Should Eric Bledsoe Declare For The 2010 Draft?
It's clear that despite his weaknesses, he's very interesting as a scoring pg who can bring toughness and speed in the backcourt. Moreover, his outside shot is already efficient which is rare for some with his physical and athletic assets. With Wall, Patterson and Cousins leaving for the draft, it will be tempting for Bledsoe to enter the draft.
If he stays, he's likely a top 10 pick next year. This year, he'd fall 18-20 at best. Making the NBA is a lifelong dream and a lot can happen in a year, but financially it makes sense to wait a year. Also, having a year with the ball in his hands almost exclusively will help his development immensely. Kentucky will lose a lot of talent this year, but Bledsoe and Orton are a pretty good start to a roster that should contend in the SEC again next year. (The SEC loses a lot of talent next year-Wayne Chism, JP Prince, Jermaine Beal, Jarvis Varnado, etc. with the potential for a few more to leave early.)
I don't think Kentucky will lose much talent.. With cheating recruiter like John Calipari, it'll be easy to get more future nba players on his roster.
Brandon Knight is the best high school player.. He's on a list consisting of LeBron James and Greg Oden as the only high school players to win the Gatorade Player of the Year his Junior and Senior year.. And he might go to Kentucky. He said if John Wall leaves, then maybe and if John AND Eric leave, then for sure he's going. Either way Eric gets screwed.
I so agree with ol boy about Kemba Walker being #2 in the country...as for Bledsoe....he isn't ready for the NBA but it would be wise to go pro while the iron is hot....especially if Kentucky wins it all.....players on championship teams are drafted higher than they deserve to be more often than not....
I think Bledsoe should stay. He has been in the shadow of John Wall all season, and I want to see how good Eric is w/o John Wall, so him staying his sophomore year will probably help his draft stock because he is not going to be a top 20 pick this year, unless he does well at the NBA combine.
I think we have all seen Bledsoe's stellar play the last few games of this season, and it's not a stretch to say that he has even outplayed John Wall, even though Wall has WAY more talent. Bledsoe has NBA length, strength, and athletism. His glaring weakness is that he has a long way to go being a good full-time PG. The IQ hasn't caught up to his ability yet, which is normal for a player at his stage of development. This draft class is weak on PG depth, so Bledsoe could wisely take advantage and declare this year. The problem is he would also be wise to take advantage of the weak overall draft next year and be taken higher after being the number 1 guy and sole point guard for a top 25 Kentucky team. I guess we could call that the "Stephen Curry Route". This is a REAL tough decision for him but if I was advising him, I would tell him to declare now in case NBA has a lockout (which I don't think will happen, but it's irresponsible for any advisor to tell Eric to stay in school knowing that's a possibility and him being a top 20 lock this year).