Following a sophomore season that ended with a team-high 17.5 points per game and Big Ten Player of the Year honors, Michigan wing Nik Stauskas is home in Ontario, contemplating whether to declare for the NBA draft or return to Ann Arbor for his junior season.
“I’m talking with my parents and taking some meetings with people to figure this situation out and see what’s best for me and my future,” Stauskas told Sportsnet 590 The Fan in Toronto on Friday according to Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com. “That’s a decision that I’m probably going to come up on in the next week or so.”
MORE: The entire list of players entering the 2014 NBA Draft
Currently, the 6-foot-6 Stauskas is projected as a first-round pick in June’s draft, being selected No. 16 overall according to DraftExpress.com’s latest mock draft. An Eastern Conference scout told MLive that Stauskas will “be drafted in the late lottery and I think have a good career.”
Last season, head coach John Beilein saw his back court Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. leave early. This year the Wolverines could see multiple players declare for the draft again. Fellow sophomores Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary, who played in only eight games, both have a decision to make regarding their future. Robinson and McGary are viewed as early second round picks.
Stauskas, Robinson and McGary have until April 27 to declare for the 2014 NBA Draft.