Michael Malone had a lot of eggs in the basket of Henri Veesaar returning to Chapel Hill for his senior season.
Unfortunately for him and UNC, Veesaar made the decision on Friday to not only enter the NBA Draft, but also not to leave the option open to return to North Carolina. Veesaar is going pro, abandoning the Tar Heels and leaving their roster missing its anchor in the middle.
Veesaar was terrific as a junior, averaging 17 points and 9 rebounds per game. He won't be easily replaced, and now some are starting to sound the alarm bells for Michael Malone's first North Carolina roster, with no suitable replacements available and some questionable decisions to begin with.
Unless this whole 5-in-5 rule gets passed ASAP… North Carolina is in serious trouble for next season.
— Matthew Winick (@matthewwinick) April 24, 2026
Could very well finish worse than any of Hubert Davis’ five seasons with what the roster is looking like right now. https://t.co/IcU7XHVwgV
UNC's frontcourt is looking real questionable following Henri Veesaar's NBA announcement
The Tar Heels lost both Veesaar and Caleb Wilson to the NBA, and now their frontcourt features rising senior Jarin Stevenson, a solid, albeit unspectacular player, and a whole bunch of question marks otherwise.
Malone has added some solid talent to the backcourt with Neoklis Avdalas, Terrence Brown, and Matthew Able. It's a talented yet clunky backcourt in terms of fit. And now with Veesaar on his way out, Malone's first season in Chapel Hill could be in real trouble if he can't solve the center position in the next couple of months.
Perhaps the five-in-five rule will go through and open up some new possibilities, but it's hard to look at the Heels' roster on paper right now and make the leap that it's an improvement over what Hubert Davis put on the court this past season.
UNC fans were already on the fence with the panicked nature behind Malone's hire, made only worse by the fact that one of their top choices, Billy Donovan, came available after all. If his first season ends up going poorly, and UNC is on the bubble, or misses the tournament outright, the noise is going to get immediately loud about the first-year head coach.
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