Another freshman phenom has decided to take his talents to the NBA level with Kentucky’s Julius Randle deciding to leave school according to his Twitter account:
I would like to thank the entire Kentucky family for this year, but I have decided to take the next step and enter into the NBA draft.
— Julius Randle (@J30_RANDLE) April 22, 2014
After leading the Wildcats all the way to the national championship game, Randle may have improved his draft stock more than any player in the country that has or will declare for the 2014 NBA Draft.
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Although Randle struggled in the loss to UConn, the forward has proven to many that he could be a force to be reckoned on the NBA level. At 6′ 9″, Randle may be undersized for the power forward position in the NBA, but may be able to adapt like a Charles Barkley once on the next level.
With question marks surrounding his capability to play in the NBA, Randle will likely be a top-five pick, but not likely to go number one overall.
Along with Randle, quite a few other talented draft prospects have made themselves eligible in the past few weeks. Randle will be joined by Andrew Wiggins, Dante Exum, Marcus Smart and Joel Embiid to name a few.
With the majority of the elite players declaring, the waiting game begins for Duke’s Jabari Parker. Many believe Parker may go number one overall if he does declare, but there’s a good chance he returns to Duke for one more season.
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