{"id":712244,"date":"2026-04-17T06:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712244\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:58:17","slug":"espn-analyst-weighs-in-on-braylon-mullins-nba-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712244\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN analyst weighs in on Braylon Mullins’ NBA decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should he stay, or should he go?<\/p>\n

Braylon Mullins<\/a>\u2018 decision is undoubtedly the most important of the offseason for the UConn men\u2019s basketball<\/a> team, and college and NBA analysts everywhere are weighing in.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Seth Greenberg had this piece of advice for Mullins: Run your own race.<\/p>\n

Asked whether or not Mullins should declare for the draft, Greenberg said while it\u2019s not his decision, he thinks sticking around another year can only help the 19-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had one bit of advice for Braylon, it\u2019s run your own race. You\u2019re going to get to the finish line. So enjoy where you are and run your own race,\u201d Greenberg told The Courant. \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone pressure you into running a race that you really don\u2019t want to run right now. The NBA\u2019s going to always be there. The NBA\u2019s not going anywhere for that kid. Coming back will only help him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullins averaged 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 28.3 minutes per game as a freshman last season. He shot 42.1 percent from the floor and 33.5 percent from the 3-point line. NBA Draft projections for him<\/a> are all over the map, with some major outlets slotting him as high as No. 9 and some as low as No. 30.<\/p>\n

Still, with his size (6 feet 6) and a shooting stroke that Jim Calhoun has called one of the \u201cprettiest\u201d he\u2019s ever seen<\/a> (Dan Hurley agrees), Mullins is a wanted man at the next level.<\/p>\n

Greenberg said his decision shouldn\u2019t just be about where he\u2019ll go in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows he\u2019s probably going to be a lottery pick next year,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cI think you only get a chance to do this one time, college. Maturity has a lot to do with it. Is he mature enough to live an NBA lifestyle? Or does he enjoy being on a college campus and everything that it has to offer, and give himself a chance to get a little stronger and mature to some extent?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to be somewhere between (the 14th pick) and probably 25, I would think. He\u2019s going to probably next year be between 4 and 10 (million dollars), so the money could be significantly more next year (at UConn).\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenberg said his NBA comp for Mullins would be somewhere between former Utah Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek and Miami Heat star Tyler Herro.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to tighten up his handle, but he\u2019s got a middle game, he\u2019s got a runner. He\u2019s a very, very good player. He\u2019s obviously not afraid of the moment. He\u2019s continuing to get his shot off quicker. He could create space off the bounce a little bit more, but he\u2019s a terrific player, and he loves the game. You can see he loves the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prospects for Karaban, Reed<\/p>\n

Greenberg also shared his thoughts on the two Huskies who are guaranteed to be in the June NBA Draft conversation, Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed. Both are considered likely second-round picks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex is going to be on an NBA roster. You want Alex Karaban in your locker room. You want Alex Karaban on your practice court. You want his winning pedigree. Alex Karaban will find a way to get on the court and to help his team be successful,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can try to pick him apart, you can say, well he\u2019s older, he\u2019s been in college four years. He\u2019s got a maturity and a sense of purpose and an understanding of who he is and how he wins. He would be an incredible, tremendous asset to any NBA organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTarris, you saw him grow. Connecticut wasn\u2019t easy for Tarris. I was there for his first practice at UConn and it was an absolute shock to him. Once he immersed himself and got lost in the program and got lost in the work, you saw him get better day by day by day. He trusted the work. He trusted being pushed and challenged. It became part of his being.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s got a legitimate chance to be in the NBA. He can rebound, he can play out of double teams, he can play in the short roll, he\u2019s pretty good at getting angles. He\u2019s not an uber-athlete, but he\u2019s learned to compete at a level that you have to compete at to earn a roster spot in that league. And I wouldn\u2019t have said that two years ago. I might not have said that at the start of this year. But the last three months, you saw a lightbulb go on in his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Reibe entering portal<\/p>\n

Last week, UConn backup center Eric Reibe<\/a> announced he was entering the transfer portal. Reibe was a highly-rated recruit and figured to at least compete for the starting center spot at UConn next year, which made the move somewhat head-scratching. The seven-footer from Germany averaged 5.9 points in 13.8 minutes per game as a freshman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids, they have so many voices in their ear. There\u2019s a thing called patience,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to find a better situation than he had at UConn. He\u2019s getting coached every day, he\u2019s getting challenged every day, he\u2019s around good players. He\u2019s learning the game. He\u2019s in a system where they use bigs to play all over the floor. But unfortunately, and that\u2019s why I go back to run your own race, thee kids have so much static in their ears. There\u2019s so many voices. They\u2019ve got to figure out, what\u2019s the most important voice? And it shouldn\u2019t be dollars and cents. It\u2019s great you want to make money. It shouldn\u2019t be what an agent thinks he should do. It should be what he thinks he should do.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of these agents are going to look for the biggest and best deal because they\u2019re getting 10, 20 percent, instead of the best situation. What\u2019s the best situation for a young man\u2019s development? Where is that track record where most players have gotten better? Is it hard to play at UConn? Yeah, it\u2019s hard to play at UConn. Is there a standard at UConn? Yeah, there\u2019s a standard at UConn. I hate to tell you but if you want to get where you want to go, you\u2019re going to be held to a standard. Because getting where you want to go (the NBA) is the most exclusive club in the world. And there\u2019s only a certain number of spots. And if you think it\u2019s easy? It\u2019s not easy. Just like all these guys thought when they went from high school to college it was easy. It ain\u2019t easy. It takes time, and patience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should he stay, or should he go? Braylon Mullins\u2018 decision is undoubtedly the most important of the offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[6689,7,17605,217,325,2340,925,1342,130,2680,2341,2679,68003,6,12,231,772,1544,30937,66,922,2681],"class_list":["post-712244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-analyst","tag-basketball","tag-braylon-mullins","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-news","tag-decision","tag-espn","tag-hartford-courant","tag-huskies","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-seth-greenberg","tag-sports","tag-uconn","tag-uconn-mens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116418756684863307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712244","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=712244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}