then I remembered that yes, this is Y2K and just like all the video, the teams might just have gotten all the rumors about Davis not being the greatest of team mate on a squad that wasn’t winning as much as people thought, while these rumors never arose on a team that won it all. Why is this important? Because Davis has always been slotted to be a Top 10 pick, which means he will not be going to a team that wins a lot, but will have to fork out big time money for him.
So, now I am starting to believe that Ed Davis needs to be there and show that he can be a good team mate and that a team can gamble on his broken wrist and rumor filled background. And that is why I wrote this post. Two questions come to mind to me: 1) Will the wrist be ready so that Ed Davis can be out there to prove his worth before the deadline for withdrawing your name (which is exactly six weeks ago), and 2) if he was not to leave, and if the rumors were right about him, would he be able to accept what head coach Roy Williams told him and be a team player?
My gut answer to the first one is yes… and no. Yes, he will have time to show his skills off, but no, he won’t have enough time to show his best (as it takes time to heal from the injury) and he might seem softer than he actually is as an inside player. Would I risk playing with the big boys in try outs with a wrist that isn’t 100%? Would I risk it for my so knowing what I know about playing in the NBA? The answers to both of those questions are no!
The answer, as far as I am concerned, to the second one might just be a lot more complicated than anyone expects. First you have to believe there is a problem with Davis, and that I leave up to each of you to say “yes” or “no”. Now, if you do not believe this skip the rest of the paragraph, if you think there might have been a bit of a problem (or more than just a bit) then this is how I see it. Davis, his father and coach Williams sitting down and discussing that the way Ed is going to be as good as he can be at the next level is by working as hard as possible at this one. That means playing for the name on the front of the jersey and not the one on the back, and the key to all of this has to be his father making sure he is on board and with HC Williams with all of this.
Having said all of this what do I think will happen once the season is over? I truly think that Davis will sit down with his head coach and his family and make a decision on what he will do for the 2010-11 season, with the final vote being “heading to the NBA”. However, I think it won’t be as easy as people believe, and if Davis hadn’t won a title last year, with the talent being in Chapel Hill and the talent coming in, the lure of a Final Four team (or more) could have kept him in college one more year.
