By MATT WHITFIELD & ADAM ZAGORIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Thon Maker was named MVP of the NBPA Top 100 Camp, where he announced Thursday that he will not go to college during the next year and will instead graduate next June as a part of the Class of 2016.
Playing in his third NBPA Top 100 Camp, the 7-foot Maker averaged 15.8 points and 7.9 rebounds as of Sunday.
His decision, in turn, has implications for his recruitment and for the 2016 NBA Draft. The 7-foot Maker had originally been projected as a late-first round pick in 2016 by DraftExpress.com, but is no longer in the 2016 mock.
“I tried to get in the 2015 class. It just didn’t work out, so I’m going to stay,” Maker said, according to Ben Roberts of the Herald-Leader. “I’ll make it official here that I’ll stay (in 2016) and just play it out. Take my visits in November and play another year with my brother.”
Ed Smith, Maker’s guardian, recently told SNY.tv that Indiana and Arizona State were among the schools offering an option whereby Maker would enroll at the Christmas break in 2015 and spend a year-and-a-half or more on campus.
“There is no one-and-a-half year plan in place,” Smith said then. “It is when he is ready. If it takes 3 1/2 years then so be it. The feel is that if he went mid-year he would be more effective in Year 2 because he would have had the summer and the fall to get better.”
Now it appears Maker will spend all of next year at Athlete Institute in Ontario and continue to play for Orangeville Prep.
Asked if he would definitely play college ball in the U.S. at some point, Maker said, ““Of course.”
His Orangeville Prep teammate Jamal Murray, meantime, may still reclass to 2015 from 2016 and has recently visited Kentucky and Oregon.
