2017 #1 C Mitchell Robinson Skips College to Prepare for the 2018 NBA Draft

Many high school athletes dream of playing their sport at the college level, feeling the atmosphere and facing the best competition to prepare for the jump to the professionals. Mitchell Robinson, Class of 2017 #1 ranked Center by ESPN® and Western Kentucky Commit, has chosen to withdraw from college to work with a trainer in preparation of the 2018 NBA Draft. This is an interesting and unusual move for the McDonald’s All-American because going to college is the best way to face competitive talent to get a player ready to make the next step. Although it is unusual, players such as Brandon Jennings, Emmanuel Mudiay, and recently Terrence Ferguson, went to play overseas for a season instead of playing college basketball. But there is a difference in Robinson’s case, he is not going to play any official collegiate or overseas basketball instead, he will train with an individual trainer to prepare for the 2018 NBA Draft.

This move puzzles me extremely. Why would a talent as great as Robinson’s decide to forgo collegiate basketball to prepare to make a jump to the next level? To me I feel as though he is taking an extremely huge risk on himself. While this shows that he is incredibly confident in his abilities, which is something you want from an NBA prospect, he has made an incredibly strong decision to not attend school. Not playing basketball at either the college level or overseas level is unorthodox and in my opinion is going to hurt his development and his draft stock. Not to take anything away from his talents, but NBA scouts need to be able to see a prospect compete against equal or higher competition.

I believe he has significantly hurt his draft stock in doing this move just as it hurt Terrance Ferguson’s draft stock in last year’s draft. In my first mock draft to start this year I had Robinson going 14^th in the first round of this year’s upcoming draft. With this move you could see a potential 5-10 spot fall for Robinson as some players will be a step above him due to their experience in college or overseas basketball. I hope during his training he plays against some great talent and even maybe some NBA talent as he is going to need all the help he can get come pre-draft workout time. I believe he has a lot of talent and is sort of an under looked prospect in this year’s draft and but since he made this move I don’t see his status significantly climbing during the season.

Robinson is a great talent let’s not forget last year at Chalmette High School in Los Angeles the #1 ranked Center in the 2017 class averaged 25.7 ppg, 12.6 rpg, and 6.0 bpg in 35 games as a Senior. He has the size and length to be a successful big man in the NBA but only time will tell if he has the IQ and ability to thrive as a player. Come pre-draft workout time we will more closely monitor his status and hopefully he proves many people wrong including myself.

Written by Nick Kazandjian