Three Alabama men’s basketball players elected to test the NBA draft process without hiring an agent, meaning they can choose to return to school after receiving feedback at the next level. In a Wednesday radio interview, head coach Nate Oats said Kira Lewis, John Petty and Herbert Jones are “all in different spots” when it comes to their draft projections.

“You can put your name in and test it once before you actually put it in and leave it in, so with Petty and Herb, it only made sense. This was the last time they could actually do this before their careers are done, so we kind of anticipated that a little bit,” Oats told Wimp and Barry Sanderson on Inside the Locker Room. “Before, in a normal year when you could actually go workout, it would make a lot of sense to go get some workouts, get feedback. Well right now, the only feedback’s coming from on the phone. … I am getting a lot of calls.”

Last week, Oats revealed Lewis and Petty were going to test the NBA draft waters, and both players later announced those intentions on social media. Four days later, Jones joined his teammates in the draft pool with an announcement via social media. At the moment, all three players have until June 15 to withdraw their names from the draft, although due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the deadline could be pushed back to a late date.

For now, the three players are trying to gather feedback from NBA teams to help them decide whether to see the process through and remain in the draft or return to Tuscaloosa for another year with Oats and their teammates. But the virus has left them unable to work out for teams, leaving the evaluation to their game film and conversations with their coach. Speaking with the Sandersons on Wednesday morning, Oats shared his thoughts on all three.

“Herb was hurt all year. It’s hard to get an eval on Herb,” Oats said. “Defensively, I think he can play in the league for 15 years. He’s got to his offense up to par to play in the league. I think that will be pretty much the feedback we get, and I think that he kind of knows that, too.

“Kira, it seems like, it’s not inevitable he’s first round, but he’s probably in enough from the feedback I’m getting. Him and his family are going to have to make a decision. Now, he’s still young, too. He’s only 18 years old, so that’s a different deal. I think him and his parents are going to have to decide what they want to do. But if he was going to be in the big league all year, it probably would make sense. If you’re going to be up and down or more in the G League, I think you’re better off staying in college than playing in the G League.

“But that’s the feedback they’ve got to try to figure out. Whoever drafts him, are they going to leave him with the big team, or are they going to try to assign him to the G League. I think that’s what they’ve got to figure out. So, they’ve got to get an agent that really knows what’s going on to help them sort through that whole process.

Alabama junior wing Herbert Jones

“Petty’s the intriguing one where he had a really good year compared to what he’d had his first two years. He’s that guy that they’re looking for in the league right now. He’s got length, he can shoot and he showed he can guard this year. He’s still got to put weight on and do different stuff. I think they’ve got him projected anywhere in the second round to not drafted.

“Well, if he’s not going to get drafted -- I think there were 76 underclassmen last year who left their name in the draft that didn’t get drafted. He doesn’t need to be one of those this year. If he’s not going to get a guaranteed contract, I think him and his mother are smart enough to where he should come back. It’s just can you get the proper feedback, and it’s harder without being able to work out. But you can still get the feedback from teams.”

During a teleconference last week, Oats said he and his staff are assuming Lewis and Petty will not return for the 2020-21 season and are actively recruiting their replacements. As for Jones, the now-second-year coach believes his top defender will return for his senior year.

“I think where you get stuck is where you assume they’re all coming back and then all of the sudden at the last minute, they don’t come back and then you’re screwed with your roster, especially with guards,” Oats said. “So, with Kira, we kind of assumed last year with all the feedback we got that there’s a good chance if he played well -- and we knew the system we wanted to run and assumed he’d played well.

“We did bring in (Jahvon) Quinerly. We’ve also got some more combo guards that’s kind of in there. So, we’re assuming that he’s got a pretty good chance of getting drafted where he needs to. Even with Petty, we’re kind of assuming he’s not going to make it back and recruiting that way. And then if he does come back, it just helps make the team better.

“With Herb, I’m assuming he’s staying. He’s almost said as much. Him and his family, they’re just more kind of going through it. So, that’s kind of the approach we’re taking. We want to play multiple guards anyways. Shoot, if the guards are big enough, we could play four guards. At Buffalo, we played four guards. One of them was 6-7, but we started four guards my last two years and made it up to 14th in the country. We want to play multiple guards. We need multiple guys that can pass, dribble and shoot to play the way we want to play. If we have an extra one of those in the backcourt, I don’t think that’s the worst thing for our team.”

Listen to Oats’ full conversation with Wimp and Barry Sanderson by CLICKING HERE.

Contact Charlie Potter by personal message or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).