UCLA’s Chris Smith withdraws name from NBA draft, willplay senior season with Bruins
By BEN BOLCH
STAFF WRITER
LA Times
AUG.
3, 2020 11:27 AM
UPDATED 12:44
PM
The Pac-12
Conference’s most improved player could become its most valuable.
Chris
Smith is returning to UCLA for his senior season,
putting off the NBA for one more chance to continue his dramatic upward college
trajectory. Sean Smith, Chris’ father, made
the announcement Monday.
“Chris is returning to school due to too much
uncertainty on both sides of the coin,” said Sean Smith, alluding to the
COVID-19 pandemic that led to the cancellation of workouts for NBA prospects
and a delayed draft. “He’ll finish his degree and work to improve in the areas
he needs to improve on.”
Chris Smith’s return means that the core of a
team that won 11 of its last 14 games during coach Mick
Cronin’s debut season at UCLA will come back intact for the 2020-21 season.
The Bruins will also add freshman Jaylen
Clark and Kentucky transfer Johnny
Juzang, putting them in position to be considered among the frontrunners in
the Pac-12. Juzang was granted a waiver giving him immediate eligibility.
“I’m returning for my senior year because I’d
really like to finish what I’ve started at UCLA,” Smith
said in a statement posted on Twitter. “We have some unfinished
business and I want one last run with my teammates and coaches. These guys mean
the world to me. It’s also very important to me to finish up strong in the
classroom and earn my degree.”
Smith was UCLA’s leading scorer and a first-team All-Pac-12
selection last season, averaging 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. But he
was projected as a borderline second-round pick in the NBA draft and withdrew
his name from the pool of early entrants after the draft was pushed back from
June to October because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The
uncertainty surrounding Smith’s draft stock and his inability to significantly
enhance it were compelling reasons for a return to college. NBA teams had been
barred from conducting in-person workouts or interviews with prospects in
recent months because of the novel coronavirus, resulting in little movement
among previous draft projections.
“Chris
is one of the best kids I’ve ever coached — he’s always got a positive
attitude, he allows me to coach him and he’s just a great kid — so selfishly
for me just to be able to be around him for another season, I’m happy about
it,” Cronin said. “From start to finish this year, hopefully he can play with
more consistency and show that he’s a first-round talent. I think there’s
people that think that but they weren’t convinced of it in the draft and coming
back’s going to give him the opportunity to convince people.”
Smith intrigued NBA scouts as an athletic 6-foot-9 guard with considerable upside and as someone who just turned 20 in December.
His
improvement came in all facets of his game last season, when he set career
highs in not just points and rebounds but also assists (1.6 per game), steals,
(1.0), field-goal accuracy (45.8%), three-point accuracy (34.1%) and free-throw
accuracy (84%).
His stock soared with a 30-point
outburst against Colorado in late January before questions about
consistency reemerged when he was held to single digits in scoring in four of
his next eight games. He also could be sloppy with his ballhandling and prone
to committing turnovers in bunches, including six during the Bruins’
season-ending loss to USC.
But his return will make him the presumptive go-to scorer on a
team that will bring back all five starters and should be able to avoid the
early season doldrums that left UCLA with a 7-6 record last season after the
end of nonconference play. If things work out, Smith will improve his draft
stock and maybe add another Pac-12 award to a growing collection of conference
hardware.
No comments:
Post a Comment