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Walter Clayton Jr. rising as a potential top-10 NBA Draft pick, says Jay Williams
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Walter Clayton Jr. is busy right now trying to help Florida win its third national title and first since 2007.
The Gators’ All-American senior point guard has led the program on a magical run through this NCAA Tournament, and he’s having a magical run himself. Clayton’s late-game wizardry and just general clutch play have helped Florida avoid elimination in the second round against 2-time defending national champion UConn, in the regional final against Texas Tech and then Saturday in the Final Four against Auburn.
All 3 times, Clayton and the Gators stared elimination in the face, and all 3 times, Clayton and the Gators didn’t blink. On Monday night, Clayton will try to put the finishing touches on his collegiate career by cutting down the nets with his teammates in San Antonio.
But then what for Clayton? Well, the NBA, of course.
On Monday morning during ESPN’s Get Up, analysts Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg spoke about Clayton, and Williams now believes that Clayton could be a top-10 NBA Draft pick this summer — or maybe even higher.
“A lot of scouts are starting to firmly believe that he could crack the top 10… I could make a case that he could be the second or third pick in the NBA Draft,” said Williams.
He went on to describe Clayton as a mixture of Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard, truly high praise for Florida’s elite backcourt leader. Meanwhile, Seth Greenberg compared Clayton’s run to the legendary run produced by UConn’s Kemba Walker in leading the Huskies to a national title in 2011.
RELATED: Even with basketball season coming to an end, stay locked into the Florida sports betting apps for action all year long.
All of that will shake out for Clayton in the next few months in the lead-up to the NBA Draft in late June. For now, there is a job to do for him in college, and it directly involves taking down Houston in Monday night’s national title game.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
