Rich Paul throws shade at Cal regarding Chris Livingston
- Thread starter Woodsmoke
- Start date
Cal has his flaws and bares some blame. But I hate the victim mentality. He would have been exposed anywhere. He didn’t shoot or defend consistently enough. Some of that is on him.
Sounds like agent talk!
Cal had to talk him out of transfering mid season. Klutch sucks.
I'd be interested in hearing who Rich Paul thinks is a worthy coach that has had multiple 5 star players and never had one go lower in the draft than their recruiting ranking. Doesn't exist. Notice how when he was describing Livingston he mentioned 0 basketball skills. How many teams are drafting 6'6 small ball 4s (who think they're a 2G) that aren't elite at any one thing in the lottery?
I'm siding with Cal on this one. He could not do anything well and followed up by not working his ass off and then leaving early. Rich Paul is confusing physical skills and basketball skills, which is something Cal did in abundance.
Agree. Maybe Livingston bears some of the responsibility and blame, and not a coach he played about 8 months with in college.
Kid just wasn’t as advertised. I’ll defend Cal there, he was super loyal to Livingston but he needed to be a 4. I think juice disagreed.
Forgot he even played for UK.
Kentucky Effect.
Kentucky Effect.
I can’t blame him for trying to sell the public on his client.I disagree with him though .
Also this confirms what many have said about the Klutch and Cal relationship regarding certain players .
Also this confirms what many have said about the Klutch and Cal relationship regarding certain players .
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He wasn’t as advertised but he was literally As Seen On TV. He had an NBA build and that’s it.
Talks about accountability but never once mentions that Livingston should have took some as well. Not performing like you want? Get your arse in the gym more and practice more. Kids are soft and always want to blame other people for their shortcomings these days. Coming from a 28 year old who hates this generation.
Before he mentioned Livingston he talked about coaches killing a players confidence by the way they talked to them .
Fits exactly what most of this board complained about when it comes to Cal.
Fits exactly what most of this board complained about when it comes to Cal.
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Livingston didn’t have any ball skills, just because he looks the part doesn’t mean he’s ready to be a pro. Now Cal isn’t a great coach, we all know that but the one person responsible for making Chris better, is Chris. We all know Rich Paul isn’t making any players better. That dude would be working at Wendy’s if he wasn’t Lebron’s BFF. He wouldn’t even be an agent had they not altered the rules for him.
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Livingston would have been a great 4 year player. Guy like that under Hurley would be a beast. He was a solid rebounder. Just needed to work on his handle.
Good riddance to those types of players and their handlers, what a nightmare. No mention of team or personal accountability. He was ranked 12th in HS because he was built like a 25 year old NBA player playing against 16 year olds.
It's really not hard to see this stuff. Some types just refuse to see it.
Sounds to me like someone has been pampered all his life or it could be he just needed more time or he just didn’t have the talent to begin with. I don’t know, but was he an early bloomer who used his body to bully his opponent until he got in college and failed when he had to play others who were just as big and quick?
Don't like calipari but i loathe paul. He's a POS who shouldn't be in the position in life that he's at all from hanging off brons beanbag.
Yep. Like you, I grew so sick of this type of player and what this program had become. Thank God for Arkansas so we could get a brand revamp.
I guess I’m gonna have to take up for Paul for a second then. Calipari has a tendency of misusing the hell out of players. Who’s to say another coach couldn’t have gotten Livingston on better track? I can tell you several right now that would have been better for Livingston. Really about 25 off the top of my head.
This is going to start happening though, you’re seeing more and more become disgruntled with him and I don’t see anyway his recruiting keeps up to the level of UK at Ark. We all saw him constantly misuse players. Paul knows more about it than we do and he feels very confident taking shots at Cal over this.
In any event I’m just glad we no longer have to deal with the circus Calipari brought to this program. It became unbearably bad. I still remember saying Livingston would be overrated and of course, the boos came down. Never thought he was good enough but a perfect example of the type of player Calipari wants on his teams.
This is going to start happening though, you’re seeing more and more become disgruntled with him and I don’t see anyway his recruiting keeps up to the level of UK at Ark. We all saw him constantly misuse players. Paul knows more about it than we do and he feels very confident taking shots at Cal over this.
In any event I’m just glad we no longer have to deal with the circus Calipari brought to this program. It became unbearably bad. I still remember saying Livingston would be overrated and of course, the boos came down. Never thought he was good enough but a perfect example of the type of player Calipari wants on his teams.
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There's definitely some Justin Edwards and Aaron Bradshaw resentments brewing under the surface here as well.
And really it’s not like there’s not merit there. Cal misuses players all the time, there have been plenty of players who would have been better off playing for a real coach. Cal isn’t a real coach.
To play for Calipari you have to be able to handle your own game and grow in it by yourself. The worst was Skal, misused so bad it was unreal. As crazy as it is, he also misused Anthony Davis although he was so good at what he was asked to do it didn’t matter. He misused Dillingham this year too. A lot of players got better in the pros not just because they got older, because they got with a real system. “Go make a play” is not coaching. “Camp in the post Anthony” is not what modern coaches do. And Livingston regressed under Calipari. Completely.
So I’m just saying I get the Livingston and Paul were a pair from hell I never wanted Livingston to begin with. But I think there is merit to what he’s saying. Im sure with a real coach it wouldn’t have been as bad. Maybe wrong but I don’t think we can say for sure.
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I didn’t read all the replies so sorry if I’m stepping on some toes here…
As a vocal Cal critic I don’t lay the failure of Livingston SOLELY at his feet. But he does still share the blame. Cal was his coach for 8-10 months and we saw no improvement from him. If anything, he regressed.
I put most of the blame on Chris. Did not seem like a go getter or self starter (for lack of better words). We never heard how he was the first in the gym or the last out, probably because that wasn’t the case. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter who your coach is, if you aren’t willing to work then you aren’t going to see results- period.
That being said, I do blame Cal for not being able to reach this young man and motivate him to work harder. I’m not sure how you motivate someone who feels entitled but I’m also not paid $9 million a year to figure it out. Cal was, and Cal failed. And not just with Chris but multiple other players as well.
Chris was a lazy, entitled player who chose a lazy, entitled coach. They were, in a way, meant for each other.
As a vocal Cal critic I don’t lay the failure of Livingston SOLELY at his feet. But he does still share the blame. Cal was his coach for 8-10 months and we saw no improvement from him. If anything, he regressed.
I put most of the blame on Chris. Did not seem like a go getter or self starter (for lack of better words). We never heard how he was the first in the gym or the last out, probably because that wasn’t the case. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter who your coach is, if you aren’t willing to work then you aren’t going to see results- period.
That being said, I do blame Cal for not being able to reach this young man and motivate him to work harder. I’m not sure how you motivate someone who feels entitled but I’m also not paid $9 million a year to figure it out. Cal was, and Cal failed. And not just with Chris but multiple other players as well.
Chris was a lazy, entitled player who chose a lazy, entitled coach. They were, in a way, meant for each other.
I’d guess that every coach has multiple players that feel like they were misused at some point though . Especially when recruiting guys that feel like it’s a failure not to be in the NBA after one year .
Kid was a tweener, like Edwards (and Thiero) and that's already a hit to draft stock. Plus any time Calipari had one of those uber athletic kids who were subpar shooters, it seems to always lead to disaster. The problem is that Calipari likes that style of player a whole whole lot. He'd rather outbig you and out athlete you and win by brute force....over and over and over. That's what he has trouble with.
sure. Coach K had players that felt they were misused. But Calipari, on the back end of his contract, seemed to have trouble grooming his players. . Just seems there are a lot of players for Calipari that didn’t improve or improved once they left, a lot of guys that turned into completely different players in the NBA. Look at some of the players that absolutely blew up when they transferred. You’ve got another disgruntled player in Dilly who doesn’t feel Calipari did much for his game either. I can’t even name all of the players that stayed practically the same from start to finish. WCS couldn’t hit layups as a junior lol. Take coach K for example, his players clearly developed. They’d routinely be better at the end of the season compared to the beginning. Cal is not a coach that’s why I do understand where Paul is coming from. I mean, cal couldn’t do anything with Livingsto? I buy it.
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Cal definitely deserves some blame especially the way he coached the last few years .
But you mentioned WCS missing layups as a Junior. The Kid is a 7 footer lol . At what point do we hold some of these kids accountable also ?
But what I’m getting at is to me it just seemed to be a pattern. As I said, look at someone like Coach K ( I refuse to compare Calipari to averag le he’s supposed to be way more than that). His players routinely got better start to finish. It’s a pattern.
Calipari’s for the most part did not and quite the contrary, some of them blew up when they left. Like conference POY blow up or played a completely different style in the NBA. And the examples are countless of misused players. And we know he’s not a good floor coach that much isn’t debatable. So I don’t see why we can’t say with some degree of probability that what Paul is saying has no merit.
I definitely believe blame should go on the players to a certain degree. But isn’t it cals job to get though to them in that regard too?
I actually think Coach K players would more so stall out as the year went on. Where Cals would struggle early and then figure it out come conference play. We have an awful lot of squads who ramped up as the season went on.
But I don't know if that was developing talent as much as it was just getting reps in.
Still, coach K didn't seem to do all that well with his elite 1AD talent. All he really has going for him right now is Tatum and Kyrie (who once again showed how much of a headache his game can be).
In the end.. I think most of this comes down to the player. You either can adapt to the college game or you don't.
So it’s Cals fault Livingston could not dribble in traffic for a wing,
Livingston was a mediocre shooter at best
Livingston was a low bball IQ in terms of anticipation passing etc (you could make a case cal dumbs down play that doesn’t grow a kid mentally)
The last game of season Oscar Wallace and reeves had to do it all as Livingston Toppin would run fron the ball
Rich Paul and about anything lebron js just some of the least well thought out comments you csn come up with
Livingston was a mediocre shooter at best
Livingston was a low bball IQ in terms of anticipation passing etc (you could make a case cal dumbs down play that doesn’t grow a kid mentally)
The last game of season Oscar Wallace and reeves had to do it all as Livingston Toppin would run fron the ball
Rich Paul and about anything lebron js just some of the least well thought out comments you csn come up with
Livingston just straight up wasn’t that good. He could have stayed and worked on his skills but THEY gave him bad advice about leaving. It’s hilarious tho because Cal took a lot of heat for sticking with Chris despite his struggles and this the thanks he gets.
Somewhere, right now, Livingston just bricked a corner 3. He is averaging 1.2 pts, 1.0 reb and 0.2 assists.
Good riddance cal and klutch are gone, klutch players perfectly encapsulate what Kentucky fans saw wrong with the program with fail and bail.
Good riddance cal and klutch are gone, klutch players perfectly encapsulate what Kentucky fans saw wrong with the program with fail and bail.
Whew yea I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about the Duke comments. I could clearly see many of Coach K’s players through the years take huge leaps during the season. Not always but many seemed to. And im no Paul fan that’s for sure, I just don’t think what he’s saying is that crazy here. Livingston was given rope at UK but regressed badly. I personally wouldn’t trust Cal with my players unless they were sure fire NBA guys out of the gate. Any player that needs to be coached up, transformed, or adapted there’s just no way I’d have him playing for Calipari and that’s a lot of what I think Livingston needed.
Personally I never wanted Livingston to begin with. I saw that typical fringe unskilled wanna be NBA guy that cannot contribute in one season but would definitely leave (the Calipari special). I not only wasn’t high on him, I didn’t want him recruited. So really I’m just making a broader point about how I don’t think Paul’s comments here are just totally off the wall even though I can’t stand the guy and would try to stay clear of him.
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