‘I have faith’: Wichita State prospect Tyson Etienne shares mindset on NBA Draft day
Thursday promises to be a dream realized for Tyson Etienne.
Regardless of whether the former Wichita State men’s basketball star is among the 58 players selected in the 2022 NBA Draft held on Thursday, Etienne is confident he will be signed to an NBA team by the end of the night.
It will be the culmination of one chapter of his basketball career and the start of another.
“For me, I’m coming from a place of gratitude and humbleness,” Etienne told The Eagle about his mindset entering the draft. “Anybody who knows my journey knows that if you would have said I’d be in the NBA Draft five years ago, they would have laughed at you. I know a lot of people probably don’t think I’m going to get drafted, but we’ll see what happens and how it plays out.
“I’ve just enjoyed the process and trust that everything is divine and it will work itself out. I have faith in the work that I did and the impressions I left and I’ll leave the rest to God that he’ll put me in the right organization. Regardless of if I get drafted, that only matters (Thursday night) because Friday morning you start all over from the bottom.”
Etienne is not included in the latest mock drafts by major scouting services ahead of the draft, but the 6-foot-2 guard said he felt “amazing” about how he performed in his pre-draft workouts for 14 different NBA teams. He even added that he broke the draft workout records for multiple teams in shooting drills.
That was particularly satisfying to Etienne, who faced questions about his efficiency after his shooting numbers dipped to 35.9% from the field and 32.6% on three-pointers with a 49.2% true shooting percentage this past season at Wichita State.
“When they watch me shoot the ball, it doesn’t match up with someone who shot 35%,” Etienne said. “I was able to demonstrate my ability to score against different types of defenders with my shooting ability and show them in person what they needed to see.
“And I was able to answer questions and discuss more in detail about why those percentages were the way they were. I’m not one to point the finger at anyone else. I know there were times I could have made a better decision with the basketball or had better discipline with my shots, but I learn from everything I go through.”
Etienne put himself on the draft radar following the 2020-21 season when he averaged 16.3 points, made 39.2% of his three-pointers, was named Co-Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference and led Wichita State back to the NCAA tournament.
After what he called a learning experience last summer going through the draft process before ultimately returning to WSU for one more season, Etienne said he was better prepared for draft workouts this time around.
Another key difference this time around was he signed with a new agent in Drew Gross of Roc Nation Sports, which is based in New York City and was more aligned with Etienne, an Englewood, N.J. native who considers NYC his home. The city is where Etienne’s home camp has been throughout the draft process and where he and his family will watch the draft together on Thursday in a viewing party arranged by Roc Nation.
“My agency has really taken care of me and prepared me the way that I felt like I needed to be prepared for these workouts,” Etienne said. “I knew what my training needed to be this time around and what I needed to be working on. I knew what my nutrition needed to be like. Everything was well-planned and well-calculated.”
Etienne was also armed with the knowledge of knowing the questions he needed to answer in his pre-draft workouts.
At just 6-foot-2, Etienne would be considered an undersized point guard in the NBA and he is coming off a season where he struggled at times on the defensive end at Wichita State. That combination raises questions about if he could hold up on defense on the highest level of the game, but Etienne said he felt like he “defended at an extremely high level” during workouts.
While Etienne likely extinguished any doubts over his shooting ability, both off the dribble and off the catch, in workouts, he is still a work-in-progress when it comes to creating in the pick-and-roll game and finishing at the rim. Synergy shows this past season his passes out of pick-and-roll situations led to just 0.68 points per possession, well below average, and he shot just 40% around the basket, another sub-par mark.
Even with those weaknesses, Etienne’s greatest strength — his shooting — is the most sought-after skill in the NBA. And that alone makes him an intriguing prospect who, at the very least, is expected to receive an NBA Summer League invitation.
If Etienne is selected in the second round of the NBA Draft, his contract would not be guaranteed but a recent study by Rob Dauster of Field of 68 shows that the majority of college basketball players selected in the second round in the last four years have received at least one year of guaranteed salary with the minimum salary starting at $925,000.
If Etienne goes undrafted on Thursday, the best-case scenario for him would be to sign a two-way contract with a team, which would allow the team to split the time for the player between its G-League affiliate and NBA club. A step below that would be an Exhibit 10 contract, which are essentially one-year, non-guaranteed contracts that allow NBA teams to retain a player’s rights after cutting them and stashing them on their G-League affiliate.
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