Virginia junior small forward Justin Anderson plans to enter this year’s draft, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Wojnarowski reported this weekend that he was leaning toward doing so. The 21-year-old is arranging meetings with agents for later this week, Wojnarowski hears, cautioning that he’s yet to sign with one. Sunday was the last day that players who formally declared for the draft could withdraw and retain their NCAA eligibility, but Anderson has yet to make his entry official, so he remains in a flexible position as long as he doesn’t sign with an agent. The NBA gives underclassmen until April 26th to formally enter the draft.
Anderson is the 30th-best prospect on Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him 32nd. He jumped into a more prominent role this season for Virginia with swingman Joe Harris, last year’s 33rd overall pick, off to Cleveland. Anderson put up 12.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game this year, with scintillating 45.2% shooting from behind the arc. He nonetheless shot only 29.4% on three-point attempts as a sophomore, and Ford lists consistency on his jump shot as an area in need of improvement.
A fractured pinkie and an appendectomy forced him to miss eight games, and he came off the bench for his last four appearances of the season after returning from an absence of more than a month. Anderson scored only eight points and grabbed just one rebound while missing all four of his three-pointers in Virginia’s loss to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament round of 32.