There are two prospects in the 2018 NBA Draft that have lived at the top of draft boards for months: Arizona’s Deandre Ayton and Real Madrid’s Luka Doncic.
Ayton has been heralded as a big man prospect in the mold of David Robinson, a complete player on both ends of the floor with an NBA-ready body. Doncic is the 6’6 wunderkind that can do it all on the perimeter, has proven himself in the world’s second-best league, and is the latest oversized ball-handler ready to take over the league.
So, when the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings landed the No. 1 and No. 2 picks respectively in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery, the expectation was they would each be getting a franchise changing star. However, there remains some risk in taking Doncic beyond the ever-present risk of drafting 18 and 19 year olds.
Doncic has not fully committed to coming over to the NBA and that provides him some leverage should he not want to go to Phoenix or Sacramento to threaten to re-sign with Real Madrid instead, where he can make a significant amount of money, although not quite NBA money. On Thursday, Doncic only fueled those questions by being non-committal about his future at a EuroLeague press conference ahead of Real Madrid’s Final Four matchup with CSKA Moscow, via Eurohoops.net.
“Ι’m not sure if these are my last two games [in EuroLeague]. We have yet to make this decision. Perhaps after the season,” Doncic said.
It’s the right thing for Doncic to say right now given his team is getting ready to vie for a EuroLeague championship, just like most top NBA Draft prospects in college play it coy prior to the NCAA Tournament. However, the difference is Doncic’s status with Real Madrid gives him far more leverage than college players have in the draft as he can simply choose not to come over and keep getting paid handsomely in Spain.
We won’t know until Real Madrid’s season comes to a close what Doncic will actually do, but there has to be at least a little bit of doubt creeping into the minds of the Kings about their likely target. Even so, it might be worth taking him because at worst the trade market for his rights would be quite strong.
