Oklahoma Basketball: What Are Isaiah Cousins’ Chances in the NBA Draft?
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma basketball is certain to have at least one player selected in the NBA Draft the end of next month, but what are the chances of having more than one?
Virtually every NBA mock draft has Sooner All-American Buddy Hield as one of the top 10 players expected to be taken in the draft. Most NBA Draft experts are projecting that the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award winner will go somewhere between the fifth and seventh selections – to the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans or Denver Nuggets, respectively.
Hield, the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year, will be the highest Big 12 player taken in the draft, but he won’t be the only one.
When the Sooners’ 2015-16 season abruptly ended some six weeks ago with a beyond embarrassing 44-point loss to Villanova in the Final Four, it was a fair certainty that Hield would be the only Oklahoma player selected in the two rounds (60 players overall) that constitute the annual NBA Draft.
Since that time, though, fellow OU teammate Isaiah Cousins has greatly improved his stock in the NBA pre-draft process.
It helps greatly that Cousins’ play and ability were on national display his entire senior season, the result of playing alongside Hield and for the nationally ranked Sooners. Besides his shooting ability, which was at its best in his final season at OU, hitting 41 percent of his three-point shots, his size, as a 6-3 guard with a 6-6 wingspan and strong athletic ability, is perhaps the thing about Cousins that intrigues NBA scouts the most.
“Few players have helped their draft stock more in the pre-draft process thus far as much as Isaiah Cousins,” notes DraftExpress.com, in an analysis of Cousins’ NBA prospects. “Solid outings at both the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament and NBA Combine have shown NBA teams why he was such an integral part of a Final Four NBA team.
“He ticks a number of boxes with his size, shooting ability, toughness and defense, and plays a role a number of NBA teams are looking to fill at the moment as a versatile backup guard.”
DraftExpress rates the former Oklahoma guard as No. 65 in its Top 100 NBA Prospects, which would put him just outside of the draft cutoff line.
Cousins had eight points in the Sooners’ loss to Villanova in this year’s Final Four. He averaged. 12.6 points per game for the season.
Regardless of whether Cousins is selected in the upcoming draft, he is certain to get an NBA tryout as a free agent. And once you are part of the process, who knows what might happen?