OPINION

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 6:25 p.m. ET April 28, 2008

Mike DeCourcy

As sporting holidays go, declaration day for the NBA draft is celebrated about as enthusiastically as the April 15 deadline to file income tax returns.

This year's hoops deadline came on a Sunday, which meant we got an extension on doing some final accounting:

Smart money
Obviously it was a good time for Kansas State's Michael Beasley and Memphis' Derrick Rose to turn pro, but the player who had the best timing was Kansas guard Mario Chalmers.

He is an excellent defender whose consistency at that end makes him a first-round value. Riding a national championship and tournament Most Outstanding Player award into the league saves him being picked apart by draft analysts who might begin wondering about his 12-point-a-game scoring and his struggles as a college point guard. There is playing time for him in the NBA, no doubt, but is there a position he'll call his own?

Hidden gem
Nevada 7-0 center JaVale McGee is rushing things quite a bit, but a team lingering near the back of the lottery might want to consider gambling its pick in the way the Los Angeles Lakers did at No. 10 in 2005 with Andrew Bynum. McGee is an interesting package of height, length and potential.

While the getting's good
Some see LSU forward Anthony Randolph as a Chris Bosh clone. They're both lean. They're both from Texas. But let's get serious. Randolph shot 10.5 percent from 3-point range as a freshman; Bosh shot 47.8 percent at Georgia Tech. Bosh could get by as an NBA forward because he doesn't just have to hang around the basket. How will Randolph get things done? I'm not sure there will be a sufficient answer for that, but if he's a high lottery pick at least he'll get paid to search for it.

Not ready for prime time
We all saw just enough of North Carolina without Ty Lawson to recognize the Heels are better with him. But I've watched him play in person for UNC at least a half-dozen times, and I keep waiting for him to display the kind of presence on the court that all the best point guards display.

He obviously is a talent and will make a team if he stays in the draft. But if Lawson believes he is a great player, he needs to show that to the NBA. If he does, he'll be selected prominently in 2009. As it is, he'd have to fall behind Rose, O.J. Mayo, Jerryd Bayless, Eric Gordon, D.J. Augustin, and Russell Westbrook as guard prospects.

A wise 180
UCLA point guard Darren Collison's challenging season partly was the result of a knee injury that slowed his development at the start of the year, but it also was the result of too much inertia. Collison is a remarkably fast point guard who did not use his speed to his advantage as a junior. He was too reticent to make aggressive offensive plays, whether that involved attacking the lane or entering the ball to center Kevin Love.

Collison doesn't need to flirt with the draft to recognize what his game needs: He's got to attack. That was marginally true a year ago, when draft analysts got ahead of themselves in falling in love with him. It's even more so now.

Addition by defection

Mike Miller's college hoops blog Keep an eye on Duke's Singler(ular) talent

These college teams will be better off because their guys went pro: N.C. State (J.J. Hickson); Syracuse (Donte Green); Louisville (Derrick Caracter) and Southern California (Davon Jefferson).

Surprise, surprise
Stanford's Robin Lopez -- the long-haired, less imposing of the twins -- improved rapidly as a sophomore and could have become a star player with brother Brook leaving for the draft. Going top-5 next year would have made him more money than being a borderline first-rounder this year.

E-5
Ohio State center Kosta Koufos is making the biggest mistake. His presence on the list represents either a complete waste of time or a serious miscalculation of his current value.

Koufos appears to be under the impression he was played out of position with the Buckeyes, which is ludicrous. There isn't a worthwhile power forward on the planet he can guard now, possibly ever. He needs to learn to play the post; when he's guarded by big men, he'll be able to draw them away from the goal and burn them with his prodigious ball skills. As an OSU freshman, he was so bothered by big defenders he struggled to make layups. And, for the record, he made only 35 percent of his 3-point shots.

Koufos is a top-3 pick in the right draft. This isn't that draft.

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