For anyone lamenting the ever-increasing rush of underclassmen to the NBA Draft — even when they might not be drafted — Allonzo Trier is a guy you can probably blame.
Trier proved last season that being passed over in the NBA Draft not only could be overcome but also profited from.
Undrafted as a junior out of Arizona last spring, Trier signed a two-way contract with New York, then made the team and played so well that the Knicks offered a $6.9 million two-year deal when his allotted NBA time ran out. (Two-way deals allow no more than 45 days in the NBA, with the rest in the G League.)
That made Trier a de facto lottery pick, since his new two-year contract roughly equaled the salary assigned to the No. 11 overall selection.
But, of course, Trier is the exception. Arizona has had four other players leave early and then go undrafted in the Sean Miller era.
Now there’s Brandon Randolph. The 6-foot-6-inch, 175-pound wing was the UA’s leading scorer in all games last season, averaging 12.4 points while taking by far the most shots on the team (340). However, in Pac-12 play, Randolph averaged just 10 points per game, shooting 33.2% overall and 26.5% from 3-point range.
Arizona guard Brandon Randolph (5) comes back to get the set up from head coach Sean Miller against Houston Baptist in the second half of their NCAA basketball game at McKale Center, Wednesday, November 7, 2018, Tucson, Ariz.
Randolph declared for the NBA Draft this spring, even though he slumped toward the end of his sophomore season. Rated the No. 9 shooting guard among draft prospects by ESPN last October, Randolph has dropped off analysts’ radar entering Thursday’s NBA Draft. He is not listed among ESPN’s top 100 picks, is not among the Top 99 listed on draft site The Stepien, and wasn’t among the several Pac-12 draft prospects discussed in detail on an hour-long Pac-12 podcast this week. Randolph also wasn’t among the 112 prospects given a bio page in the NBA’s official draft guide.
“Randolph has some interesting tools,” Ricky Scricca, an analyst for The Stepien, wrote to the Star, “but I think the general consensus (and I would agree) is though he has OK size, he doesn’t have the feel/IQ level or any really any outlier physical talents to propel him to being a useful NBA player.”
Randolph will get a chance to prove himself somehow. ESPN draft analyst Mike Schmitz and one NBA scout said Randolph’s size and skills could command an Exhibit 10 contract, which is the next step down from a two-way deal. Exhibit 10 deals give a player $50,000 for attending an NBA camp if they agree to play for that team’s G League affiliate if cut; additionally, they can make another $35,000 in a G League salary.
After a workout with the Hornets on Tuesday, Randolph expressed confidence in what he had to offer.
“I think there’s a lot more to my game than what people have really seen,” Randolph said. “I have great ballhandling ability, (I’m a) great shotmaker, great distributor, I think I do everything and I try to play really hard on defense. I try to have an all-around game.”
At the same time, Randolph indicated it hasn’t been easy showcasing himself throughout the predraft process. He based himself in Los Angeles while working on his game, and traveled to work out for the Jazz, Kings and Hornets, and in a group workout at Dallas. Randolph may have had other team workouts, but not all teams announce who is participating, and Randolph’s agent did not respond to a request for comment through his company’s website.
During his Hornets interview, Randolph was asked if he spoke with former high school teammates Mo Bamba and Cam Reddish about the predraft process. Bamba went No. 6 last year while Reddish is a projected lottery pick this year.
“We talk all the time but we don’t really talk about this process,” Randolph said. “This is very stressful for all of us. I just try to keep to myself and keep to my family.”
