Connecticut junior shooting guard Rodney Purvis will enter this year’s draft but hold off on hiring an agent, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). He’ll be eligible to return to college next year as long as he pulls out of the draft by May 25th and doesn’t hire an agent. The odds are against Purvis hearing his name called on draft night, as he’s just the 198th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress only lists the top 100 in his overall rankings, and Purvis isn’t in those, but Givony pegs the 6’4″ 22-year-old at No. 79 among juniors.
Much was expected of Purvis coming into his college career, as he was No. 17 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index as a high school senior, right behind current Nuggets starting two-guard Gary Harris. Purvis began at North Carolina State in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, but he transferred after the 2012/13 season, his freshman year.
Purvis saw only a negligible increase in minutes in his first season with the Huskies, but he shot about three more times per game with Connecticut than he did with the Wolfpack, leading to higher scoring numbers. He notched 12.8 points per game this season as nearly half his field goal attempts came from behind the arc. He nailed 38.5% of his 3-point looks this season and 37.6% for his college career, so he figures to be at least a fair shooter at the NBA level. Two of his best scoring games of the season came in the NCAA Tournament, when he put up 19 in a first-round win over Colorado and 17 in a loss to top-seeded Kansas, helping erase the memory of the two-point performance he delivered in his only NCAA Tournament game as a freshman.