declared for the NBA Draft<\/a> and entered the transfer portal a week after that disappointment.<\/p>\nThere was some thought he could return to school \u2014 top transfers were getting upward of $3 million \u2014 but Luis opted to stick with his initial plan of going pro.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money in the NBA is night and day compared to college. It wasn\u2019t a hard decision,\u201d Luis said. \u201cMy goal was to do the same thing at St. John\u2019s my sophomore year, but injuries held me back. I think I had an amazing year this year. [This was] ultimately the end goal, to play in the NBA and stick there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luis has been a much-debated prospect in this draft. Teams like his athleticism, versatility and scoring ability. But his 3-point shot and decision-making need work. He will have the ball in his hands less frequently on the next level.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. reacts after hitting a 3-point shot during the team\u2019s opening NCAA Tournament game.
Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough thing, but he\u2019s gotta go from a star on his team to a role player,\u201d an NBA scout familiar with Luis said. \u201cTough transition, so he\u2019s probably going to have to get some G-League reps, and go from there. Be a consistent shooter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he one of the best 75 draft prospects in this draft and is he one of the best 500 players in the world, where he should be on some kind of NBA contract?\u201d<\/p>\n
Said a second scout: \u201cHe\u2019s going to have to make some modifications to his game. He\u2019s a two-way guy for sure, because he can score the ball. But he has to learn to score the ball on my terms, as opposed to his.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luis has been somewhat of a target since that Arkansas loss. He was criticized for that performance and later questioned for not cashing in on his last year of college eligibility. He\u2019s heard the doubters.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne hundred percent, but that\u2019s how life is. You\u2019re always going to have people rooting against you,\u201d Luis said. \u201cI\u2019m fully positive. I know the amount of work I put in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luis has come a long way from those two Division I scholarship offers. His first season at St. John\u2019s was marred by injuries, a fractured left hand and nagging shin splints. He wasn\u2019t able to do much basketball-wise last summer following surgery on each shin, but still had a sensational junior season, leading the Johnnies to their best season in 25 years. If he is selected, he would become St. John\u2019s first player to hear his name called since Sir\u2019Dominic Pointer (53rd overall by the Cavaliers) in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be the same thing as winning the regular-season championship and Big East Tournament and getting a bid to the [NCAA] Tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be able to leave my little bit of a legacy at St. John\u2019s, just make that fan base proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, RJ Luis Jr. couldn\u2019t have imagined this. Forget playing in the NBA. Even big-time college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12,9160,3027,153,66,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-122701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-nba-draft-2025","12":"tag-ny-sports-minute","13":"tag-rj-luis-jr","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-st-johns-red-storm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114742190737836515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}