Freshman guard Trae Young is lighting up scoreboards around the country with the University of Oklahoma men’s basketball team, and as the Sooners continue their run toward the Big XII Tournament, a decision looms large in his future.
At the end of the 2017-2018 season, Young will have fulfilled the one-year post-high school requirement to enter the NBA Draft, and according to Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, who is in Oklahoma City for a game against the Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena tonight, it should be an easy choice for the freshman to make.
“What decision? That ain’t no decision,” James said, flatly, when asked after shootaround this morning. “That’s like saying, ‘Am I waking up this morning?’ That ain’t no decision, or brushing my teeth. That ain’t a decision. He better go pro.”
In 24 games for the Sooners (16-8), Young has averaged 29.5 points, 9.4 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals over 34.9 minutes of play. Young has converted 44.3 percent of his field goal attempts (212 of 479), 38.5 percent of his three-point tries (97 of 252) and 84.3 percent of his free throws (188 of 223).
Young has handed out 226 assists against 128 turnovers, a 1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio, stolen 45 passes, blocked seven shots and scored 709 points, more than 2.5 times better than Oklahoma’s next leading scorer, Christian James.
Should the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Young, a native of Norman, Oklahoma, decide to forgo his remaining three years of college eligibility and enter the 2018 NBA Draft, where it has been predicted that he could be a top-five pick, James feels there is only one more important question left to answer.
“How much money he’s going to spend monthly and how much he’s going to save?” James said. “That’s the only adjustment he’s got to worry about.”
