Huerter expected to return to Maryland — now he’s a surefire first-round draft pick

Before this all started, when Kevin Huerter was still a sophomore at Maryland, still a college basketball player and still a normal 19-year-old by many metrics, he was, more than anything, curious.

Huerter wanted to know what NBA teams thought of him. He wanted to see how he stacked up against the country’s best players. He wanted to toss his name into draft consideration, gather feedback across a few weeks, and pluck it out in time to be back in College Park for summer workouts.

That was the plan. Then the plan changed.

“The downside was minimal,” Tom Huerter, Kevin’s father, said Tuesday of his son entering the NBA draft back in April. “But the upside was huge. I think Kevin is realizing that now.”

Now Huerter is a day away from becoming an NBA player, just two months after he decided to measure how far he was from his lifelong dream. He is expected to be a first-round pick on Thursday night — he only left Maryland because he was so sure of this — which means a guaranteed two-year contract and a guaranteed roster spot and a guarantee that he will be living in a new city this time next week.

All of this, to some degree, is a surprise to the 6-foot-7 sharpshooter from Clifton Park. Huerter knew he was more athletic than most thought. He was confident he could impress teams at the NBA combine. He felt comfortable interviewing with coaches and general managers and was ready to show off his basketball knowledge.

Yet he was not supposed to be a two-and-done player and only found out he could be because of a three-year-old rule that allows players to test the draft process without forfeiting their college eligibility.

That gave Huerter — and other once unsure players like Villanova guard Donte Divincenzo and Tulane guard Melvin Frazier — the chance to gather information, see where teams projected him and make an informed decision to stay, and soon be selected, in the NBA draft.

“That they allow you to do this I think is really, really beneficial,” Huerter said Tuesday. “Right now, this process has the players’ best interest in mind. You can just go out, work out and figure out where you are. I don’t know why more players don’t do it, and I don’t know why people criticize players for doing it either. I was expecting to go back to college, and then this became an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Leaving Maryland was a very tough decision for Huerter, who waited until the morning of May 30 (the deadline to declare for the draft or return to school) to announce his next step. He chose the Terrapins over offers from Villanova, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Virginia, among many other power-five programs, and averaged 14.8 points per game as a sophomore this past season. He also shot 41.7 percent from 3-point range and collected five rebounds and 3.4 assists a contest.

That was enough to make declaring for the NBA draft, without an agent at the time, seem like a smart decision. It was not enough, however, to make professional basketball seem like a part of Huerter’s foreseeable future. Then came the NBA combine in mid-May, his one chance to play in front of all 30 teams, and his name buzzed as much as any prospect’s. He wowed scouts in shooting drills despite a torn ligament in his dominant right hand. He shined in physical testing. He interviewed with more than half of the league and stood out in the event’s first five-on-five scrimmage.

Those four days in Chicago changed his life. He left the city as a surefire first-round pick. Eleven days later he had signed with agents Andy Shiffman and Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, and he was headed straight for the NBA.

“I don’t think there was a player who helped himself more than Kevin Huerter just did,” a Western conference scout said at the conclusion of the combine. “He answered every question about his game and now a lot of teams are going to be watching a lot of his film that they maybe hadn’t bothered with before.”

Next comes the question of where Huerter will land, which he has not had much control over as of late. Huerter had surgery on the torn ligament (in a knuckle below his right pinkie finger) last week, and he is expected to be sidelined for at least another month. He injured it during a road game at Northwestern in February and dealt with nagging pain during the pre-draft process. His right hand is currently in a splint and he has not been able to shoot or participate in last-ditch workouts for interested teams.

But his trajectory has not dipped, as he is still considered by scouts and analysts to be a mid-to-late first-round pick. The Utah Jazz (21st overall) and Los Angeles Lakers (25th) have been linked to Huerter over the last month. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said Tuesday that he would be surprised if Huerter were still available for that Lakers pick. Huerter was invited by the NBA to be in the “green room” during Thursday’s draft in New York, a spot offered to probable first-round selections, but he decided to watch with family and friends in Clifton Park.

A deadeye shooter and versatile defender, Huerter is entering the NBA at the perfect time: The best teams launch three-pointers on offense and ask their players to guard multiple positions on the other end of the floor. The rest of the league is trying to copy that model. Huerter, the curious teenager turned coveted prospect, can certainly help.

“I think it’s hard for teams to find shooting, either in free agency where it will likely cost you, or in the trade market where you have to give up something,” ESPN front office analyst Bobby Marks said this week of Huerter’s draft stock. “And to find value in the draft, if it’s in the 20s, on a player that’s going to make $2 million for the next four years and you’ve got him on a controllable contract, I think that outweighs a team [wanting] to go out and spend $5 or $6 million on a veteran shooter.”