Thursday's Draft highlights why we need testing the waters to stay around

No one is going to argue that the 2011 NBA Draft was one of the most exciting.

Confusing? Yes.

With pick after pick being traded -- and with some picks changing hands multiple times during the night -- it was at times difficult to figure out what team was actually picking and where that player would be spending his rookie season. How many different hats will 28th pick Norris Cole wear tonight?

Once you got past the wheeling and dealing, however, the draft was fairly boring. Realistically speaking, there were maybe three players picked with the chance of one day becoming a franchise player -- Kyrie Irving, Derrick Williams, and Enes Kanter. Tristan Thompson was picked fourth. A player that averaged single digits as a 21 year old in the Euroleague was picked sixth. An 18 year old that couldn't crack the starting lineup of a middling Spanish League team was picked seventh. If there was an underlying storyline, its probably that this draft may rival the 2000 draft in futility.


But that's the NBA.

In the college ranks, the story is the disappointment for the players that didn't hear their name called, the players that decided to leave school with eligibility remaining that will now have to wait for the lockout to end before they can try and earn their way onto a team. And they'll have to do it despite there being no NBA Summer Leagues to use as a proving ground. That's not going to be an easy thing to do.

Look at Scotty Hopson. Hopson was the No. 5 recruit in the country when he was a senior in high school, but thanks to an inconsistent collegiate career, Hopson's stock as a prospect plummeted. There was hope that the 6'7" wing would get picked in the second round, but when Adam Silver announced that Washington's Isaiah Thomas would be the NBA's version of Mr. Irrelevant, Hopson's name had yet to be called. Preparing for a senior season as the focal point of the Tennessee attack must seem much more attractive than trying to find a spot in a league that is facing a long work stoppage.

What about Terrence Jennings? The powerful Louisville big man became the second straight early-entrant for the Cardinals that failed to get a guaranteed contract. Samardo Samuels was able to latch on with Cleveland this past season, even starting 10 games. Will Jennings be able to do the same? Will Louisville fans lose sleep over the possibility of having a front line of Jennings, Samuels, Gorgui Dieng, and Raheem Buckles?

Perhaps the biggest head scratcher in this draft class was Jereme Richmond. For elite prospects looking for a way to stifle a promising career, follow in Richmond's footsteps. He committed to Illinois back in his freshman year of high school, but he couldn't find any kind of consistency on the court. He couldn't find any consistent way to avoid being suspended, either, as he Richmond was disciplined by Bruce Weber multiple times this past season. And don't forget about Demetri McCamey, the other Illinois "star" that went undrafted on Thursday night.

It wasn't just the undrafted that had a disappointing Thursday.

Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie of Georgia both fell out of the guaranteed contract range with a year of eligibility remaining. Then both ended up getting picked by the Clippers. Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee fell out of the first round with a combined three years of eligibility left. Josh Selby's tumble may have been the most pronounced. He went from Rivals No. 1 recruit in 2010 to the 49th pick of the draft, four picks after Kentucky's Josh Harrellson.

I promise you I am not bringing this up to chastise these players.

I feel bad for them, to tell you the truth. Every single player that was draft eligible this year was chasing a dream, and every single kid that didn't get picked is, without a doubt, crushed.

But I can't help but believe that some of these poor decisions and some of this heartbreak could have been spared if the NCAA hadn't changed the deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft to May 8th. And it once again shows just how ridiculous the NCAA's rule to eliminate the testing-the-waters process is.

Some of these choices wouldn't have changed. DeAngelo Casto was likely going pro regardless of what the NBA scouts told him. He comes from nothing and has a daughter he needs to support. Money is more important than an education for him, and its commendable that he is putting his family first. Jeremy Green of Stanford would probably have kept his name in the draft as well. He didn't leave Stanford in great academic shape.

But would Hopson have remained in the draft if he had listened to NBA GM's tell him for a month straight that he may not get drafted? Would Thompkins and Leslie have kept their names in the draft if they heard, after every workout, that they needed to do quite a bit or work before they had a shot of sticking on an NBA roster?

Maybe.

Maybe these decisions wouldn't have been affected.

But at least they would have been much more informed.