Posted March 26th, 2006 by Brian
Filed under: Basketball, Draft
PJ Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Daniel Gibson all say they’re coming back (for now)…
Sophomore forward LaMarcus Aldridge, sophomore guard Daniel Gibson and junior forward P.J. Tucker said they plan to come back to Texas next season, although Aldridge didn’t want to spend much time discussing it Saturday.
“As far as I know I’m coming back. But I’m not going to get into that right now,” Aldridge said.
Said Tucker, “I think we’re all coming back right now. I talked to LaMarcus and Daniel, and that’s what they told me.”
Said Gibson, “Right now, I feel like I’ll be back.”
Despite his inconsistency, Aldridge is almost surely a top 5 pick if he comes out this year. The NBA draft is all about potential and LaMarcus certainly has plenty of that. He’d likely improve his all-around game with one more year in college (and the weight room) but I can’t imagine turning down all that money and a chance at your dream career.
As for Gibson, his stock has dropped over the course of the last season and is probably an early second round pick right now. He doesn’t have the size to be an NBA shooting guard but his ball handling troubles lost him the point guard job this year. He definitely needs to spend the offseason working on becoming Texas’ point guard next year so that an NBA team will think about making him their point guard in the 2007 draft.
With Tucker, he’s NBA ready now but the NBA probably doesn’t know it. Just like Gibson, he’s too short for the position he’s best suited for. Listed at 6-foot-5 he’s about three inches too short to be an NBA power forward and an inch shorter than Charles Barkley. PJ is a fantastic basketball player but he’s no Barkley, an all-time great. Right now he’s a late second round pick, if his academics are in order than he’s certainly better served with one more year at UT. He’s not going to get any taller, but a Texas degree would give him an excellent fallback plan. Can he possibly improve his perimeter game and his NBA future with another season?
My guess, Aldridge goes and Tucker and Gibson stay.
reply to #1
Matt
March 27th, 2006 at 8:48 am
I agree, Aldridge definitely needs to hit the weight room and develop some moves that actually attack the basket. But, if you are going to be Top 3 in the NBA draft, there is almost no way you can pass that up.
reply to #2
Bevo Sports » Tucker declares for NBA draft. Gibson next?
June 15th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
[…] This isn’t a huge surprise, as Tucker doesn’t have much to gain by returning for his senior season. His game is already very mature and the main thing he lacks, height, isn’t going to improve with another year in school. Because it’s the first year of the new age limit, the majority of experts see this as a very weak draft and expect next year to be much deeper. Tucker will likely be the same player in a year, so getting into this year’s weak draft may be to his advantage. I expect him to stay in the draft and to go late in the first round. […]