Malcolm Delaney Declares for the NBA Draft

Posted on31 March 2010. Tags: ,

Niemo’s Notes added…

Virginia Tech junior guard Malcolm Delaney has declared for the NBA draft, but will not hire and agent according to a press release today. The ACC’s leading scorer and first team all-conference player, confirmed the news on his Twitter feed and that of Tech head coach Seth Greenberg.

We’ll have more on this development soon, but a tweet from Malcolm today announced:

“to all the hokie fans.. doesnt mean im gone… so dont panic. lol”

Niemo’s Notes:

  • First off, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke. I know we’ve done them before but I couldn’t think of a good one last night, and then this came in so I’ll just skip it this year.
  • I wouldn’t get too worked up about this yet. I think the best comparison here is Greivis “Greasy Face” Vasquez of maryland from last year. He declared for the draft, worked out, and realized he wasn’t going to be a high pick (wasn’t even being sniffed in the first round). He came back and had a great year. I’d say Malcolm’s game is similar to where Vasquez was a year ago – good but streaky shooter, decent ballhandler, good FT shooter, weak defending on the ball, while Malcolm is a better leader and Greivis was a better finisher on the drive. If Delaney follows Greivis’s lead, he’ll be back.
  • Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks Delaney 73rd of all the prospects this year. That wouldn’t even put Malcolm in the 2nd round (there are only two rounds) and he’s actually dropping – he was in the mid-60s a few weeks back.
  • Other sites like NBADraft.net don’t have him getting picked, and another site ranked him as just the 15th best PG. Rivals.com didn’t even have Malcolm on their underclassmen draft tracker.
  • Of course, if a lot of the higher ranked guys decide to stay in school, that could change things in terms of rankings, especially if PGs and SGs stay in school.
  • Malcolm has until May 8th to take his name off the list, so we could have to sweat this out for a month.
  • Point is, Malcolm would have to have a strong showing in camps and workouts just to make it into the 2nd round. Is that good enough for him? I can’t answer that. But I can say with a straight face, and without my O&M colored glasses on, that he would benefit from another year. He needs to show he can be a consistent shooter, continue to demonstrate he can distribute the ball well as he did later in the year to improve his teammates, and he’s going to have to show more on defense (that is the toughest one) in terms of defending other elite guards on the ball. That said, I think he will make it into the NBA, he has a lot of great intangibles, I just think he needs another year to develop. But, I’m not making the decision, so stay tuned.

This post was written by:

- who has written 220 posts on Tech Hoops.

Gary is a Virginia Tech graduate and veteran sports journalist with a career spanning on-air work in television and radio, and as a writer, editor and columnist in newspapers. He has covered the Hokies since 1993.

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  • Charlie

    April fools?…please

    • Niemo

      Ha, we wish, but it came in yesterday. I wouldn’t get too worried (yet). I’d say it is definitely more than 50% he stays at this point. I’d guess 75% he stays.

  • http://www.heyhokie.com Goodraisin

    I still maintain the viewpoint I have kept all season… Delaney is not going to leave early. This is more “wishful thinking” on his part, and it’s a way to get NBA scouts to look at him more closely next season. If Delaney improves in the areas that Neimo listed out, he has a good chance to be a first round pick next season, so it would make zero sense for him to leave early with no guarantee of even being a late 2nd round pick.

  • http://stores.ebay.com/hip-hop-heads-vinyl-crates HipHop_Hokie

    The NBA collective bargaining talks and the fact that potential 2011 lockout (and perhaps even the lack of a draft that summer) is what is driving most of this. Much like with the NFL and their potential “uncapped” year next season, a lot of players are being fed information that you either need to go this year or face being in a sticky labor situation next year, which is quite possibly true…

    That said, Malcolm isn’t anywhere near ready yet. Tyler Hansbrough, one of my most hated players of all-time because of the fact that all he ever did was draw whistles and scored points at the free-throw line, scored 35% of his ENTIRE career points at the charity stripe. THIRTY FIVE PERCENT!!! Perhaps there are other players out there who have scored more percentage-wise via free-throws than him, but I don’t know who they are. And I never thought I’d see another player near that level.

    Well, Malcolm has gone through his first 3 seasons at VT scoring 1,618 points… and how many have been free-throws? 540. That is over 33% of his points that have come 15 feet away from the basket with nobody guarding him. Granted, you can’t overlook the fact that he is aggressive, draws fouls, and most importantly converts at a fantastic clip when he gets there. However, he’s not going to get the same star treatment in the NBA that he does in the ACC, and his game is going to have to be about more than scoring a third of his points at the free-throw line.

    Malcolm – seriously, come back. Not because I’m dying for you to thinking that we’ll have a bad team if you leave. Because with OR without you next year, we’re a serious contender in the ACC and will be primed for an NCAA berth. No, rather because I’d like to see you develop one more year, prove that you can lead a team to something bigger than an NIT berth (although you did prove that this year, despite the committee), and then develop into a player that is going to actually make an impact in the NBA one day.

    Right now you’re the man… but come back next year and you can become THE MAN. The money will always be there, regardless of the silly labor talks that go on.

    Personally, I feel that he will indeed be back. Not hiring an agent basically shows that he just wants to test the waters, go through some good workouts to get that experience, and get a little NBA feedback about what he needs to work on. Come next season, foe23 will still be ballin in orange and maroon…

    HOKIES!!!


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