40 Acres Sports

Longhorn junior forward PJ Tucker announced at a press conference yesterday that he’d be entering this year’s NBA draft but not hiring an agent. He’ll be able to talk to teams and work out at the league’s pre-draft camp in early June to get a feel of his possible draft position. How high is high enough to stay in? PJ isn’t saying.

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.

Rumors also have sophomore guard Daniel Gibson entering the draft. Gibson’s situation is very diffferent. For one thing he definitely needs another year to improve his game and I don’t believe he’s ready for the NBA. He’s certainly got potential, but his game and his pocket could certainly benefit from another season at Texas. The issue with Daniel is that he wants to be the Longhorns’ primary point guard next season and that may not be in the team’s best interest. With his height he’ll likely play the point at the next level, but with blue chipper D.J. Augustin coming in Gibson would most likely be playing a good deal of shooting guard for the Horns.

Both players have until June 18 to decide to return to school and withdraw from the draft.