Yesterday, as a little bit of a shock to me, Hunter Dickinson, Michigan's true freshman big man, who was a second team all American, declared for the NBA draft. He did leave the door open to returning to Michigan, and I do like that rule, but still I was a bit stunned.

I sat on the news for a little bit, and I realized how ridiculous it was of me to be "shocked" by this. He had a very good season for a very good team. Michigan was a one seed, they won the regular season Big Ten, they were ranked as high as number two during the year and Dickinson was the one who kind of got them rolling. This decision of his shouldn't be looked at as a shock, but as a right of passage. He led the team in scoring and rebounding. When he finally started, that was when they really took off. I would watch their games and be marveled at how well he played in the interior as a true freshman. I looked to him to get this team going behind only Isaiah Livers, who was a senior. And even when Livers got hurt, and people said that was it for this team, I had faith enough to pick them to make the Final Four, which they did not, they made the Elite Eight, due to the play of Dickinson all year. He should declare. He should see what teams have to say about him. He should get a draft grade. He should stay in the draft if some team guarantees that they will take him in the first round. He earned that. I don't know why us Michigan fans think he shouldn't do this.

The fact is that freshman at every other school do this every year. Kentucky constantly has kids leave after one season and no one bats an eye. The same thing happens at Duke now. Georgia had this same deal with Anthony Edwards. Washington too, with Markelle Fultz. This is the new era of college basketball. Until the NCAA does the right thing, and I will not hold my breath waiting for that, these kids will go pro ASAP, and they should. But, one of the very things the NCAA has done right in recent years is allowing these kids to test the waters as they say while still retaining college eligibility. There are "NCAA agents" that these kids can "hire" to help them gather intel and set up private workouts. These players that declare early can also go to the combine if they get invited. But they have a set time to decide if they are going to stay in the draft or return. I think that is exactly what Dickinson is doing. I think he wants to see if some team will take him in round one. I also think he wants to know what he has to work on to get in better position to be a lock first round pick, or even a lottery pick.

If you were to ask me point blank right now what I think he will do, I think he is a near lock to return. He just wants the info, he wants to get better and he wants to see how he stacks up against elite NBA talent. Dickinson is great, but he does have flaws in his game, as any true freshman would. He is not a great outside shooter, and he didn't show a willingness to do that when presented with the opportunity last season. He took four total threes, missed them all, and very few jumpers. He also gets winded pretty quickly. There would be times he would work real hard on one end of the floor, but then he would be slow to get to the other end. It also takes him a while, and a good amount of touches, to get comfortable. In their game against UCLA in the tournament, he didn't really go hard until the second half, but when he did, he looked dominant. But then he got very tired and started to make typical freshman mistakes. He has a good amount of stuff to work on, and I personally think another season working with Juwan Howard and the Michigan staff will do him wonders. He also isn't listed on any mock drafts, and he isn't inside that golden goose that is the ESPN Top 100 prospect list. Look, guys do this all the time, hell Isaiah Livers did it after his junior year. But they can come back. And I think Dickinson will. But if he doesn't, if he gets a great grade, or has a phenomenal work out, he should stay in the draft. As he said in his letter, that is his dream. Right now, at this very moment, I just do not see it. He isn't up there with players like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Jalen Johnson, any one of Kentucky's freshmen that have already declared, Kofi Cockburn, Makur Maker and even his own teammate Franz Wagner. Those players are ready. They have the pedigree and the talent right now. They are NBA ready.

Hunter Dickinson is really, really good, but I do not think he is ready for the NBA. Not yet at least.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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