Every year, the NBA Draft fulfills the dreams and desires of 60 young men from around the world, who finally get their shot to prove their worth as an NBA player. Unfortunately, there are many, many more young men whose dreams were dashed.
Some are seniors who will, in all likelihood, go abroad to try and make their professional basketball aspirations a reality. Others were college underclassmen who, for one reason or another, declared themselves eligible for a draft that had no use for them, in the end.
Here are the top five worst underclassmen declarations of the year.
1.) Christian Wood, UNLV
Of all five, Wood is the one that surprised the most people by not hearing his name called. Some experts projected him in the first round on talent alone, but there were enough questions about his work ethic, character, and mental capacity to pick up the NBA game that every single team passed on the chance to work with him.
2.) Michael Qualls, Arkansas
A freak athlete, but not skilled enough to be an NBA player. Many have speculated that Qualls didn’t fully expect to be drafted last night, rather that he was simply ready to pursue professional basketball as a whole in order to help support his family. If that truly is the case, than he doesn’t deserve to be on this list and we wish him the best. Still, since we don’t know for sure what kind of advice he received, this was truly a perplexing decision.
3.) Brandon Ashley, Arizona
Ashley looks like the exact same player he was as an 18-year-old high school senior. He’s skilled, but not athletic and quite undersized for his position. Therefore, it didn’t make the most sense for him to leave Arizona, where he could have been a major piece for Sean Miller next season.
4.) Aaron Harrison, Kentucky
Ah, the less regarded of the Harrison twins. While he watched his brother Andrew get called on draft night, Aaron’s erratic play and inconsistent effort made this situation a likely reality long before draft night. Now, Kentucky may not have had room for him next season, but I’m sure Calipari could have worked something out if Harrison had made the choice to stay.
5.) Cliff Alexander, Kansas
This is the most tricky of all five, because Alexander was likely to be deemed ineligible by the NCAA for his sophomore year. But, the thing is, if you know that as a player and family, how do you not do everything in your power to put on the best workouts possible for NBA teams? Alexander was a dud at the combine and a dud at private workouts, looking slow and disinterested at times.
