Duke freshman Brandon Ingram still has not made an official announcement on his NBA decision.
Most fans expected highly touted recruit Brandon Ingram to be a one-and-done player before arriving at Duke, and his All-American performance this season helped leap him into a Top 3 draft selection, if not #1 overall, and proved that he is an NBA-ready player. However, Ingram is still missing on many 2016 NBA Draft Early Entrant lists like this one, because he still hasn’t officially hasn’t declared for the NBA draft yet.
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There could be several different reasons why Ingram has not yet made a statement on joining the NBA. When he first committed to Duke, the 6-9 forward originally planned on playing in college for two years, but later noted “It’s one year or it’s two years, then it’s whatever”. Ingram dominated with the Blue Devils to average 17.3 points and 6.8 rebounds, and if he does happen to return then he could play a huge role on a Duke team that would surely be the most talented team in the country and the national title favorite with a very talented recruiting class coming in.
However, it’s highly unlikely that Brandon Ingram will stay since he’s guaranteed to be a Top 5 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. Before arriving at Duke, he was drawing comparisons to NBA star Kevin Durant and showed throughout the season that he can score in a variety of ways and also improved on his weaknesses defensively.
Next: 2015-16 Duke Basketball Season Review
This will also the first year that the NBA and NCAA will be implementing new rule changes for athletes interested in leaving college early to play basketball professionally, and players now have the option to withdraw from the draft return to school. But it’s doubtful that Ingram would need that option since he’s already projected to go so high.
There are many other reasons that Ingram has not declared yet, he may be waiting to pick an agent to sign with, discussing options with his family, or just hasn’t had time to make an announcement yet. Sophomore guard Grayson Allen also has a big decision to make as he’s projected to be a first round draft pick in the 2016 NBA draft if he does decide to leave Duke and start his professional basketball career. Whatever both of these Blue Devils decide to do, we wish them the best going forward!