Players leaving early: Who it worked out for and who should have stayed:

[Dmike]

My assessment based on NBA success and draft position. Financial consideration as a professional was not considered, which would require too much information about each player's financial and personal lives, which is not available to me.

Marshall (jr) - good choice
El Amin (jr) - bad choice - not sure it would have mattered
Butler (soph) - good choice
Oakafor (jr) - good choice
Villanueva (soph) - good choice
Gay (soph) - good choice
Boone (jr) - ok choice, another year might have helped him develop his offensive game a la Adrien
Williams (jr.) ok choice.
Thabeet - not sure, another year might have really helped his offensive game. He dominated because of size, but could have used another years the main option in the offense.
Walker (jr) - good choice
Drummond (fr) good choice particularly due to post season ban - draft position may have improved with another year to dominate.
Lamb - (soph) good choice particularly due to academic ban
Daniels (jr) - bad choice. Needed to develop consistency and capitalize for a whole season on the swagger he developed end do the year, but time will tell.

May have missed some players, but this is the list that came to mind.

 

[CTBasketball]

Daniels should have stayed. He's going to have a hard time breaking into the league.

Roscoe transferred, but should have stayed. Boone should have stayed, same with Marcus. Thabeet should have stayed. But Stix should have left. I wish Dyson left after his sophomore year too.

 

[Husky25]

My assessment based on NBA success and draft position. Financial consideration as a professional was not considered, which would require too much information about each player's financial and personal lives, which is not available to me.

Marshall (jr) - good choice
El Amin (jr) - bad choice - not sure it would have mattered
Butler (soph) - good choice
Oakafor (jr) - good choice
Villanueva (soph) - good choice
Gay (soph) - good choice
Boone (jr) - ok choice, another year might have helped him develop his offensive game a la Adrien
Williams (jr.) ok choice.
Thabeet - not sure, another year might have really helped his offensive game. He dominated because of size, but could have used another years the main option in the offense.
Walker (jr) - good choice
Drummond (fr) good choice particularly due to post season ban - draft position may have improved with another year to dominate.
Lamb - (soph) good choice particularly due to academic ban
Daniels (jr) - bad choice. Needed to develop consistency and capitalize for a whole season on the swagger he developed end do the year, but time will tell.

May have missed some players, but this is the list that came to mind.

basketball-reference.com

 

[Husky25]

Walker and Okafor had graduated already as well. Tough to fault their choice to leave when their only responsibility to themselves is playing NCAA basketball for peanuts instead of doing the exact same thing plus becoming and instant millionaires. Gordon left as a Junior after the '04 title as well, but I don't recall if he graduated then or since.

 

[aceboon]

don't really get these Thabeet mentions, he stayed for 3 years, one more offseason at UConn wasn't going to prevent him from not being any good. He has millions to pay on trainers/coaches, in addition to the coaching he's received in 5 years in the league, if he isn't at the minimum serviceable after all this time then it just isn't meant to be for him. As for Boone, a year with a rusty AJP and Austrie/Wiggins as his PGs would've been an absolute disaster for him, he got out right on time and had a good start to his career, his confidence just tanked cuz of his free throw woes.

 

[Dmike]

Not sure I agree with you, Drummond didn't ways have the focus that would have allowed him to absolutely dominate every game with his physical gifts - this was the knock on him coming out of high school. You've got to cut him some slack though. He was a kid his freshman year, got his nose broke in practice before the season even started and had to play the bulk of the year with that mask. Nevertheless, as a frost he averaged 10 ppg, 7.6 rpg, and 2.7 bpg in 28.4 mpg. It's been awhile since we've had a big or group of bigs put up stats like that. Maximum effort - probably not, but the guy wasn't just going through the motions.

 

[Inyatkin]

Thabeet could have left after his freshman year and been drafted. Probably wouldn't have been smart. There is no reason to think he should've stayed two years later.
As for Daniels, let's maybe let him play a game or two as a pro before writing his obituary.

 

[HooperScooper]

Have to disagree with you. It's easy for the casual fan to say that but I just don't think Drummond was mature enough to really focus and use his skills to the fullest. He wasn't coasting. The game was so easy for him as a kid because he was always so much bigger than everyone else. He used his size and athleticism to over power opponents without trying very hard. I don't think he ever learned how to really play hard. I think it takes time for most kids to learn this. Think about yourself. Do you think as a high school or college student you had the focus to be successful at what you do for work today? Some people are more ready at an earlier age to be a professional. I think Drummond will get there in a couple years.

By the way, Andrew Wiggins is in a similar situation as Drummond and I bet it takes him a few years before he learns how to dominate also.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

With the power of hindsight, I think the ship has sailed on this argument. Once you start taking into account that he'll reach FA one year sooner and probably get a max contract at that point, the difference between what he made on his rookie deal and what he could have made as a top five pick, is pretty negligible, and could potentially end up hurting him because he'll get that second big contract with one additional year of his "prime" left. He left at the right time.

 

[Horatio]

Out of all Uconn players leaving early the absolute good/ excellent choices
Are: Ray Allen , Donyell Marshall, Caron , Kemba Walker and Emeka. These guys could do no more in college .Everyone else is slightly debatable / debatable . There's other guys that got drafted high but can be debated based on flaws in their game that people might feel one more year of college may have helped.

For example : " Ben Gordon could've stayed another year and worked on ball handling and being a lead guard" or " Deandre , Charlie and Rudy could've stayed and worked on bulking up and ball handling". It's all nit
Picking because these guys are multi millionaires but its debatable.

 

[Husky25]

Out of all Uconn players leaving early the absolute good/ excellent choices
Are: Ray Allen , Donyell Marshall, Caron , Kemba Walker and Emeka. These guys could do no more in college .Everyone else is slightly debatable / debatable . There's other guys that got drafted high but can be debated based on flaws in their game that people might feel one more year of college may have helped.

For example : " Ben Gordon could've stayed another year and worked on ball handling and being a lead guard" or " Deandre , Charlie and Rudy could've stayed and worked on bulking up and ball handling". It's all nit
Picking because these guys are multi millionaires but its debatable.

Gordon had nothing more to prove at his position or in college. There were combo guards in the mid-00's, but he was not one of them. He played the 2 guard. Very tough to argue about the 3rd pick in the draft.

 

[Karmacop]

In my mind, it would be very hard to argue that any player that left early and was drafted in the first round made a bad choice. That's a guaranteed, multi-million dollar contract. Also, by definition, leaving early allows players to potentially earn an extra year of high salary, at a younger age. So all things being equal, leaving after one's junior year and getting picked 23rd is a wash in my mind if that same player stays for his senior year and only rises 5-10 places (using Josh Boone as my example here).

So based on this, I think everybody who has left early has made a good decision, since they all got drafted in the first round except for Khalid and DeAndre. Khalid was never going to be a first rounder, so he benefited by starting to earn a salary at a younger age (and I also seem to remember that he and his family really needed the money). And the jury is still out on DeAndre. Like Khalid, there's a strong argument that another year in college would not have improved his draft position much at all, and he's now earning a seven-figure salary a year earlier. OTOH, he was so close to getting that guaranteed first-round contract, that perhaps staying one more year would have put him over the top. Tough to say anything yet until we see how his career goes.

Here's the full list of early entrants at UConn:

Donyell Marshall (drafted 4th overall)
Ray Allen (5th)
Richard Hamilton (7th)
Khalid El-Amin (34th)
Caron Butler (10th)
Emeka Okafor (2nd)
Ben Gordon (3rd)
Josh Boone (23rd)
Marcus Williams (22nd)
Charlie Villanueva (7th)
Rudy Gay (8th)
Hasheem Thabeet (3rd)
Kemba Walker (11th)
Jeremy Lamb (12th)
Andre Drummond (9th)
DeAndre Daniels (37th)

http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/UConn-s-early-entries-How-they-have-fared-5410977.php

 

[Tenspro2002]

Here's the full list of early entrants at UConn:

Donyell Marshall (drafted 4th overall)
Ray Allen (5th)
Richard Hamilton (7th)
Khalid El-Amin (34th)
Caron Butler (10th)
Emeka Okafor (2nd)
Ben Gordon (3rd)
Josh Boone (23rd)
Marcus Williams (22nd)
Charlie Villanueva (7th)
Rudy Gay (8th)
Hasheem Thabeet (3rd)
Kemba Walker (11th)
Jeremy Lamb (12th)
Andre Drummond (9th)
DeAndre Daniels (37th)

http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/UConn-s-early-entries-How-they-have-fared-5410977.php

Of this list, I would argue only Drummond and DD could have improved their draft position with another year in college. Drummond also would have had the downside of possibly being (further) exposed at the college level and sullying his stock. DD had some downside, but not as much as he had upside with a good year. DD should have come back.

Other comments:
- Khalid arguably left too late
- Boone's stock was already declining, and another mediocre year might have knocked him out of the first round entirely
- MW I don't think would have been hurt by playing another year, but I don't think he would have been helped much either
- I am shocked that Caron and Kemba only went 10th and 11th

 

[David 76]

Roscoe Smith left too early.
AO too late? ;^)

 

[Deadrody]

don't really get these Thabeet mentions, he stayed for 3 years, one more offseason at UConn wasn't going to prevent him from not being any good. He has millions to pay on trainers/coaches, in addition to the coaching he's received in 5 years in the league, if he isn't at the minimum serviceable after all this time then it just isn't meant to be for him. As for Boone, a year with a rusty AJP and Austrie/Wiggins as his PGs would've been an absolute disaster for him, he got out right on time and had a good start to his career, his confidence just tanked cuz of his free throw woes.

Agreed. Considering his failure to develop on an active NBA roster, doesn't that suggest that Thabeet had / has actually peaked and gotten the most possible out of his talent ? How can you possibly look at Thabeet's overall career and conclude that he would be significantly better if only he had spend another season in college ? Isn't it just as likely that he would have stagnated in his senior season and actually dropped in the draft ?

To me that decision is much like Donyell's. Was never as dominant in the NBA as his draft position would suggest. Therefore, it was a fortuitous decision to leave when he did.

 

[David 76]

Donyell could leave after his Jr year and get the tens of millions he received in his initial contract or stay a year and enter with the new cap system for rookies and get less than 10% of what he received. Easy decision.
I also think that sensitive man/child that he was, it took him longer to adjust to the NBA. He did fine. Just couldn't live up to that initial contract.

 

[swami7774]

Ajou Ajou Deng should have left before he got to Storrs.