Alabama Basketball has three players who currently have their names in the NBA Draft, one of which is guard John Petty. On Saturday, Nate Oats hinted that Petty could be staying in the Draft.
Over the past few weeks, Alabama basketball has changed their roster quite a bit by adding a plethora of recruits and transfers, but also losing a couple of players to the draft or the transfer portal.
One of the players many thought would be back in Tuscaloosa for his senior season would be John Petty, but on Saturday Nate Oats hinted at quite the opposite:
What a year for JP! Can’t wait to see what the future holds for this young man. https://t.co/ck6YpODqZj
— Nate Oats (@nate_oats) April 18, 2020
With this tweet, the narrative has been flipped and it looks as if John Petty will NOT be returning to the Crimson Tide. If this is true, this would only confirm what I have been hearing for quite some time now.
Petty is a father to a little girl and if he does decide to officially leave Tuscaloosa, it might not be for the typical route of the NBA or G-League. I have heard a couple of rumors that Petty could be exploring the international route, but that is obviously not yet confirmed.
In his senior season with the Crimson Tide, Petty averaged 14.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Petty was one of the most important players with Alabama this past season as he notched 20 points or more eight times this season while scoring more than 30 twice with his season-high being 39 against Samford in December.
However, despite being such a huge piece for Alabama last season and really in each of his three seasons with the Crimson Tide, Petty is not included in any mock draft and is projected to go undrafted.
Obviously, this doesn’t officially mean he will go undrafted, but there’s a pretty good chance that it will be the case. Overall, Petty is a very talented player who when he gets in his zone, is a lethal shooter from anywhere on the floor and could without a doubt help whatever team he winds up on.
If this does officially mean John Petty will be leaving Alabama, Petty ends his college career averaging 11.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game over three seasons while maintaining a 42.2% field goal percentage and a 69.4% free throw percentage.
In addition to this Petty was named to the All-SEC Second Team in 2019-20 and made the NCAA Tournament with the Crimson Tide in 2017-18.