Joe, Jones weighing options for draft
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas basketball players Isaiah Joe and Mason Jones have more than a month to decide if they want to enter the NBA Draft.
College players with remaining eligibility have until April 26 to declare for the draft as early entries. If they don't sign with an agent, they will retain their eligibility if they withdraw by the June 15 deadline.
The draft is scheduled to be held on June 25 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but a delay is possible as has happened with many sporting events because of the coronavirus.
Joe, a 6-5 guard from Fort Smith Northside, was a sophomore this season when he averaged 16.9 points and 4.1 rebounds.
Jones, a 6-5 guard from DeSoto, Texas, was voted Associated Press co-SEC player of the year along with Mississippi State forward Reggie Perry, was a junior this season. He averaged 22.0 points to lead the SEC and also led the Razorbacks in rebounding (5.5), assists (3.4) and steals (1.6).
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said Thursday he doesn't know yet what Joe and Jones plan to do regarding the draft.
“Whatever Mason and
Isaiah want to do, we're here to support them,” Musselman said. “I've reached out to both of them and just said, ‘Hey, whatever you guys are thinking or whenever you want to talk or discuss those things, we're here for you.' We've communicated with [the players'] parents as well.
“But I think right now everything is on such a holding pattern across the board for everybody. You know the process this year is going to be much different than it has been in the past.”
ESPN reported that Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, sent a memo to college coaches this week informing them that applications are being accepted to the Undergraduate Advisory Committee — which provides feedback to players on where they can expect to be drafted.
Musselman was an NBA head coach with Golden State and Sacramento and an assistant coach for Minnesota, Orlando, Atlanta and Memphis, so he also can offer Joe and Jones an informed opinion.
“I've tried to gather as much information from NBA teams as I possibly can,” Musselman said. “A lot of people that are
friends of mine I’m checking in on are then gathering information as well.
“But it’s kind of premature to talk about any process because no one really knows how it’s going to work, including the NBA right now.”
If Joe and Jones declare for the draft, they could be among 60 players invited to the NBA scouting combine, which is scheduled to be held May 21-24 in Chicago.
But considering those dates, it seems likely the combine would be moved to later in the summer, if held at all.
The NBA suspended its season last Wednesday. Games aren’t expected to resume until June at the earliest.
“I’m only guessing, but right now [the combine is] the furthest thing from what the NBA is thinking about,” Musselman said.
Joe, who hit 94-of-275 3-pointers this season (34.2%) after hitting an Arkansas-record 113-of-273 (41.4%) as a freshman, is a projected first-round NBA pick by CBS Sports, which has him going No. 18 overall to Oklahoma City.
The website NBADraftRoom.com has Joe as a second-round pick at No. 47 to
Chicago. Several other websites don’t have Joe in their mock drafts.
Jones isn’t listed as being picked on multiple draft sites.
NBA executives “widely agree that the pre-draft process will be severely limited, if not lost altogether,” ESPN reported, because of the reluctance of teams to fly draft prospects in for workouts or have their scouts or coaches travel to evaluate players because of the coronavirus.
“As far as individual workouts, I mean right now none of those are even being set up,” Musselman said. “I’ve talked to enough NBA teams [to know that] nobody is going to have players get on a plane for individual instruction any time soon or where they have a six-man group and work people out.”
Musselman said that in the previous four years when he was Nevada’s coach, he and his staff worked with players who entered the NBA Draft — including twins Cody and Caleb Martin, who returned to college for their senior seasons — to assist them with setting up travel and workouts.
“But right now if you have a senior who is a lottery pick, there’s nothing you can do for that particular player because there’s really not much discussion you can have until some of this stuff gets sorted out,” Musselman said. “I think it’s just too much speculation right now, because no one knows when an NBA Draft date is going to even be.
“There are people in the NBA, assistant coaches, that don’t know if the draft’s going to happen until well past the normal date.
“The only thing NBA teams can do right now from an evaluation standpoint is watch film of players. That’s what a lot of their scouts are doing.”
The Razorbacks’ season ended with their 86-73 victory over Vanderbilt last Wednesday in the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn.
Jones scored a team-high 22 points and Joe added 18.
Arkansas was scheduled to play a second-round game against South Carolina last Thursday night before the rest of the SEC Tournament was canceled. It then was announced the NCAA Tournament and NIT were canceled.
The Razorbacks were 19-7 when Joe was in the lineup. He sat out Arkansas’ 78-67 victory over TCU because of swelling in his right knee, then later missed five SEC games — in which Arkansas went 0-5 — recovering from arthroscopic surgery.
Joe scored 21 points in his first game after the surgery to lead the Razorbacks to a 78-68 victory over Missouri. He averaged 20.0 points in his final six games of the season.
“The thing I can’t give Isaiah enough credit for is he wanted to come back as early as he possibly could,” Musselman said.
“He wanted to do what was right for the team. He wanted to help the team win. He was selfless in trying to do what was right to help the Razorbacks. I can’t state that enough.”
Jones scored 30 or more points in nine games, including a career-high 41 points against Tulsa, 40 against Auburn, 38 against Mississippi State and 37 against Tennessee.
“If they decided to come back, I think they’d be two of the best players in the country and I think their role would be incredible on our team,” Musselman said of Joe and Jones. “If it’s a different decision, then we’re here to do whatever we can to help them.”