Aggies basketball star staying in NBA Draft
Siakam was WAC Player of the Year
Not since Randy Brown in 1991 has a New Mexico State Aggie player heard his name called during the NBA Draft.
Pascal Siakam believes that is about to change.
The 6-foot-9 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year from Cameroon made official Wednesday on Twitter what has been suspected for some time: He will not return for his junior season, instead opting to remain eligible for the June 23 NBA Draft.
The NCAA’s deadline to withdraw from the draft was Wednesday night.
“This has not been an easy decision,” wrote Siakam, the 22-year-old sophomore who averaged 20.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and tied for the national lead with 27 doubledoubles this past season. “But after spending the past few days processing all the feedback I received throughout the NBA pre-Draft process so far, and speaking to my family about it, I realized that this is the best decision for my future.”
It leaves a large void for the Aggies next season, but one NMSU head coach Paul Weir had been anticipating.
“I think all of us are going to become cheerleaders on June 23rd for Pascal,” Weir said. “We are so thankful for everything he did here and are looking forward to following his career.”
Siakam, one of 61 invited prospects who participated in the May 12-13 NBA Draft Combine, has had recent workouts with the Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans, Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets, and he has more set up in the coming weeks.
“I think it’s a good decision. I’m sure he got a lot of feedback,” said Jonathan Givony, President of DraftExpress. com, a scouting and analytics service.
“He’s going into this knowing where he stands. There are no guarantees in life, but he’s at a good point where he’s been producing, and he has some skills that obviously translate to (the) NBA.”
Givony, whose last mock draft was updated May 15, lists Siakam as a late secondround selection. Some other mock drafts project him as high as late first round.
Givony says the buzz around Siakam’s team workouts and his impressive showing at the combine and at a workout for a dozen or so scouts in Los Angeles earlier this month have been all been positive — a plus for a player from a small program. NMSU played only three top50 teams last season, according to KenPom.com, leaving questions about how he would perform against top athletes.
“If you’re coming from a small school, the combine is very important,” Givony said. “It does decrease your margin for error when you don’t play as many top teams, but he stepped up and performed in a major way at the combine.”
Tuesday, after watching Siakam work out in the Suns training facility, Suns assistant general manager Pat Connelly told the Arizona Republic the team was impressed watching his growth from his freshman to sophomore seasons under coaches Marvin Menzies, now at UNLV, and Paul Weir, the Aggies’ new head coach.
“Great athlete. Really gets up and down the court, but you could see his skill, going from Year 1 to Year 2, take a big jump,” said Connelly.
Siakam said he plans to return to NMSU in the future to complete his degree work.