Louisville guard Donovan Mitchell will declare for the draft, but won’t hire an agent yet, he tells ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. Without an agent, Mitchell will have the ability to withdraw his name later in the process, retaining his NCAA eligibility.
“I want to see if I can improve my draft stock and I am still not 100% leaving,” Mitchell told Evan Daniels of Scout.com. “I just want to be able to see where I stand in the draft and if I can improve in any way.”
Mitchell took on a more significant role in his sophomore season for Louisville, with his minutes per game increasing from 19.1 to 32.3. For the season, Mitchell averaged 15.6 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.7 APG, and 2.1 SPG. He tells Daniels that he’s happy with his performance, though he believes there’s still room for further growth.
“I think I played well,” Mitchell said. “There are many things I feel I improved on from freshman year. I do feel as though I have other things to work on as well and I will heading into this summer.”
Mitchell’s decision on whether or not to keep his name in the draft may depend on how confident he is that he can be a first-round pick. ESPN’s Chad Ford suggests the 6’3″ shooting guard is probably on the first-round bubble right now, ranking him 29th in his top 100 list. Mitchell comes in at 22nd on DraftExpress.com’s big board.