Syracuse freshman Malachi Richardson, who is currently testing NBA draft waters, will not be participating in the 5-on-5 scrimmages on Thursday and Friday at the NBA combine.
Coming off of an impressive NCAA tournament run, Syracuse Orange freshman shooting guard Malachi Richardson is testing the waters of the NBA Draft. With the deadline to withdraw from the draft being May 25, Syracuse fans are on the edges of their seats awaiting his decision, which will greatly impact next season's Syracuse team.
While there is no certainty until an announcement is made, he may have given us a clue today as Mike Waters of syracuse.com reported today that Richardson will not be participating in the 5-on-5 scrimmages at the NBA Draft Combine.
The reason this decision holds significance is because only two players who participated in the scrimmages at last year's combine-Terry Rozier and Larry Nance Jr.-wound up being drafted in the first round. By skipping this segment of the combine, it may be an indicator that Malachi believes he is a first-rounder, lessening the chances that he returns to Syracuse next season.
Richardson's AAU coach, Rob Brown, told Waters that Malachi is interviewing with 13 teams at the combine, the maximum allowed for players. Brown also said that Malachi has gone through a couple workouts with NBA teams and expects to have more after the combine. By the end of those workouts, he said, "his situation should be a little more clear".
