Wisconsin junior Sam Dekker hasn't decided whether he will declare for the 2015 NBA draft, but that hasn't stopped draft experts from analyzing his game. One expert believes Dekker's inconsistency will make him a late-round pick, while Kentucky brothers Andrew and Aaron Harrison could go undrafted.
Dekker remains undecided about next year, but his performance during the NCAA Tournament - for the most part - has helped his draft stock in the eyes of NBA scouts. The biggest knock on Dekker, however, apparently is his inconsistency.
"Overall, the tournament helped him. No question. (But) the title game did ... give ammunition to many scouts who felt that he was being overrated based on some hot shooting in the tournament," ESPN's Chad Ford wrote Wednesday. "What we saw in the title game, we've seen before from Dekker. When he plays with swagger and he's hitting his jumpers, he looks like a Top 10 pick. But there are times when he doesn't do either - too many times.
"He's closer to a 32 percent three point shooter than a 50 percent one. And his annoying tendency to go entire games without getting to the line has scouts worried. But his size, toughness and potential were also on full display and at the end of the day, I think he moved from a 17 to 25 guy up to a 13 to 20 guy. Not a huge bump, but a bump nonetheless.
Ford went on to say Dekker moved from a late first-round pick to a mid first-round, likely off the board between the 13th and 20thh selection.
While Dekker continues to weigh his options for next year, the Harrison brothers are expected to come out any day now to announce their decision to declare for the draft. Kentucky coach John Calipari may believe Andrew and Aaron are first-round material, but few if any draft experts agree. ESPN and DraftExpress.com don't have either brother going in the first round, and Ford raised the possibility that one of the brothers may not even be drafted at all.
"Andrew Harrison probably gets drafted. I doubt it's in the first round like Coach Cal believes. If he does, then there are teams out there that have secretly loved him all year and have kept it super quiet," Ford wrote. "Aaron struggled to shoot it with accuracy all year. It's the only thing he really brings to the table from an NBA standpoint. I think he's second round to undrafted. And after the second half of the title game, when both twins went into hero ball mode, whatever good they did earlier in the tournament was erased.
"The lasting memory is of airballs and shot clock violations and the inability to get it to Karl Anthony Towns."
Earlier in the week Calipari said he expected Aaron, Andrew, Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein and Trey Lyles to declare, and he listed Dakari Johnson and Devin Booker as maybes. As for the comments by Calipari that Ford mentioned, the Wildcats coach believes both brothers will improve their stocks enough in the time leading up to the draft to become first-round picks.
"I believe they will be when you get the workouts and the interviews and you see their size and their athleticism and all that - when you meet them and say, 'Those are two of the greatest kids; where did all this other stuff come from? Where's this narrative? It's not true,' " Calipari told USA Today. "And then I think what'll happen is they'll both be in the first round. But even if they're not, it'll be shortly thereafter. ... There's so many variables, but I would be surprised if both of them weren't first-round picks."
The NBA draft is on June 25.
