NBA Draft 2011: Five Reasons Perry Jones Made Wrong Decision to Stay at Baylor

Perry Jones is a tremendous talent, who many thought would be one-and-done after his freshman season at Baylor, and head to the NBA.

But on April 11, Jones decided to stay at Baylor for his sophomore season.

In an SI.com article written on April 11, Jones admits, "This is a pretty tough decision." He continued in the same article, "It was hard. I mean you see (NBA draft hype) and that is your dream all of your life. You see you can go number one. I mean, it is in the back of my mind but I know that this is the right choice."

Another year in college will certainly help Jones, but with an already weak draft class this year, he would easily have been a top 10 pick.

Jones's decision to stay at Baylor was the wrong one, so let's look at five reasons why he should have chosen to go pro.

Image of Perry Jones in this slide taken from here.

The 2011 NBA Draft Class Is Weak, Especially at Forward/center

When Jared Sullinger of Ohio State, and North Carolina teammates Tyler Zeller and Jon Henson all decided to stay in school for another season and not go pro, Perry Jones would have been the top power forward available in the 2011 draft class.

Only Enes Kanter, a Turkish center who was ruled ineligible for the past season from Kentucky, would have possibly been drafted ahead of Jones.

With so many high profile players staying in school in all five positions, Jones could have been an easy top five pick in this year's draft in June.

Previous NCAA Violation Should Worry Baylor

Perry Jones was a highly touted high school prospect going into his freshman year at Baylor, and like most top recruits, there is always the chance they did some sort of wrongdoing before enrolling to college, whether they knew what they did was an NCAA violation or not.

Just before the first round of this year's Big 12 conference tournament, the NCAA ruled Jones ineligible for Baylor's opening game against Oklahoma.

According to an ESPN article last updated on March 11, 2011, the NCAA declared Jones ineligible after an investigation to decide if Jones or members of his family were given special treatment or improper benefits from an AAU coach before he enrolled at Baylor.

Further in the same article, the NCAA explained some of the situation. "In this specific case, the student-athlete and his family actually received benefits, including a trip, with the total benefit amount of more than $4,100."

Jones has already been in trouble with the NCAA once in only one year at Baylor, and it's possible this could become a bigger issue, or there could be more issues we don't yet know about.

With college athletics becoming more shady each season, and with so many accusations and violations of wrongdoing, Jones should have left his troubles behind and declared for the NBA Draft. 

While Unpolished, Jones' Game Is Ready for the NBA

Perry Jones is still an unpolished player, but his tools and potential make him a worthwhile project for a rebuilding team to take on.

At 6'11" tall, Jones is very athletic and has an explosive style of play that is as physical as many NBA players.

He runs the floor great for a big man and is quite fast and explosive.

His low post game is not quite refined yet offensively, but his quickness allows him to get by defenders off the dribble using either hand.

Jones has the athleticism to be a fantastic pro, he just needs good coaching and NBA experience to improve.

We said the same thing about Dwight Howard in the 2004 NBA Draft; super-athletic, great talent, but his offense needs work and is a great project.

I'm not saying Jones is the next Dwight Howard, but their situation is pretty similar.

Baylor Is Not Good Enough to Give Jones National Spotlight

Obviously, NBA scouts will watch you even if you're team doesn't play a lot of nationally televised games, but the exposure of playing in big games in March helps every players draft stock.

Let's face it: Baylor is not very good, they won't make a deep run in the NCAA tournament and may not even make the tournament at all.

Playing in March Madness would help Jones a lot, and help his draft stock for next year.

NBA Labor Issues Might Eliminate the 2011-12 Season

After this season, the NBA and the Players Association will try to come up with a new CBA for the next several seasons.

With about half the teams in the NBA losing money, there could be some drastic changes to the league next year in a variety of ways, many of which will be aimed to help small market teams.

Jones' decision to stay in school means that if there is no 2011-12 NBA season due to labor disputes, his pro career would be put on hold, and not already begun if he had come out this season.

This reason for arguing his decision to stay at Baylor was wrong may be a stretch, but the possibility of the league's new CBA issues becoming a real problem and a threat to next season are very real.