When Marquette’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper announced he’d be testing the NBA waters, there was barely a ripple nationally. Sure, a key cog possibly leaving a national title contender garnered some Tweets and headlines, but if you follow NBA Draft Twitter, there wasn’t any swell of excitement at a tempting prospect making the leap.
In fact, having logged most of the high quality mocks and big boards, you’d get the sense most didn’t even realize OMax existed. Only The Athletic and ESPN had him in the top-70 as of April.
Heck, even as recently as Monday, May 15, there was still very little pub. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic was the lone April scout that had truly bought in, slotting OMax at 37 on his Big Board, while USA Today came in guns blazing, with a first round evaluation.
The full consensus, which tool over 150 sources, however, still had him in the undrafted stage (and still does as of May 17th). This is all to say, OMax wasn’t some trendy entrant generating lots of buzz.
And then the NBA Combine happened.
Prosper showed what is evident to has ever watched him play, that he’s an athletic specimen, able to combine incredible speed and athleticism with NBA-quality length.
Not content with a good first day, OMax put on a show in the scrimmages on the 2nd day, and became the talk of the Combine. Don’t take my word for it, either.
Which is all to say, though it isn’t official just yet, at this point, we should expect the OMax will keep his name in the draft and won’t be returning to Marquette for his senior season. (I’ll write more on that once it is official, but no need to panic. It’s a huge, loss, of course, but the models still like Marquette plenty without him.)
Prosper is closer to making his dream a reality, thanks to his hard work and incredible growth. We saw glimpses all season, but he has been able to put it all on display in front of the league’s decision makers. Major props are in order.
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