Virginia Tech junior guard Malcolm Delaney submitted his name for the NBA Draft, hoping to get the feedback he needs to make a smart decision about whether to go pro or to return to Blacksburg, Va., for a final season.
But with a new, shortened period to withdraw his name and return to school, the question now is, does the first-team All-ACC performer have enough time to get that feedback?
Underclassmen such as Delaney can pull their names out of the draft as long as they don't hire agents. But they are not allowed to begin scheduling workouts with NBA teams until after the league releases its official list - which it is expected to do Thursday or Friday (although the deadline was Sunday). Under NCAA rules, underclassmen also are not allowed to miss class time in order to attend those workouts, leaving only weekends to audition before NBA teams.
Because they have only until May 8 to withdraw from the draft - as opposed to June 15 last year - that leaves only this weekend to meet, greet and impress potential pro employers. And that's the best-case scenario, assuming players are even invited to do so.
"So a big question is, in the NBA, are those teams going to have workouts, or just wait and see who will keep their name in draft and work them out from there [after that]?" Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. . "They've talked about having a group workout, but that hasn't materialized."
Although teams might hold individual tryouts, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in an e-mail that the league - which still lists its deadline for underclassmen to pull out as June 14 - has no plans to hold any sort of group workouts for underclassmen. The league's Chicago pre-draft camp is May 20-21, but by then, under NCAA rules, underclassmen have to have made their decisions.
In a move proposed by the ACC, the NCAA opted to move up its deadline by about five weeks in order to shorten the limbo period for college coaches and their teams.
In past years, college coaches felt the NBA's mid-June withdrawal date kept programs waiting too long to learn if they had an extra scholarship, or if they needed to replace a player.
Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting, worries that giving underclassmen less time to meet with teams may rush them into bad decisions.
"It's the first time something like this situation has happened, and it's going to be chaotic," he said, adding that many NBA teams will still be involved in the playoffs next weekend, and none will know where they're even picking in this summer's draft until the draft lottery on May 18. "...A lot of the agents are trying to sign these guys by telling them that there might not be a CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] after next season, that they might lose money. But if you have over 100 early entries, and only the first-round picks are guaranteed money, you're giving a lot of guys a false sense of hope.
"... Now that there's not a whole lot of time for workouts, and less time to make that decision, you worry that more student-athletes will make a mistake. The NBA and the NCAA don't want that."
College coaches, though, pointed out before the rule change that NBA teams constantly scout players during the college season and should already know the players' talents and potential before they declare. The NBA also boasts a nine-person advisory committee that offers underclassmen an informed opinion about where, or whether, they will be drafted. So seven weeks seemed like a long time to wait.
"We needed to condense it," Greenberg said. "I'm just not sure what the exact time period should be."
Former Duke player Gerald Henderson, who went through the seven-week process last summer before he hired an agent and was drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats 12th overall in the first round, doesn't think that shortening the time period is that big of a hardship for players, because "guys start getting information from people way before that."
"... I can see why they would make that rule, just so [coaches] can know - so there isn't such a long period when they don't know anything," Henderson said. "... Anybody who wants to go in the lottery and just has those two days [to work out for teams], I can see where that would be a tough decision. But it helps out the coaches.
"Once a kid makes a commitment to a school, for the most part you're expected to be there for four years.''
Of the seven ACC underclassmen who have declared for the draft, Delaney is the only one who has left open the possibility of his return. North Carolina's Ed Davis, Florida State's Solomon Alabi, Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu, Georgia Tech's Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors, and Virginia's Sylven Landesberg all have indicated plans to hire agents.
Greenberg said that Delaney "is trying to figure out what would be best. He's a guy that's in the gray area ... he's not a lock-down first-rounder or NBA lottery pick like some of the [ACC] players that have declared. He's kind of where Greivis [Vasquez] or Gani Lawal were last season."
Both Maryland's Vasquez, and Georgia Tech's Lawal ultimately decided to return last year.
But then again, "they had longer to make up their minds," Greenberg said.
Charlotte Observer writer Rick Bonnell contributed to this report.
