Pointless to declare for some who have no chance in draft
The names of the underclassmen who have applied for early entry into the NBA Draft are expected to be officially released later this week, and that list will be longer than Hasheem Thabeet with his arms stretched to the sky.
Also, the list will include Thabeet.
Makes total sense.
Because though the 7-foot-3 shotblocker has some flaws, he's still a 7-foot-3 shotblocker, and 7-foot-3 shotblockers are what we in the business call lottery picks. So I've got no problem with Thabeet applying for early entry -- I'd probably have a problem if he didn't. But some of these other guys have left me scratching (and by scratching, I mean banging) my head, and don't tell me there's no harm in BYU's Jonathan Tavernari or Southern Miss' Jeremy Wise or any other junior in America declaring, because there is also no point.
Seriously, no point whatsoever.
And if there is no point, it shouldn't be done.
Think of it this way: There is no harm in me standing in the corner of my bedroom while wearing a clown's nose and wig for the next two hours. Nobody is home, nobody is on their way home, and with basketball season over, I'm not terribly busy. So I could stand in the corner dressed like a clown for the next two hours, and it really wouldn't hurt a thing.
But what would be the point?
What would I gain?
And that's essentially my problem with some of these guys (among them Hawaii's Roderick Flemings and Miami's Dwayne Collins) -- the way they declare even though they have virtually no chance of getting drafted and will in all likelihood have zero opportunities to make an impression (good or bad) on any NBA franchise, which hasn't always been the case.
• Early entries
Back in the good old days (like last year), the NBA would at least invite marginal prospects to the NBA Pre-Draft Camp, where they would be assigned to a team and allowed to play five-on-five games in front of NBA personnel. Truth be told, the week's developments rarely launched an undraftable prospect into a situation where he might receive guaranteed money, but whatever. The point is that marginal prospects often at least had an opportunity to get matched against an opponent projected to be selected, and if the marginal prospect did well he might become something other than a marginal prospect.
So there was some logic to the madness.
Juniors could declare, give it their best shot (while maintaining their amateur status), then return to school when things didn't go as they hoped, all while accumulating life experiences that may or may not help in the future. I was fine with it. But the NBA has eliminated five-on-five games from the Pre-Draft Camp, meaning there is nowhere for these marginal prospects to go and compete and try to impress. Consequently, they're now reduced to hoping for an invitation to a team workout that will in many cases never come, and so the experience of declaring for the NBA Draft for some of these juniors will consist of nothing more than having their names on a list beside Blake Griffin.
I suppose that's fun on some level.
But again, what's the point?
Might as well apply for the NFL Draft, too, because the odds of being selected for some of these guys are exactly the same in both drafts. Those odds: 0.00 percent. And though many still argue there's no harm in doing it, I say the harm is in what it causes other mediocre prospects to do, because once some mediocre prospect sees an even-more mediocre prospect declare he immediately thinks he must declare, too, because he's absolutely better than that guy. Trust me, it happens. And before you know it, the bulk of Texas A&M's junior class is in the draft, forcing Mark Turgeon to clear office time so he can invite each one in and explain, in the kindest words possible, that he made some phone calls and learned they are more likely to appear on Wheel of Fortune next season than they are an NBA telecast.
If these guys desire feedback, that's the feedback that's coming. And if I know it's coming, and they know it's coming, and the NBA franchises that won't so much as invite them to a team workout know it's coming, then what's point of even filling out the paperwork?
