That's the beauty of this debate, we can be here all day, and only time will tell. But, I'll make a few points-- First, look at Tashaun Prince, he stayed at Kentucky until his senior year, but his stats were very comparable to Randolph's (Prince is a better 3 point shooter, but poorer rebounder and shot blocker), and he still was a 23rd pick to Detroit. By most accounts, Randolph will go much higher. (Prince's stats): http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/tracker/player?playerId=17561 (Randolph's stats): http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=36181 Then, let's look at how a "senior" broke in in the NBA... look at his minutes and averages at Detroit...he had minimal minutes in his first year, and developed over time. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1724 I think the bottom line is any player, whether they're a senior or freshman, has to "deal" with the adjustment of the NBA. But, if you're serious about getting better, I would argue that there is no better way to see if you're ready for the L than playing 82 games instead of 30, by going to practice as a living, etc. I think your point about the "distractions" of the NBA is kind of a hyped point. Plenty of high schoolers have shown the ability to keep out of trouble and do well as young kids (Kobe, Garnett, Lebron, Jermaine O'Neal, etc.)--some of them develop very quickly and others take longer, but if it's going to be that 2-3 year development/adjustment period for everyone, why not get paid for it? Honestly, most of these big time kids have developed "support systems" on their teams to help with this. So, we can debate about whether Randolph made a mistake, and whether he's going to make it in this league 3-5 years from now--but it's a crapshoot to that same extent with most of the kids in this draft. Also, bottomline is, if the kid's heart is not in school (and based upon some of these statements in this article today), Randolph probably wouldn't have been doing a lot of good playing on our team next year. As a fan, I'd love to see these kids stay in school, but that's just not reality. http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/21661159.html
