Why Kevin Durant Should Enter the NBA Draft

NOTE: This article is a direct response to the following article: Durant Should Not Enter the 2007 NBA Draft

In the past few weeks, Greg Oden has admitted his desire to stay in college for one more year despite being virtually guaranteed of being a top selection. If he did stay in college, Oden would be making a wise choice. Centers of his maturity and size at such a young age are the rarest of all rarities. He will be the number one pick in whatever draft he decides to enter.

Kevin Durant, on the other hand, may never be as highly coveted of a draft pick as he is this season. Durant has had a terrific season as he has averaged a double-double while scoring over twenty-five points a game. He is still very young at the ripe age of nineteen and, like Oden, is a lock for a top-three selection in the NBA draft. While Durant may seem like a diamond in the rough, he really is anything but.

Look at the NBA today and you will see a league littered with talented power forwards. Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Elton Brand, Amare Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Carlos Boozer to just name a few. Talented power forwards can be found in almost every single NBA draft. Remember when Marvin Williams was drafted at number two a couple years ago? Does anyone really think he would have gone that high had he stayed in college another year? Look at Joakim Noah and the hit his draft status took when he opted to stay in college. Great centers have the luxury of choosing when they come out, power forwards do not.

Power forward prospects need to get into the league as quickly as possible. Look at every name on the above list and see that almost every single one of those players struggled to adapt to the NBA. That doesn't mean they were wrong in making the leap. Durant may be too thin and not smart enough for the NBA game, but he isn't going to get much better until he competes against professionals.

In addition, there is a misconceived perception that Durant could earn more money by honing his skills another year at the college level. Let's forget about the fact that rookies get paid on a set scale based on where they are drafted. Let's even forget that Kevin Durant has already reportedly got a shoe deal worth tens of millions of dollars in place. The fact is that Durant already dominated on the college level. NBA scouts know exactly what he can do. If he stayed for another year he may, and the key emphasis of the point is may, move up from second overall to first. But the pay difference between the two picks is so minimal it should be ignored. There is no good fiscal reason for him to stay in college.

And why would Durant want to stay in Texas? The best player in the college was on a team that was so poorly coached that it cannot even reach the Sweet Sixteen. Had the team proven it could commit an extended run in the tournament, like Noah's Gators did, staying might make sense. But Texas struggled to beat a thirteen seed before being blown out by USC.

So now you're asking a talented freshman with unreal hype to sacrifice a guaranteed high-draft pick and an enormous shoe deal which could easily go to next year's big athlete while risking injury to stay in college? Why? So Texas can continue to sell tickets and make record profits they won't share with their athletes? So Durant can pretend he is getting a higher education while breezing through blow-off classes?

Kevin Durant is ready for the NBA. It would be the wrong decision for him to stay in school.