UNLV shooting guard Rashad Vaughn has officially thrown his name in the NBA Draft by signing with an agent.
UNLV freshman Rashad Vaughn has signed with agent Omar Wilkes of @OctagonBsktball
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) March 30, 2015
Yahoo! Sports had initially reported that Vaughn was declaring, followed by a denial from Vaughn. However, it looks like that denial was window dressing, as he's now signed with an agent and has officially moved forward with the choice.
Vaughn is an interesting case, as he hasn't played since February 10 following a meniscus tear in his left knee. Right now, he's No. 42 on my board for the draft. That puts him in the mix to be selected in the first round once all players' draft decisions have been made, but he's certainly on the outside looking in. I wrote a scouting report on him back when he got hurt, and felt he'd likely be a second round pick if he decided to declare this year. I generally still feel that way.
Despite his lofty scoring numbers for a freshman (17.8 points-per-game), he hasn't figured out a way to become efficient with his decision-making. And hey, that's not a total surprise for an 18-year-old. But that, along with the concerns that I have with his jump-shooting consistency as well as his first step for a player that likes to use ball-screens, pushes him down my board a bit.
It wouldn't be a surprise to see a team fall in love with his skill and youth though during workouts, as he's the type of fluid athlete that could perform well in one-on-one settings. But my current prediction based on what we saw this season is that he will be solidly selected in the second round. Unless his knee ends up not being totally healed, I don't think he's a threat to miss out on being selected. However, he'd need to really impress a team with his skill level in private workouts to move into the first round.
