Days after his collegiate career ended, ASU men's basketball redshirt senior forward Zylan Cheatham expressed his intent to declare for the 2019 NBA Draft on Monday.
The informal announcement came via Instagram during a Q&A session Cheatham held on his account. A user asked him if he would declare for the draft, and he responded with, "Yea."
Another user asked if he would attend the NBA Draft Combine, with Cheatham's response simply being, "I hope so."
Cheatham has slipped in and out of draft projections throughout the year. He was often projected as a mid-to-late second round pick. However, he has fallen out of NBA Mock Drafts recently, as many mock drafts have him outside of the top-60 players listed.
Cheatham played an integral role for the Sun Devils this past season after transferring from San Diego State, averaging 12 points and 10 rebounds per game in 34 games. He averaged almost 10 points and seven rebounds overall in his three years of collegiate basketball.
This season, Cheatham recorded the second triple-double in ASU history when ASU got an 83-71 win over Texas Southern, during which he scored 14 points, got 13 rebounds and dished 10 assists.
Cheatham recorded double-digit rebound totals in 19 games and recorded two games with 20 or more rebounds.
"Every step of the way up until this point, including losing today, every moment I was on the floor I was grateful," Cheatham said after the team's loss to Buffalo in the NCAA tournament. "I had a great time, I had an unbelievable experience. This is stuff I'm going to tell my kids about."
Coach Bobby Hurley praised Cheatham throughout the entire season.
"You know, he's unselfish ... he's not the guy to go look for the box score, see how many shot attempts he has," Hurley said. "There's so many things that he's done, he's a great person."
The NBA Draft Combine will take place May 14 to 19 in Chicago. The NBA Draft will take place on June 20 in New York.
Reach the reporter at jhorst2@asu.edu and follow @HorseySeven on Twitter.
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Jeffrey Horst is the digital editor-in-chief of The State Press. He previously served as the publication's sports editor and worked at Cronkite News and ArizonaSports.com.
