Yante Maten had a specific range he wanted to be drafted in.
It was actually fairly high in the first round, according to Georgia head coach Mark Fox. Essentially, if Maten was going to stay in the NBA draft, he needed to be assured of being a first-rounder without any wiggle room.
Those assurances couldn’t be made, which led to Maten’s return to Georgia. While the NBA is every player’s end-goal, Georgia sure stands to benefit by getting a player of Maten’s caliber back for another year.
“He had a target in the first round,” Fox said.