LSU freshman big man Naz Reid is expected to declare for the draft, Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com reports. The 6’10” Reid averaged 13.7 PPG and 7.2 RPG for the Tigers, who were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Michigan State on Friday.
“Yeah, we’re expecting to lose him,” LSU assistant Greg Heiar told Zagoria. “If you’re a top-20 pick in the draft, you need to go.”
Reid has some work to do to reach that status. He’s rated No. 48 overall on ESPN’s Jonathan Givony’s list of the top 100 prospects. Reid told Zagoria that he would “think things over” in the next few weeks before making a final decision (Twitter link).
We have more draft news:
- William & Mary 6’10” junior Nathan Knight has declared for the draft but will leave open the possibility of returning to college, Jeff Goodman of ESPN tweets. Knight averaged 21.0 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 3.5 APG this season.
- Louisville center Steven Enoch will test the draft waters, Jeff Greer of The Athletic tweets. The 6’10” junior transfer from the University of Connecticut averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 34 games this season.
- Washington State freshman CJ Elleby, who broke Klay Thompson‘s freshman scoring record, will enter his name into the draft pool. “I will use the new NCAA rule allowing me to have representation while maintaining my college eligibility,” he told ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony (Twitter link). The 6’6” swingman averaged 14.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG and 3.0 APG this season.
I’m all for trying to make your money and all, but when there are only 30 guaranteed 2 year contracts available for incoming draftees. When you are ranked #48, you really might want to consider returning to school and improving. And possibly setting yourself up a safety net in case pro ball doesn’t work out.
Look at the example of PJ Washington of Kentucky. Last year, he was probably around the #48 prospect and would have probably been picked in the late 2nd. Instead he went back to school and became a beast. Now he is projected to be a mid 1st round pick with guaranteed money coming his way. Yeah he could have gone to the G League and made about $25,000 immediately, but I think the extra millions he will likely get through his improvement is worth that “unpaid” year.
Yeah, but if he comes back next year and blows out an ACL in December, he’s probably forfeiting that $25K or more he could get if he entered the draft now. It’s all risk vs. reward, and you can’t blame Naz for just taking the cash and pushing off the further development that he needs in order to be a viable rotation candidate for an NBA team until later.
But if he blew out the ACL in December after he declared, the NBA team would likely release him and he would get the majority of that $25k AND he would lose his free education. You have a far better chance of improving at the college level where a vast majority of your opponents are not up to your skill level and you are almost guaranteed a lot of playing time. In the G League where every player is as good as you and you are not going to be given as much of a chance to learn and improve on the court as in college.
The G League is great for players that don’t have the option of college ball anymore, but if you can get the safety net of college, why would pass it up for basically the salary of a clerk at Wal Mart?
Does actually a college education guarantee a job? Not to my knowledge, know plenty of graduates working as garbage collectors, mailman, walmart clerks… Know of a few millionaires that even owned pro franchises that never went to college… just saying…
You do realize that garbage collectors, mailman, and walmart clerks ARE jobs, right? There are no guarantees on anything in life, but you can give yourself options and safety nets by making certain choices.
The key word in your argument is FEW. There are a few millionaires that didn’t go to college and there are a few broke college graduates. However, virtually every study ever done shows that the average college graduate makes a LOT more over the course of a career than the average high school graduate. When you are making as big a decision as the quality of your life, I’d focus on the best chance instead of the outlying chance. Sure you could invent a product that the world can’t live without or win the Powerball lottery, but you are far more likely to not do that. Having faith in yourself is fine, but having faith in yourself without putting in the effort to improve yourself is just foolish.
It won’t guarantee you a job, but if you use sentences like “Does actually a college education guarantee a job?” on your resume, that’ll guarantee you not getting a job.
I’m not a grammar policeman by any means, but if you are going to argue against higher education, maybe try to write more intelligently.