Clemson basketball prediction: Aamir Simms will be back 2021

A little more than a week ago, Clemson basketball junior Aamir Simms announced his intention to test the NBA waters while remaining eligible.

If you follow Clemson basketball, this may have come as a shock to you. Aamir Simms was good in 2019 and had his best year statistically in the three years he has been at Clemson but he was not NBA elite either. At just over 13 points per game, he was not even in the Top 300 of scorers nationally and he was 166th in rebounding.

None of those scream “declare for the NBA after your junior year”. However, there is nothing wrong with testing the waters and going through the process. Should he get invited to the NBA draft combine and go through personal workouts with teams, it will give Simms a baseline of what he has to improve upon should he want to see his NBA dream come true at some point in the future.

Simms will have until June 3rd to go through the process and determine whether or not to come back to Clemson for his senior year. I would imagine he will be back in the orange and purple for the 2020-2021 season as it will be almost impossible to go from not in the Top 100 prospects to being among the 60 that are chosen in June.

Sure, he has great size and is extremely athletic, but so is nearly every guy in the NBA. A guy 6’8 that can shoot three’s is not exactly uncommon anymore.

The good news is with Simms coming back, Clemson basketball will have the best roster that head coach Brad Brownell has had during his time at Clemson and there will be no excuses for this team to not at least make the Sweet 16 in 2021.

With four of the five starters back with the addition of freshman ballers P.J. Hall and Olivier-Maxence Prosper, the Tigers will be very dangerous and will make some noise next year.