2012 NBA Draft: Early Entry The Right Decision For Thomas Robinson

Whenever a player enters the NBA draft early the tendency is to evaluate the decision. What are the positives in the decision? The negatives? Was it the right choice for the player? With Thomas Robinson set to be the latest Jayhawk drafted after early entry, those questions hardly seem to come up.

Entering the 2012 NBA draft is full of upside for Robinson as a player. Kansas is coming off of a title game appearance led by Robinson throughout the season and he was only ever overshadowed by the eventual player of the year when it came to the college basketball discussion.

Robinson is perhaps the most polished of the top five prospects despite the fact that he isn't widely viewed as the player with the most upside. In fact he might fall to the bottom of the top five because of the 'upside' factor and that in itself is a huge reason why this is the right choice for Robinson.

Robinson is a junior. In college basketball and basketball in general the formula for elevating your draft stock seems to be show enough but not too much. Robinson played behind the Morris twins during his first two seasons and looked like a raw talent with great potential. This year he exploded and more than reached the potential pointed to by many. The risk in coming back is that you go from being discovered to being exposed.

Robinson's stock is at it's peak. His play commanded national attention, his team experienced great success and his attitude, work ethic and tenacity is still fresh in everyone's mind as one of the tremendous stories in college basketball this year.

It's time for Thomas Robinson. Another year would have only served to provide more scouting ammunition in breaking down his game and looking for flaws. He's a player that needs to be challenge, needs to constantly push himself and this move does just that.

A year ago Josh Selby entered the NBA draft and many Kansas fans voiced some level of frustration in that decision. You won't find any of that with Robinson. He grew up in front of everyone in Lawrence and he's done everything possible to position himself as the highest draft pick during the Bill Self era. The negatives in that are non-existent and because of that, Robinson's move can only be described as a positive for everyone involved.