Now that Richardson has thrown his name in for the draft, let's see where he might get picked.
Earlier today, Syracuse Orange freshman Malachi Richardson announced he's declaring for the NBA Draft while not signing with an agent. New rules this year allow players to test the waters by throwing their names into the draft, seeing where they'd potentially be selected, and then have 10 days after the fact to decide if they'd like to return to school, so long as they haven't hired an agent.
The good news is that not having an agent means Richardson at least has an interest in coming back to Syracuse. The bad news may be that if he's projected to be drafted fairly, it might be enough to pull him away from the Orange.
That said, most of the latest draft projections are all over the board. The highest projection puts Malachi as the 24th overall pick. NBAdraft.net and HoopsHype.com both have Richardson getting selected in that slot, albeit to different teams. ESPN's Chad Ford lists him as the 55th best overall prospect in the draft and the 10th-best shooting guard, projecting him as either a second round pick or undrafted.
Other sites don't project the freshman guard getting drafted, such as USA Today, Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman, and CBS Sports, although some of these sites only focus on the first round.
If chosen in the second round or not at all, I'd speculate that Malachi would return with the potential to prove himself enough in his second year in the Orange uniform to break into the first round in the 2017 draft.
