Duke Basketball: Are They Missing out on DeAndre Daniels?

DeAndre Daniels is in no hurry to become a college student. He missed the deadline to sign a national letter of intent, and he is currently holding Kansas and a few other schools to ransom.

If he is waiting for the one-and-done rule to be scrapped, as Matt Conner implies, by the time that has been decided he will have missed the June draft and would effectively be waiting a whole year for the NBA. Would a whole year training on his own benefit Daniels?

It would be in his best interest to pick a college and get some necessary exposure. If he was to go to a school like Duke, Kansas or Texas, he would gain a guaranteed fan base for life.

An NBA GM would more likely pick a popular player than an unknown prospect because that popular guy can sell merchandise, and let's face it, the NBA is a business first. If the NBA drafted on player ability alone, Kobe Bryant would have been drafted higher than No. 13, right?

Daniels is ranked as the No. 10 best high school player for 2011 by Rivals.com, and at 6'8" is considered a game changer; any team would be lucky to have a player with his ability.

He was on Duke’s radar but now it appears that only Oregon, Kansas and Texas are the ones holding their breath like a high school girl waiting to be asked out by the captain of the football team to senior prom. 

Duke probably got a break on this one if he is focusing on the NBA. Nothing wrong with that but history has proven that players that focus too much on the NBA leave their college vacating wins or enduring other penalties by the NCAA.

Texas and Kansas are the front runners for the versatile small forward. Even though he missed the deadline to sign a national letter of intent, he can still play in college next season.

Maybe Daniels is being cautious by not committing himself to any school, because if he wants to leave, he would have to sit out a year.

Kansas is a great fit for Daniels with the loss of the Morris twins, but the Kansas faithful are getting restless as this article compares his attitude to LeBron’s free-agency summer.

Understandably so, as an impact player like Daniels could really mess with team chemistry, something Duke cannot afford with their young team.

By the time Daniels picks a college it will all be about him, and no team needs such a distraction.