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How this process works
NBA rules reward players selected in the first round of the draft (30 players) with a guaranteed 3-year contract. The guarantee basically means that the player is guaranteed to be paid for all 3 years of his contract regardless of injuries or performance. Guys selected after the 1st round receive no such guarantee and face much lesser chances of making an NBA roster because teams aren’t invested in them. Therefore, the “first round guarantee” has long been a cutoff for underclassmen considering the draft and then for those that decide to “test the waters” (declaring for the draft without hiring an agent to retain college eligibility). NBA teams hold workouts and then give feedback, which contributes to the players’ final decisions.
NCAA Rules dictate that college players may declare for the draft without an agent ONCE in their college careers without impacting their college athletic eligibility. Essentially they get one “do-over” in the draft process – as long as they don’t hire an agent and they withdraw their name 10 days prior to the draft. So given this one-time opportunity to “test the waters”, it certainly makes sense for someone like Scottie to do it. In fact, I don’t know why all juniors with realistic NBA aspirations don’t test the waters – there is literally nothing to lose. You get to go work out for NBA teams and get critiqued by some of the best experts in the sport – if you can impress a team enough to be a 1st round pick, you just set yourself up financially for the rest of your life (we are talking millions of dollars here). If you get negative feedback, at least you can head back to college knowing what you need to work on and you have that experience to draw from when you come back for next year’s draft workouts.
Scottie's’ situation
In addition to the fact that it makes sense for juniors to test the waters, in Scottie’s case, his stock will never be higher than it is right now. He is coming off tons of exposure from a Final Four run and a game-winning buzzer beater that everyone in the sport saw over and over again. Even if he has every intention of coming back to Villanova next year, it would be dumb not to test the waters now to get additional exposure with NBA teams, get expert advice on his game and get the experience for next year. That is why I am not surprised at this decision. And if he does want to play in the NBA right now and gets that first-round guaranteed contract, you can’t really blame him. That said, right now he is not projected as a first round pick and unless he has some amazing workouts, I expect to see him in a Villanova uniform next year.
Finally, for all of you who are upset by Scottie’s decision, I have 3 comments:
1. Not only does Scottie have Jay Wright’s full support, but the word is that as much as Jay wants Scottie back to lead next year’s team, he actually encouraged him to explore this option. Most people forget that Randy Foye did this too after his junior year and it paid huge dividends both in his senior year performance and in making him a 1st round pick a year later.
2. I find it perplexing that people are angry at Scottie for this. First of all, how many of you would have turned down the opportunity to earn millions of dollars after your junior year of college? Second, Scottie may not be the best player in recent Villanova history but he is probably the most important. Landing him at the last minute in the spring of 2006 was a huge blessing for this program. Without him we were likely looking at 2 straight years of the NIT after the departures of Foye, Ray and Lowry and probably would have had trouble attracting top recruits. Instead, we have a streak of 5 straight NCAA tournaments including 4 Sweet 16s, a Final Four and the top recruiting class in the country as a result. Scottie is directly responsible for a large part of that success, so whatever he decides, we as fans should be grateful for his major contributions to the program.
3. No matter what Scottie ultimately decides, the program is in great shape. With Scottie back, we are a Top 10 team next year with a great senior leader. Without him, we are a young Top 25 team with multiple scoring options led by the Coreys and an extremely talented freshman class.
