Henderson and the NBA

[Jumbo]

Well I'm Singler's friend on FaceBook and he openly states that in his "About Me" section. And it is him because the other Duke players are friends with him, too. There's not much you can refute there if it comes out of his own mouth.

Gerald hasn't had a spectacular year, though it has been good, so I just don't see him jumping to the NBA. He has too many things to work on, particularly shooting and ball-handling, if he wants to make it to the league. As earlier posts said, he is enjoying the college experience. And money isn't an issue as his dad was in the NBA for a good amount of time. I would say with a pretty big deal of certainty, as would anyone else, that he will be back for his junior year.

I don't get the logic that if someone goes deep into the tourney, they will leave. I understand that their stock may be high and so will good publicity, but given a deep loss, wouldn't they want to come back and go deeper next year? That would be my way of thinking, I don't know.

OK. With all due respect, I don't put much stock in someone's Facebook profile. And even if he means that now, it doesn't mean he'll feel the same way down the road.
That said, I'm confident that Kyle will be at Duke next year, and hopeful that he'll stick around longer than that. I don't have as much of a read on G -- I think there's a good chance he'll stay, but I think he'll entertain the idea of leaving if his stock is high enough. I don't think Tourney performance will have much to do with it, unless it strongly enhances his stock (See: Conley, Mike)

[Jumbo]

Ugh, this makes me sad. Also a little surprised, only because Gerald seems like the classic "tweener". He obviously has incredible athleticism and continues to improve and impress, but I was under the impression that he's still a bit rough with both ballhandling and shooting, and could use another year before going to the big league. And he's 6'4".

I'm not one of those that would moralize about how bad this is for all parties involved -- if it's really what Gerald and his dad feel is most prudent, and there's strong interest from the NBA, then so be it. But I sure hope this doesn't come to pass.

I'm not saying he's going to leave. I'm just saying it's way too early to dismiss the possibility that he might.