Tuesday, April 8, 10:49pm: Warren’s decision was announced in an official statement from the school today, per Aaron Beard of The Associated Press.
March 24, 1:11pm: North Carolina State forward T.J. Warren has decided to enter the draft, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The sophomore will make a formal announcement in the next few days, according to Wojnarowski. Warren is rated 18th on Jonathan Givony’s list for DraftExpress, while he checks in 20th on Chad Ford’s Insider-only ESPN.com rankings.
Ford and Givony both acknowledge Warren, at 6’8″, is something of a tweener, but he’s had no trouble scoring this season, racking up 24.9 points in 35.4 minutes per game. He increased his ratio of three-point to two-point attempts after going 14 for 27 from behind the arc as a freshman, but that small sample size didn’t carry over to this season, when he shot an abysmal 26.7% on 3.3 three-point looks per contest.
Warren picked the hometown choice for college, so he’ll have to make an adjustment as he leaves the confines of North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area to play in the NBA. The Wolfpack lost Thursday in the NCAA tournament, so his collegiate career appears to be over, unless he withdraws before the deadline. It doesn’t appear likely he’ll change his mind, as he’s already meeting with agents, Wojnarowski notes. A player may not return to college once he signs with an agent.