You remember Roscoe Smith, he was a starter as a freshman on the 2011 UConn national championship team. If you’re wondering what happened to him since, he played another season for the Huskies then transferred out to UNLV, where this past season he averaged 11.1 points and 10.9 assists a game for the Running Rebels (and he gets to watch his old team in the Final Four).
Now he has decided to go pro.
If he does he likely goes undrafted and will end up overseas or in the D-League, but it looks like he is going to go for it anyway reports the Las Vegas Sun.Rebels junior forward Roscoe Smith will forego his final year of eligibility and put his name into the NBA Draft pool, multiple sources tell the Sun….
Listed at 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, Smith has athleticism and a 7-foot-1 wingspan that could help him make a living playing basketball. However, he was often a defensive weakness for UNLV this season.
So an undersized four who can’t stretch the floor (20 percent from three, on the rare occasions he took a shot from there) who isn’t a great defender? He is long and he’s a very strong rebounder (one skill that translates well from college to pros), but that’s about it.
PBT’s NBA Draft expert Ed Isaacson of NBAdraftblog.com and Rotoworld said he doesn’t expect to see Smith drafted, but that he could be fun in the wide open games of Summer League. Smith is almost certainly going to at least start his career overseas.
I don’t know what Smith’s motivation was to come out. My personal belief is if you are not a lock top 20 pick you should stay in college, but Smith may have good personal reasons. I wish him luck.
Because his journey to the NBA is going to be a long, difficult one.
