To the joy of Hoya fans everywhere, Roy Hibbert announced today that he is returning for another season at Georgetown. Putting a bit of a damper on his announcement though, is the fact that teammate Jeff Green announced that he would be staying in the draft. Now of particular interest to me was Hibbert's stated reason for staying in school:
"I said to myself, 'Do I really want to go in the draft and sit on the bench?'"
Wow. An NBA draft candidate making sense? Amazing. The key factor in whether or not a player should enter the NBA draft is not where he will be drafted: complete myth. What a player needs to consider, and Hibbert obviously has, is whether or not he is in the best position to earn a big second paycheck. The NBA's rookie salary scale is not going to pay any of these rookies superstar money. If a player wants to strike it rich on his second deal, he has to be able to get on the court and prove he is worth the money. (See:LeBron, Carmelo, Dwayne) If, as Hibbert pointed out, a prospect is just going to sit on the bench for the first few years he is only going to get a mid level second contract. (See: Patrick O'Bryant, Stromile Swift, Rashad McCants)
In terms of the effect Hibbert's choice has on the upcoming draft, it does shake things up a little bit. Hibbert was the top pure center prospect not named Oden, so the man directly behind Hibbert (Spencer Hawes) just suddenly saw his stock rise. Look for Hawes to go no lower than #11 to the Hawks, and perhaps sooner now that Hibbert is gone.
