IF he says he’s putting his name in.

It does not automatically mean that he’s hiring an agent, and it does not mean that he thinks he’s ready to play in the NBA right now. I read far too much criticism of AJ Abrams from the mainstream media last season when he made the decision to test the waters. I thought it was perfectly harmless, even though I did question the timing of his announcement because of DJ Augustin. I think any junior with NBA ambitions would be smart to get all the advice they can from the people who matter most, i.e. those who will be making the decisions on draft day. They can work out for as many teams as will have them on someone else’s dime and get insight from experts on their strengths, weaknesses, and likelihood of getting drafted this year, next year, or whenever. Even people who are 100% positive they want to return to school could do worse than to take advantage of that opportunity. As long as you go into it with reasonable expectations, I see absolutely nothing wrong with it.

In Dex’s case, testing the waters can only help Texas. I think a lot of teams would like to see Dex work out, just to see where he is at this stage. If they make recommendations to him on where he needs to improve and he comes back and works hard to make those improvements to his game, it makes Texas a better team and Dex a higher draft pick next year.

That’s not to say that it would hurt my feelings for him to just get it out of the way tomorrow and announce that he’s staying. There are obvious benefits to not having to deal with it for another 2.5 months. But it won’t bother me at all if he decides to throw his name in, as long as he keeps a level head about it and avoids any delusions of grandeur about his current draftability.