Obliquely Warriors-related... Note that Taft got cut by the NBDL team
he was trying to comeback with. -AL
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SFGate
NBA draft calls, but just who should answer?
Jake Curtis, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 12, 2008
(05-11) 21:22 PDT --
Stay or go? The stories of Chris Taft and Brandon Roy show how weighty
the decision is.
Most of the 69 college players who applied for early entry into the
NBA draft have not signed with an agent and have until June 16 to
withdraw.
Should a player like Cal sophomore Ryan Anderson stay in, knowing the
possibility for a million-dollar contract could disappear if he delays
a year? Cal's Devon Hardin might have been drafted in the first round
last year, but looks like a second-rounder now.
Or should Anderson return to school, noting what happened to Taft and
Roy.
Taft was expected to be a lottery pick when he entered the 2005 draft
following his sophomore year at Pittsburgh. But questions about his
motivation just before the draft sent his stock plummeting. The
Warriors chose him 12 picks into the second round and paid him
$423,000 his rookie season. He hurt his back that summer, had surgery
in January, and was waived by the Warriors before the start of the
2006-07 season. This past season, he was waived by the Rio Grande
Valley Vipers of the NBA Development League.
Roy, the Trail Blazers' guard, declared for the draft out of high
school, but withdrew his name and took the SAT four times to become
eligible to play at Wa****ngton. He debated turning pro after each
season but stayed in school all four years. He ended up being the No.
6 overall pick and signed for $2.68 million his first year.
Some of the potential winners and losers among the players and college
teams whose future is at stake in this season of draft decisions:
The tough choices: Anderson is in that nerve-racking group that
includes Mario Chalmers of Kansas, J.J. Hickson of North Carolina
State and Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington of North Carolina, among
others, who could go late in the first round but might drop into the
second.
The surprising choices: The most unexpected decision was that of point
guard Darren Collison, who chose to return to UCLA for his senior
year. He was projected to be a low first-round pick this year, and,
with his slight build, has little chance to improve that status
significantly next year. Plus, UCLA has two McDonald's All-American
guards (Malcolm Lee and Jrue Holiday) coming next season. Maybe
getting overpowered by Memphis' Derrick Rose in the NCAA semifinals
had something to do with it, or maybe Collison is in college for all
the right reasons.
The questionable choices: It's bad form to criticize anyone for
staying in school, but Oklahoma freshman Blake Griffin and Georgetown
sophomore Hasheem Thabeet might have been lottery picks this year.
Which team will be hurt most? Every starter from the two teams in the
NCAA final - Kansas and Memphis - will be gone next season if all
early entrants stay in the draft. The Pac-10 could lose up to nine
early entrants in the first round of the draft. Meanwhile, the Big
East will lose no more than two early entrants in the first round, and
might not lose any.
Proof that production is not the key: Texas A&M freshman center
DeAndre Jordan was not a starter in the postseason, playing only five
minutes in one NCAA Tournament game and 15 in the other, yet is
expected to be a lottery pick in the NBA draft.
The dilemma: Coaches with players who have not decided whether to turn
pro are left not knowing what they have for next season. For
recruiting purposes, Cal's Mike Montgomery says he's operating on the
assumption that Anderson will be back next season and will be gone
after his junior year. So he is recruiting to replace Anderson after
next season. The point is, if Anderson does leave this year, there
probably will be no one available at this late date who would be worth
signing anyway.
Montgomery had a unique situation in 2001 at Stanford, when Jason
Collins had graduated, but, because injuries, had two seasons of
eligibility left. Montgomery had a good chance to sign Emeka Okafor
that spring if Collins had declared definitively that he was turning
pro, thus making a scholar****p available. But, at that point, no
Stanford player had ever left before his eligibility had expired, so
Montgomery waited it out while Collins decided. Okafor did not want to
wait, so he signed with Connecticut, and Collins ultimately stayed in
the draft and was taken in the first round.
Bay Area upheaval
Let's say you left for vacation on March 23. Cal, under Ben Braun, had
just beaten New Mexico in the first round of the NIT, and Stanford,
coached by Trent Johnson, had just advanced to the third round of the
NCAA Tournament. You return home April 28, and a friend says, "By the
way, Ben Braun is now the coach at Rice, Trent Johnson is at LSU, Mike
Montgomery is the coach at Cal, Johnny Dawkins is at Stanford and Rex
Walters is coaching USF."
You wait for the punch line. None comes.
The kicker is that Randy Bennett, the one guy you figured might be
gone, is still at St. Mary's.
Coming and going
When schools change coaches, it often causes recruits to rethink their
commitments. Cal lost Garrett Sim to Oregon, Stanford lost Miles
Plumlee to Duke, and LSU's Johnson might lose highly touted center
J'Mison Morgan, who, according to re****ts from Louisiana, requested
his release with the intention of going to UCLA instead. That would
make the Bruins' recruiting class, already rated the nation's best by
several recruiting services, even stronger.
E-mail Jake Curtis at jcurtis@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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