Word on the Street: Brandan Wright Declaring on Monday
Brandan Wright Entering
North Carolina freshman Brandan Wright will be announcing his intentions to enter the NBA draft on Monday, multiple sources told DraftExpress Saturday evening.
Wright had been going back and forth on whether to declare or not for the past few weeks, but finally decided to put his name in the draft after meeting with Roy Williams this weekend and being urged by the North Carolina head coach himself to not pass up the opportunity of being a top 5 pick.
Wright’s next move will be to hire an agent.
Who’s left?
With Wright in the draft, there are now only a handful of first round prospects who still haven’t announced their decision. And although things could still go in either direction, this is a snapshot of what things look like according to the people we’ve spoken to over the past few days.
Thaddeus Young- After initially appearing to be a lock to enter the draft just a few weeks ago, Young now seems to be wavering on his decision, for two reasons. The unexpected entries of Julian Wright and Nicolas Batum puts two small forwards who will certainly be taken ahead of him in his way, and the subsequent feedback Young and his uncle have received has not been as encouraging as first thought. Young is currently projected by most NBA teams as a late first round pick, which is shaky ground to be on when considering the volatility of the NBA draft. That could very well be enough to send him back to Georgia Tech for his sophomore year .
Javaris Crittenton- While Young seems to be leaning towards returning, Javaris Crittenton has become a lot more likely to enter the draft since the last update we posted on his situation. A final decision won’t come until sometime next week, but if we had to bet based off everything we’re hearing, we’d say that Javaris Crittenton is in.
Brandon Rush- As Gary Bedore of the Lawrence Journal World has been reporting, Rush is still waiting to see who else enters before he makes his decision on whether to burn his lone draft card. Speaking of Kansas players, Darrell Arthur will be returning from what we’ve been told, even though no official announcement has been made.
Rodney Stuckey- Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Stuckey will be filing his paperwork to enter the draft last Friday, but we still haven’t heard any official announcement. Still, it’s been widely assumed by everyone we’ve spoken to that Stuckey will surely be in the draft, and he’s already reportedly been interviewing agents in case he decides to keep his name in.
Chris Lofton- Dan Farkas of Knoxville NBC affiliate WBIR quoted Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl saying that Chris Lofton will "most likely return" to Tennessee for his senior year. While it’s odd that a player of Lofton’s stature wouldn’t at least test the waters this year to go through the draft process once and get a feel of what things will be like following his senior year, this certainly sounds like good news for Bruce Pearl.
Sean Williams- According to sources we’ve spoken to, Williams is in the process of interviewing agents right now and will certainly be in this year’s draft. Not making a public announcement on his intentions until he gets some professional help on the PR side of things seems to make plenty of sense.
James Davis- The talented, but often out of shape Davis hasn’t made any formal announcement on what he will doing as of right now, but family hardship makes it likely that he will at least put his name in.
Hasheem Thabeet- He’s in…he’s out…he’s back in…he’s back out…it doesn’t seem like anyone knows at this point what is going on anymore. UConn did lose out on Thabeet’s potential replacement, 6-11 big man Anthony McLain, who decided to sign with Cincinnati.
Agent Signings
The process seems to be going quite a bit slower this year in terms of players deciding who to select to represent them, as the fact that no workouts can be conducted until June 6th means that there really isn’t a huge rush to sign. With that said, we’ve still heard about a good amount of players who have made up their mind. Including:
Kevin Durant—Aaron Goodwin
Nick Young-- Aaron Mintz/Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
Aaron Gray—Justin Zanik/Andy Miller (ASM Sports)
Jared Dudley- Aaron Mintz/Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
Alando Tucker—Bill Duffy (BDA Sports)
Morris Almond—Lon Babby (Williams & Connolly)
Arron Afflalo—Sam Goldfeder (Excel Sports Management)
Kyle Visser-- Lance Young (Octagon)
Herbert Hill-- Bill Duffy (BDA Sports)
Russell Carter—Bill Strickland/Kim Grillier (Blue Equity)
Wilson Chandler—Chris Grier Luchey (CGL Sports)
Trey Johnson-- Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
Demetris Nichols-- Bill Duffy (BDA Sports)
J.R. Reynolds—Jason Levien (Levien Sports)
Bobby Brown-- Aaron Mintz/Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
Jermareo Davidson—Andy Miller (ASM Sports)
Darryl Watkins-- Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
Ron Lewis-- Jason Levien (Levien Sports)
DaShaun Wood-- Bill Strickland/Kim Grillier (Blue Equity)
Mustafa Shakur—Leon Rose (CAA)
Rashad Jones-Jennings - Leon Rose (CAA)
Jared Jordan—Bill Duffy (BDA Sports)
D.J. Strawberry—Bill Duffy (BDA Sports)
Just like last year, we’ll be putting together our agent listings sometime next week, so please do email us (using the link below) to notify us of signings we haven’t covered yet or to correct us if we’re wrong on anything.
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