BigGargamel wrote:But if I'm an NBA scout, I would want no part of a guy who hangs out in college until he's 24. I want to draft someone who isn't scared of top competition. Thomas Haugh could have easily been a first round pick. It's cool he wants to hang out with his friends and beat up on 18 year olds and get paid for another year, but he's off my draft board now.
I don't think that this is meaningful at all, that it even follows that a guy "hanging out in college until he's 24" is "scared of top competition", and strongly disagree with the idea you express in the reply. The way I see it, it's a fact that there are going to be plenty of good, draftable players who follow Haugh's path (and they already are plenty who have done this, like Zach Edey, Yaxel Lendeborg this year, and pretty much anybody who returns to school after having been mocked in a first round the year prior, which there are several drafted in the first round every year). They are just making what they see to be the best choice for them based on the feedback which they have been receiving and their lives. In fact, I think it's good for the sport, college basketball, and the development routes of players that they stay in college longer instead of being shunted into the "one-and-done" path with high levels of booming and busting.
Removing them all from your draft board is a mistake. What distinguishes what Yaxel Lendeborg and Labaron Philon, Jr.* did this year from what Haugh has done anyway? Are you gonna have either of them on your draft board?
*Especially him, who was in a very similar situation as a projected first round pick before the 2025 NBA Draft
