Clemson forward PJ Hall to declare for NBA draft

Clemson forward PJ Hall is planning to enter the NBA draft but maintain his college eligibility, Clemson Sports has confirmed.

Hall is the second-leading scorer for the Tigers, averaging 15.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.

The junior was named third-team All-ACC earlier this year as he has put up impressive numbers, despite coming off of multiple offseason surgeries. Hall averaged 15.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season.

The former Dorman star could be attractive to NBA teams due to his versatility. Hall has a nice touch around the rim and can also step outside and knock down 3-pointers. He shoots 40 percent from 3-point range on the year.

While Hall is planning to declare for the NBA draft, he still has the option to return to school.

He spoke last week about his future and what he was planning to do.

“I couldn’t tell you, man. I mean obviously I love Clemson. I would love to be back here,” Hall said. “As of now, if that’s what God has in store for me, for sure. I don’t see anything crazy happening. I definitely would love to be playing next year, but we’d have to see.”

PJ Hall and Clemson will begin postseason play on Wednesday when they host Morehead State in the NIT.

The Tigers were on the bubble, despite having a 23-10 (14-6) season.

Clemson was ultimately named one of the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament and instead earned a No. 1 seed in the NIT.

Head coach Brad Brownell made it clear that he believes the Tigers should have been a part of March Madness.

“We proved that we can beat several of the teams that got in. And we can beat them at home, we can beat them on the road, we can beat them in neutral. And we did that,” Brownell said. “Unfortunately, maybe the metrics are more important than common sense or just head to head watching games. So I feel bad about that.”

Clemson has a better NET than Pitt, won at Pitt, earned a higher seed than Pitt in the ACC Tournament and advanced further than the Panthers in the ACC tourney.

However, Pitt played Tuesday night in a First Four game of the NCAA Tournament, while Clemson was at home preparing for the NIT.

Clemson also beat No. 11 seed NC State three times — all by double digits — and beat another bubble team in Penn State early in the year. Brownell believes that Clemson should have been in ahead of NC State and Pitt, in particular.

“I still adamantly feel like they made a mistake. It’s hard to listen to some of the things that are said, that basically it was all metrics, is what it looks like. The problem with that is there’s so many metrics that they just pick and choose whatever they want,” Brownell said.

“To watch some of those teams get in and us not, I know that part of it was hard for me and it was really hard for our players. It’s hard to justify that to your players. They don’t know all the metrics and all those kinds of things, and I don’t think it makes sense.”