Hunter Dickinson announced on Tuesday that he would be withdrawing from the 2021 NBA Draft and would be returning to the Michigan Wolverines for his sophomore season. The Michigan center said the decision was a tough one and he almost went to the NBA but felt coming back to the Wolverines was the right decision. It seems likely that he got his NBA feedback and decided his likely draft selection wasn’t high enough. This return will make an already talented Michigan team that much better. They may even be a preseason Top Five team.
Big Man Hunter Dickinson is coming back … hear what he had to say to @mgobluetv today. #GoBlue ???#ForCompetitorsOnly pic.twitter.com/UB5qwktmvR
— Michigan Men’s Basketball (@umichbball) July 6, 2021
Head Coach Juwan Howard has built a powerhouse team quickly out of an already historic Michigan program. The former Fab Five player brought Dickinson in as a high school recruit and will have his services for at least one more season. Dickinson averaged 14.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game in his first season with the Wolverines. He paired those numbers with a field goal percentage of 59.8 percent. Dickinson is also a solid free-throw shooter at 73.9 percent from the charity stripe.
Dickinson said that teams viewed him as a pick in the middle of the second round this year. He also said that they said if he returned to school and worked on some things he could be a Top 25 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. This revelation makes it clear why the center decided to return to the Wolverines for his sophomore year. He now knows what NBA teams what to see out of him and he can work on his game until next year’s draft. This process has been rewarding for the big man and could help the Wolverines a lot this upcoming season.
