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It has been reported by Evan Daniels of Scout.com that there is a chance that 2016 recruit Thon Maker may move up to the Class of 2015, but no decision has been made. Many people believe that he will reclassify because he is the best player in the Class of 2016, but may not want to wait around an additional year.
Maker, a 7-foot-1 center who plays in Virginia, has been compared to the likes of Kevin Durant recently. His guardian Ed Smith told multiple people that whether or not he decides to reclassify depends on how much weight he gains over the next couple months.
Maker has a lot of opportunities ahead of him and many people believe that in the near future he could be a number one pick in the NBA Draft because of his height and skill. There are some things that Smith is considering. In a recent interview that Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com conducted, Smith had this to say.
"I will monitor Thon’s progress academically and physically," Smith told SNY.tv. "Thon would also like to become more involved with the Australian Junior and Senior National program under coach [Andrej] Lemanis. Playing in the U19 World Championships is something that is important to Thon.
This is something that really intrigues Maker because not a lot of people at his age get to have the opportunity that he may have. He's ranked as ESPN's No. 1 player in the Class of 2016 and many scouts consider this to be a ringing endorsement because of what he can do. Moving up has been discussed as a good thing because he will at least be a top 5 player in his class no matter where he is. But the Class of 2015 is not as a strong of a class, but it is really deep and has good players.
The strengths of Maker's game include being able to get to the basket, being a really long player, and being a big-time shot blocker. He has the ability to make an impact wherever he goes thanks to his sizable stature. The only thing that scouts say he needs to do is build up his strength. He currently holds offers from Arizona, Georgetown, Duke, Louisville, Florida and several more.
It seems like NBA Commissioner Adam Silver may make it so that players stay in college for two years instead of one. With that in mind, moving up to the 2015 class may be a very wise decision.
In an recent article done by Kansas247, they had an chance to watch Thon play and noticed some of the things he can be better at.
On offense, it's pretty clear he wants to be seen as a potential Kevin Durant style player. He spends a lot of time floating around the perimeter, searching for jumpshots, setting (poor) screens, and trying to dribble-drive too often. One of the big issues we saw in his early game was that he actually "plays small" - that is, despite his size he can make himself easy to play against. In one series, we counted three screens that Maker set - zero of which touched the man he was trying to screen. In a later series of plays, he struggled in the post because of his tendency to over-dribble and play low to the ground. Some of Maker's problems can be attributed to lack of guard play - he often has to receive really low bounce passes in the post and rarely gets setup for easy buckets by his teammates - but many of them are of his own making.
Looking at what they said, it seems like these are some of the things he can improve upon during his senior season if he was to reclassify. The only way I will see him not moving up is if there is too great of an oppurtunity ahead of him. I think we will found out soon if he can reclassify or not because the live period is really close.
But for now, people will just have to wait.