2:31pm: Dunn confirmed the news to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com, adding that he’ll hire an agent.
12:37pm: Providence junior point guard Kris Dunn will enter the NBA draft, sources said to Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com. It’s unclear whether Dunn has plans to immediately hire an agent, but if he holds off, he can withdraw from the draft at anytime until May 25th, 10 days after the end of the draft combine. It nonetheless seems unlikely he’d go back for his senior season, since he’s projected as a top-10 pick. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him at No. 5 in his rankings, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com lists him seventh.
Dunn improved his stock from last year, when he was projected to go in the middle of the first round but decided to stay at Providence instead. The 6’4″ 22-year-old won a second straight Big East Player of the Year award this season and continued to show improvement from behind the arc, nailing 37.2% of his 3-point looks on 113 attempts. He took only 16 3-pointers in his first two college seasons. His scoring went up to 16.4 points per game from 15.6 last season, though he was less of a distributor this year, with his assists and turnovers both down.
Teams looking for a point guard in the lottery will have to determine whether they like Dunn or Kentucky’s Jamal Murray better. Ford has Murray on top of Dunn while Givony has them reversed. That’s assuming Murray, a freshman, declares for the draft, though that appears to be a likely proposition.
Dunn is the more polished prospect, having begun college ball in 2012/13 as the 20th-ranked prospect coming out of high school. He redshirted the next season because of right shoulder surgery that cost him all but four games.
After having finally seen a little more of Murray, it confirmed my belief that Kris Dunn is definitely the better option as of now, and I think moving forward as well. I think he’ll continue to improve the jumpshot. I think he’ll be an elite facilitator. I think he can improve defensively as well. He really reminds me of a bigger Wade or John Wall. I think he is definitely a top 5 pick. That being said, I still need to see more of Buddy Hield. I haven’t had the chance to see him play. I also never saw Jaylen Brown b/c every time I turned on a Cal game, he happened to be on the bench lol