Thon Maker of the Carlisle School (Va.), the consensus No. 1 player in the Class of 2016, is considering reclassifying to 2015, his legal guardian, Ed Smith, confirmed Sunday to SNY.tv.
The news was previously reported by Evan Daniels of Scout.com.
Maker holds offers from Duke, Louisville, Kansas and Memphis, among others, with interest from Kentucky.
“I will monitor Thon’s progress academically and physically,” Smith told SNY.tv. “Thon would also like to become more involved with the Australian Junior and Senior National program under coach [Andrej] Lemanis. Playing in the U19 World Championships is something that is important to Thon.
“To begin forming a relationship with and an understanding of the Australian system is important. We will try to structure our progression with this in mind. This is all part of our decision to reclassify or not.”
The next U19 World Championship is slated for the summer of 2015 in Greece, but Maker needs to make a certain amount of training camps in order to be able to play.
As reported by SNY.tv in March, Maker and Smith met with Lemanis, the Australian National Team coach, about him potentially playing with the Boomers going forward.
It’s possible Maker — an Australian citizen born in South Sudan in 1997 — could be in the mix for the Boomers in the 2016 Rio or 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
There are currently four Australians in the NBA — former No. 1 pick Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova.
Moreover, Australian point guard Dante Exum is projected as a top-5 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, and 2015 LSU commit Ben Simmons of Montverde (FL) Academy is considered a future pro, too.
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