Myck Kabongo’s impending year-long suspension for accepting impermissible benefits will hurt him “big-time” in the upcoming NBA Draft, a veteran NBA scout told SNY.tv.
“It hurts him big-time,” the scout said. “He played out of control last year. Most teams need to see him play five-on-five, running his team….His stock goes down.”
As of this writing, DraftExpress.com has the 6-foot-2 sophomore point guard from Texas going with the 31st overall pick, or first in the second round.
Asked what will happen to his draft status, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express told SNY.tv: “Depends what he decides to do between now and the draft. After his poor freshman season scouts needed to see how much he improves as a sophomore. I don’t think he’s shown enough to be considered a definite first rounder based on upside alone. He’ll have to show more somewhere. Unfortunately I’m not sure the D-League is an option for him because he was already enrolled at Texas.”
The news of Kabongo’s suspension was first reported by Yahoo! Sports and confirmed by a source with direct knowledge of the case, who said the announcement will come online on the NCAA site on Thursday.
A Canadian who played at St. Benedict’s Prep for current Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley and later for Findlay Prep, Kabongo averaged 9.6 points and team highs of 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals last season.
Still, Kabongo can take hope in the case of former Kentucky forward Enes Kanter, who was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for his association with a Turkish professional club. Kanter was still taken with the No. 3 overall pick by the Utah Jazz in the 2011 Draft.
“It didn’t hurt Kanter, it won’t have an affect on Myck,” a second NBA scout told SNY.tv. “Scouts know what he is.”
Photo: AP
