Jalen McDaniels will absolutely play for the San Diego State men’s basketball team next season. Definitely. Probably.
/bites fingernails down to bloody nubs
Having not hired an agent, McDaniels will have until May 30 to withdraw from the draft and retain his collegiate eligibility. The NBA’s combine is May 16-20, so expect the announcement of his triumphant return to the Aztecs’ fold shortly after that.
Really, the only troubling thing about this is the fact that Jalen apparently uses Oxford commas. CONSULT YOUR ASSOCIATED PRESS STYLE GUIDE, JALEN.
OK, so maybe I’m a teensy bit worried. McDaniels certainly has NBA athleticism to go with a rapidly-improving skills set — one that saw him go from a bench player at the start of his redshirt freshman season, to an occasionally-dominant double-double machine by the middle of conference play. So he’s good enough to get drafted late on June 21 and possibly make a roster.
However if McDaniels returns for his sophomore season and continues the trajectory of his technical and physical development, he’d figure to be good enough to be a lottery pick and make millions. That seems to be the conventional wisdom about how this will ultimately play out.
Please calm my nerves, college basketball and NBA draft writer at The Athletic:
So don’t freak out about this. McDaniels is just doing the prudent thing here, seeing where he stacks up and what he needs to work on. Then he’ll come back to the fold, ready to wreck shit in the Mountain West.
Right?
CASE CLOSED.
Jalen McDaniels will absolutely play for the San Diego State men’s basketball team next season. Definitely. Probably.
/bites bloody nubs
KABEER THIRTY 