Who Made Good and Bad Decisions at the NBA Draft Deadline?

At long last, we can start making projections for the 2016-17 men’s college basketball season without repeatedly typing “if (insert important player mulling NBA draft decision) returns.”

But before we start churning out updated still-way-too-early Top 25 rankings and bracket projections, let’s take a moment to reflect on the past month and decide which players made the best and worst draft decisions.

First and foremost, this entire process was a fantastic joint decision by the NCAA and NBA. I had my doubts about how well it would work—and it wasn’t much fun trying to keep track of who’s in and who’s out while writing prediction pieces that were obsolete by the time they published—but the market wasn’t too flooded, and the vast majority of players who used the extra month to make a decision did so wisely.

Some made better calls than others, though.

 

Best Decision to Remain in NBA Draft: Malachi Richardson

Those of us who haven’t dedicated our lives to watching college basketball through the lens of an NBA draft scout have a tendency to overreact to the small sample size that is the NCAA tournament.

Did Isaiah Whitehead’s stock drop by shooting 4-of-24 from the field in his only tournament game? Perhaps a little, but NBA scouts have been evaluating him since high school—that one game was a small fraction of a percentage of the data they have on him. Conversely, DeAndre Daniels had an incredible three weeks during Connecticut’s 2014 championship run, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the inconsistent effort he displayed in his first three collegiate seasons. He’s still trying to break into the NBA.

For the most part, the tournament simply doesn’t affect draft stock. But there’s usually one big exception to that rule, and despite Jim Boeheim’s disdain for mock drafts, Malachi Richardson was that guy this year.

Prior to the tournament, Richardson wasn’t even on the radar. B/R’s Jonathan Wasserman posted a full two-round projection of the draft the day before the tournament began, and Syracuse’s only representation on that list was Michael Gbinije at No. 52.

Then Richardson single-handedly fueled Syracuse’s unbelievable comeback win over Virginia in the Elite Eight, and a star was born.

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It wasn’t the first time that Richardson wowed us. Hell, it wasn’t even the first time he impressed against the Cavaliers, as his 23 points in that win matched a career high that he set against UVA back in January. But it was impossible not to notice and admire the combination of the stakes, his confidence/swagger and the way he completely sucked the life out of one of the best and most veteran teams in the country.

And once the scouts started looking, they couldn’t turn away. Richardson was one of the darlings of the draft combine earlier this month and is now a projected mid-first round pick by seemingly every mock drafter under the sun.

“Actually being able to go through this process, it’s helping,” Richardson told Wasserman. “I’m being able to figure out different things that I probably wouldn’t have figured out right after the Final Four.”

Moreover, we feel Richardson made the right choice because it’s hard to imagine his draft stock climbing any higher in future years.

Had he returned to Syracuse, he would have been the alpha dog with the potential to climb up into the 2017 lottery with a strong season. But for a guy who shot 37.0 percent from the field and committed more than his fair share of turnovers, it’s probably for the best that he’s going to get that paper now rather than risking exposing more flaws in his game and dropping out of the projected first round altogether.

 

Honorable Mention: Cheick Diallo

My latest NBA Mock Draft for @CBSSports has Boston taking Jamal Murray, Domantas Sabonis and Cheick Diallo.MOCK: https://t.co/dCukwO6vsZ

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) May 18, 2016

Eligibility issues kept Cheick Diallo from playing in Kansas’ first five games, and by the time he was able to step foot on the court, Bill Self had already moved on to other options.

In the limited minutes he did play, though, Diallo competed with the tenacity of a junkyard dog, averaging 16.0 points, 13.5 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per 40 minutes.

Kansas fans may feel like he’s identical to Cliff Alexander, playing one abridged season before leaving for the draft. However, NBA scouts seem to want Diallo more than they wanted Alexander (who went undrafted), as Diallo is still projected to go late in the first round. And with the Jayhawks already overflowing in frontcourt depth for the 2016-17 season, there’s no point in Diallo giving that up to get one year older while potentially spending most of his time on the bench once again.

 

Worst Decision to Remain in NBA Draft: Nikola Jovanovic

I hate this category, because I don’t know the family/financial situations that these players are juggling. Some have parents or are parents who can’t afford to keep playing basketball for no income. Others—like Trevor Lacey last year—are self-aware enough to realize that getting one year older in college isn’t going to help their marketability, so they choose to explore their options overseas as soon as possible rather than hitting life’s snooze button for another year.

But Nikola Jovanovic announced on Instagram his decision to remain in this year’s draft by saying, “Playing in the NBA has been my dream and I couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to start my professional career.”

Has he ever checked a mock draft? At any point on any site in the past few months, can you recall Jovanovic listed as a possible draft pick?

Neither NBADraft.net’s Aran Smith nor ESPN’s Chad Ford currently has Jovanovic on his top 100 big board. Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports had Jovanovic ranked No. 73 of the 105 underclassmen to initially declare for the draft—meaning that even if seniors and international players were ineligible to be drafted, Jovanovic still wouldn’t be worth a pick.

Again, I don’t know his personal situation, but to state that you’re pursuing your dream to play in the NBA in the face of a ton of evidence to suggest it isn’t going to happen seems like a strange decision.

Worse yet, Jovanovic was one of the handful of …

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