Jalen Lecque committed to play basketball for Kevin Keatts at NC State last October and was slated to join the program for the 2019-20 campaign. Given that the 6’4 combo guard ranks as the No. 33 prospect in the country according to the 247Sports Composite rating, that was a coup for the Wolfpack and expectations were high for Lecque’s arrival.
However, that plan is changing, as Lecque announced on Saturday that he will eschew college entirely and declare for the 2019 NBA Draft.
Thanks to everyone🗣‼️ @TheSkillFactory pic.twitter.com/E4apacYmQA
— Jalen Lecque (@jalenlecque10) April 20, 2019
In accordance with that decision, Lecque will reportedly bow out of post-high school All-Star games and choose to focus on draft-specific training activities.
6’4” PG Jalen Lecque @jalenlecque10 of @BrewsterHoops & @NYRhoops will skip this weekend’s Jordan Brand Classic and all remaining postseason All-Star games, in preparation for the upcoming NBA Draft Combine in May. He has been training in Atlanta for the past few weeks. pic.twitter.com/njTWCQrXKZ
— 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇ℯ𝓌 𝒮𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 (@Andrew__Slater) April 17, 2019
At first glance, this may seem odd, simply because high school players are not permitted to jump directly to the NBA, at least under the current rules. However, Lecque appears to be a special exception.
First, Lecque will turn 19 before the draft arrives and, technically, he is in the midst of his fifth year of high school. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony brings word that Lecque “fulfilled all NCAA academic requirements to graduate high school in the spring of 2018 and could have enrolled in college this past fall as a full qualifier.” If that is the case, he would be a full year away from his original high school class and, with that combined with his age, there is a path similar to that of Blazers rookie Anfernee Simons that would permit him to enter the draft.
At this point, Lecque may already have the clearance from the NBA, especially since he elected to publicly announce his intentions. There is no guarantee that Lecque will be drafted in 2019 from a performance standpoint, simply because he wasn’t a consensus five-star high school prospect and some evaluators do not project him as a top-60 player that would be available. Still, Lecque is a tremendous athlete that would be promising from a future-facing standpoint and he would have the opportunity to test well in a combine and pre-draft setting.
There are a lot of unknowns with Lecque’s draft status but, at the same time, there is precedent that would allow him to jump into the mix. This is an intriguing case to monitor in the coming weeks.
