I think Barnes encouraged him to move on. He was making the 2nd most NIL on the team to do nothing for 1.5 years. You can’t take a redshirt and still be as unplayable as he was this year, while making that kind of money. We just freed up a good chunk of budget to go portal shopping ourselves.
He's never quite looked comfortable handling the ball, imo. If he knows he's going to drive, he can do it, but the decision making and playmaking doesn't really seem to be there for him.
My highly trusted VN source is saying there is a much better chance that Awaka leaves than anyone else. NIL related.
DK showing this year should help us but then again not many out there want the challenge and to work as hard as he did. No player at UT ever spent more time on the court than DK did. He opened up the gym and shut it down every night.
Clarification is that he’s actually going to declare for the draft and portal at the same time, with an his first priority being working out and meeting with NBA teams.