2014 draft prospect Dante Exum still undecided on playing college basketball

Dante Exum is projected to be as high as a top-three pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, should he choose to become eligible.

Exum is from Australia, and doesn’t even graduate high school until October, which had some speculating that he could enroll in a college program in the states as early as December.

But Exum remains undecided on playing in college for now, and definitely won’t do so in this upcoming season. He says he’s still ’50-50' on whether to skip the college experience entirely in favor of a shot in the NBA.

From Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com:

Dante Exum, considered one of the top prospects eligible for the 2014 NBA draft, told ESPN that if he opts to play college basketball, he will not enroll in December.

“Schools have been saying I can start in early December and play this season,” Exum told ESPN. “But if college is the option, I’ll stay in Australia, do workouts with the national team and then go to college next August. Playing this season in college is not an option.”

Exum, who turns 19 on July 13, told ESPN that he remains 50-50 on whether to bypass college and go to the NBA.

This is Exum staying the course; it’s no change from what he was saying at adidas Eurocamp earlier this summer. He told my man Scott Howard-Cooper essentially the same thing when we were in Italy back in June.

Australian shooting guard Dante Exum is draft-eligible for 2014 and would open next season as one of the top prospects, but said “My gut tells me right now I’m going to college,” partly because he is intrigued by the idea of a run with a top U.S. program and partly because that would allow him to avoid the packed Class of ’14 led by Canadian phenom/incoming Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins. That would position Exum for 2015.

Exum is a 6'6" wing player with considerable athletic ability who possesses a nice shooting touch from outside. Those qualities are what make him so intriguing to NBA teams despite his young age, and if they need to wait one more year for him to develop before becoming draft-eligible, that should only help his already high position on the war room draft boards.