APRIL 27TH: UCLA coach Steve Alford has confirmed that Adams informed him that he will enter this year’s NBA draft, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
APRIL 26TH: Adams has had a change of heart and will enter this year’s draft, as he tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports heard from a source earlier this evening that Adams had altered course and had decided to turn pro. Wojnarowski speculates that the decision of Kentucky guards Andrew Harrison and Aaron Harrison to stay in school helped sway Adams, since the absence of the twins thinned the crop of shooting guards in the draft.
APRIL 17TH: UCLA sophomore Jordan Adams will return to school for his junior year instead of entering the 2014 NBA draft, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com confirms the news. There’s wide disparity on Adams, the No. 27 prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him 51st.
Adams entertained the idea of declaring for the draft, Goodman writes, but elected not to follow teammates Kyle Anderson and Zach LaVine to the NBA for now. Adams shared the perimeter with those two, improving from a subpar three-point shooter to a slightly above average one this season as he averaged 17.4 points and 5.3 rebounds. The talented Bruins advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
The 19-year-old compiled an impressive 2.6 steals per game, but his defense has otherwise been perhaps his greatest weakness during his college career, so teams will look for improvement in that area between now and the 2015 draft.