Five possible scenarios for Louisville basketball’s 2019-20 roster
By Jacob Lane
Louisville basketball has already announced the addition of one player, but depending on what happens with the NBA Draft, there could be more movement. We layout five possible scenarios stemming from the decisions left to be made.
Now that the 2018-19 season has to come to an end, player movement is beginning to pick up. With over 95 players declaring already for the NBA Draft, and 700 or more announcing their intentions to transfer, college basketball rosters are beginning to take shape for next season. With three players already declaring for the NBA Draft, and one graduate transfer committing, Chris Mack and Louisville basketball have some big roster moves pending for next year.
A little over two weeks ago, sophomore forward Jordan Nwora announced his intent to declare for the 2019 NBA Draft without hiring an agent, allowing for him to receive feedback while keeping the door open to return for his junior season.
Just 24 hours later, redshirt junior big man Steven Enoch announced that he would also be putting his name into the NBA Draft, a decision that made sense since he was graduating in May and professional doors opportunities could be available.
Within a week of those decisions, Zac Jackson of the Athletic reported that V.J. King would also be putting his name into the draft, while keeping his options open to return to Louisville, stay in the draft, or potentially use his final season as a graduate year (he’ll graduate in May). Less than 24 hours later, Chris Mack was back on Twitter teasing a new potential player to the roster in the only fashion he knows. Just moments later, Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble, a 6’0″ redshirt junior from St. Joseph’s announced he would be heading to Louisville for his final season (he will be eligible right away as a graduate transfer).
Now with three players in the draft, 13 scholarships already accounted for and a 14th player headed to Louisville, there without question be some moves taking place over the next month or so. The deadline for players to return to school is May 29th, so we will likely be waiting until then to find out what the 2019-20 roster will look like.
While there could be others that transfer, as I wrote a few weeks ago, this particular story will operate under the circumstances that already exist. I’ll layout five possible scenarios (of course there are more than that) that could play out over the next few weeks that would have a huge impact on Chris Mack’s second year at Louisville.
Here are five scenarios including V.J. King, Jordan Nwora, and Steven Enoch.