Vince Edwards Declares For NBA Draft

RELEASE: #Purdue's Vince Edwards declares for the NBA Draft, but will not hire an agent. https://t.co/Ihm7QPRApk pic.twitter.com/esDWKVF1Il

— Purdue Boilermakers (@BoilerBall) April 5, 2016

I don't think this news is particularly surprising to many of us. Vince Edwards had a pretty good year and with the new rules for the draft basically giving no penalty to players for entering, and pushing the decision date out further, there's really no reason for a player not to declare. I think this is a good move by Edwards.

We all know Edwards is going to be coming back for his junior season. There's roughly 0.001% chance he stays in the draft but I like Purdue's odds on this one. This will allow Edwards to test the waters and be evaluated by people who are actually affiliated with the NBA. These guys will be brutally honest with Vince and tell him exactly what he needs to work on in order to improve his draft stock in a year or two. It's one thing to hear Coach Painter tell you something but when you have an independent third party telling you the same thing needs fixing it can be a huge help. The new withdraw date for the NBA draft is 10 days after the NBA draft combine. This year that is May 11th-15th. That means the date these guys will have to come back is May 25th. These new rule changes also allow players to announce for the draft multiple times with no harm to their eligibility assuming they don't hire an agent.

Edwards is now the second player to declare for the draft after freshman Caleb Swanigan did so earlier. Both of these players will be back and I think Purdue will be better for it. That's really the important thing here from our perspective. These two guys are key pieces for the 2016-2017 season and Purdue will need them to be all there mentally and physically in order to succeed.