Rivals Roundtable: Robinson, reclassification, Thomas-Irving

The Rivals.com basketball recruiting crew returns this weekend with a roundtable discussion of some recent hoops topics.

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ERIC BOSSI: As long as the NBA requires players to wait a year after high school graduation before entering the NBA Draft, I think elite prospects are going to continue to look into alternatives to college and in my mind, what Robinson is doing is a natural progression. Now, how he got to this point is a little unconventional – attending Western Kentucky for a few weeks in the summer, deciding to leave, going through transfer process and then deciding to shut it down – but there's no doubt that other players and families will be watching closely to see what happens.

What I find most interesting about Robinson's move is that it's my understanding that he has legitimate overseas offers for some legitimate money. I assume that there is an agent or financial advisor out there bankrolling this year he'll be taking off so he won't be without cash. If this works out and Robinson is drafted in the NBA Draft Lottery – which is a possibility – it opens up a whole new can of worms and there are a lot of possibilities for other prospects to do something similar and find ways to make some financial noise during that year they are prepping for the Draft.

COREY EVANS: Robinson has always had a mystique about him as he was not the most covered five-star prospect and tracking him down throughout the years has never been an easy thing to do. Now that the plan is for Robinson to forgo his freshman year before submitting his name for the NBA Draft, the unknown about the former WKU pledge will remain for the NBA personnel this winter. I do believe in Robinson and his talent level. He has shades of Tyson Chandler and Hassan Whiteside to him but the fact that scouts will not have to pick apart his rather limited offensive skillset compared to other comparable bigs in college may help his cause even further as an NBA Draft prospect.

DAN MCDONALD: As long as he's working on his game throughout the year and leading up to the NBA Draft, I don't think sitting out this season will really hurt him at all. In fact, it may even help him. It doesn't give scouts a chance to pick him apart all year long and he doesn't risk an injury that could impact his stock. With his size, skill and athleticism, there is little doubt that he'll be a very high pick no matter what route he takes, as long as there are no off-court issues.

ERIC BOSSI: I do think that it has gotten to be a bit of a mess. For many reasons. The primary one being that most people don't really understand what reclassification is. For the most part, kids enrolling early are actually enrolling with their natural high school class. They are passing up on a planned fifth (prep) year. However, that's not something that is easy to explain and there are certainly exceptions. Cases such as 2018's former No. 1 player, Marvin Bagley III, legitimately skipping his senior year to enroll early aren't nearly as frequent. In the case of Bagley or anybody else who skips their last year of high school, it can put them one year closer to the riches of the NBA but I do worry about the negative impact it could have. Much of an evaluation is made expecting that other year of development and as a parent I can't help but wonder about the social impact of giving up that last year of being a regular – or as close to it as possible – kid. I wonder if we need to come up with a system where we either rank all players together – regardless of year in school – or start looking into ranking players by year of birth.

COREY EVANS: The recent reclassification of prospects is not a bad thing but it could be a deciding factor in who cuts down the nets in April. Without Bagley, Duke would still have been a contending national championship threat but with him, the Blue Devils are arguably the best team in America. It will be interesting to see if others follow suit and attempt to speed up their NBA clock and enroll a year early in college, thus enabling for greater monetary gain as a professional athlete. Bagley may have opened Pandora’s box for future elite, five-star prospects.

DAN MCDONALD: I'll go with inconsequential on this one. I hear people say all the time "oh, [insert player's name] is only that good because he's a year older" and it drives me nuts. Good basketball players are good basketball players, regardless of how old they are. The truth is, if a kid is older than his peers and his body develops quicker but his game doesn't develop over time, it all catches up, and most coaches are smart enough to see where this applies. I'd say the most relevant example of a player reclassifying is Bagley, and in a case like his, I think it makes a ton of sense because he's ready to be a dominant college player now and he'll be ready to start getting paid in the NBA a year from now. He just helped himself get one extra year of making big money.

ERIC BOSSI: Very interesting question and one where I want to be careful because I don't want readers going, Bossi just said Johnny XYZ is the next Kyrie Irving! We are also talking about two players who aren't necessarily easy to find comparisons for. It's certainly not a perfect comparison, but five-star point guard Ayo Dosunmu from the class of 2018 has some Kyrie Irving in his game. He's a big, strong kid who is elusive with the dribble and we've written in the past how he's a professional layup maker because of how regularly he finishes around the rim and from different angles. As for Thomas, it's tough to find guys who played with as big of a chip on their shoulder as I remember him playing with as a high schooler. Also, it's got to be a little guy like Thomas. So, I'll go with four-star point guard Tyler Harris from Memphis. He's not quite as mean and nasty as Thomas was at the same age and doesn't do quite as much at the rim, but he's a sub 6-footer who plays with a lot of heart, isn't afraid to let shots fly and doesn't seem to care that he's the smallest guy on the floor.

COREY EVANS: Cole Anthony, the top-ranked guard in the 2019 class, has the Kyrie Irving-like handles that put his defenders on skates along with the explosiveness and confident scoring prowess at the basket. With Thomas, Devon Dotson, a top-30 guard in the 2018 class, has much of the former Washington star within his game. While he is a bit bigger, he does have a similar physical mold where the chip on his shoulder is very much in line with Thomas. Dotson has had his critics but all that he has done, just like Thomas, is prove that he belongs among the elite.

DAN MCDONALD: I'm sure this will go over well in both Durham and Chapel Hill, but the guy who reminds me most of former Duke Blue Devil is UNC commit Coby White. He's a straight bucket-getter, which is what I think Uncle Drew is at his best, but he can play both guard spots and is similar in size at same age. The Isaiah Thomas comparison is harder because he's a more unique player. Tyler Harris comes to mind given his size and his style of play. IT4's best comparison might be in the 2020 class with Sharife Cooper. He's probably already taller than Thomas, but he's still on the smaller side, he's tough with a chip on his shoulder, and can do it all from the point guard position.