Dave Sez

If I Go There Will Be Trouble

Yesterday I wrote about the NBA draft decisions of Brandan Wright, Sean Singletary and Thaddeus Young. Well, I guess I should have waited a day because as I was typing that up, Javaris Crittenton and James Mays were announcing that they too wanted in on the party.

Like Young and Singletary, Mays and Crittenton say they aren't hiring agents and may yet come back. I hope so. While NBA scouts are certainly interested in young Crittenton, legit 6'5" point guards aren't too common even in the League, he could use a bit more seasoning. No position takes longer to learn than point guard and Crittenton isn't ready yet. He could be special, and Georgia Tech has quite a history of special point guards, so I'd hate to see him rush things.

Mays' decision is even more suspect. While he's a talented player who I could see in the NBA, I don't think too many scouts are paying him any attention. Big, athletic guys like Mays are tempting, but not when they score under 13 points per game. I think Mays would have a slim chance of even being drafted. That kind of gamble just doesn't seem worth it to me.

With all of these underclassmen declaring, or at least testing the waters, it might be useful to look at some projections of where they might go. Now, keep in mind that the guys who do these sites really have little to no inside information. They are guessing like the rest of us, just with a bit more diligence. That said, if you look at them in total, you get a pool of likely draftees that's about 90-95% accurate. Looking at nbadraft.net, Draft Express and Inside Hoops, you can get an idea of how the ACC guys are generally viewed. Brandan Wright is a unanimous top-four selection. Thad Young is in the high teens, Javaris Crittenton is in the late first round and neither Sean Singletary nor James Mays are even projected as draftees. Going by that, I'd say that everyone but Wright should be thinking about what classes they want to take next fall.