Moretti coming back to Texas Tech may not be as black & white as we thought

Today, the Italian website “Basketball Ncaa Italia” (you can follow them on Facebook or Twitter) released a long and detailed interview with Davide Moretti. Our junior point guard safely returned to his home in Italy, after the well-known problems our country (I’m Italian, too) is experiencing with Coronavirus.

The interview can be found following this link. It’s in Italian, but with every service of automatic translation, you can have it in English - albeit pretty broken. Davide spoke, among many other things, about his years in Lubbock, bonds he created with his teammates, and the relationship he has with coach Beard.

In addition to reminiscing, Moretti also released some news about his future. There are four questions towards the beginning of the interview that specifically examine his heart in regards to the next steps of his professional career. I’ve translated those here:

Let’s start from the current situation: have you declared that you don’t know if you will stay in Italy or return to the USA?

(Moretti): Yeah that’s correct, because it is not clear what’s going to happen. I haven’t decided because it’s not sure whether I will be able to follow the plan I set once the season would have ended.

Was the plan to do NBA workouts and then evaluate?

(Moretti): Exactly, participate in some NBA workouts and understand if it was the right time to participate in the draft. Which is what I would like to do if the situation calms down. If instead there will be JUST the draft (with no workout, n.a.), I don’t know what to do.

So among the options there’s also going back to NCAA?

(Moretti): Sure.

In a draft perspective, what would guarantee you more visibility? Another year in NCAA or a season as a pro in Europe?

(Moretti): The goal is to improve. I have to understand which solution is better from a draft perspective. Thanks to last year’s NCAA final, I have already had a lot of visibility and I think, or at least I hope, I am already in the books of some NBA scouts. I am ready to receive all possible offers. Seeing the latest drafts, I don’t think that a year away from the United States can decrease the chances of being chosen. Of course, it depends on how you play. The only way to get out of the scout spotlight is to not play at an NBA level.

Obviously, things are far from clear with a lot of Moretti’s perspective of availability hinging on the COVID-19 situation. But there are important breadcrumbs that Red Raider fans shouldn’t overlook in Moretti’s responses:

• The goal is good draft stock, not (necessarily) a national championship.

For all of us bearing the Double T on our hearts we think, sure, another season with Beard is a golden ticket to a higher draft number! Not so. Just because Culver had a rocketed second season doesn’t mean that Moretti will have the same trajectory. Certainly not a guarantee with gunners like Peavy and Burnett coming into the fold, nor with Ramsey’s decision on going to the NBA or not remaining unclear. Does a deep run in 2021 mean anything? Absolutely! Moretti said it himself that the final last year gave him visibility to a lot of scouts. The issue isn’t Tech’s production next year - it’s whether or not Moretti will get the exposure he’s looking for in that production. Because of that...

• The professional league in Italy might present Moretti with a better path to the NBA.

Moretti has ample experience with the Italian national team during under-17/18 tournaments, which no doubt (coupled with his NCAA experience) would give way to a position in the professional Italian leagues. The clout of participating in an American national championship game would follow him to Italy and, depending on his play, there may be an easier (but wonky) path to the NBA. Moretti made it clear that he “(doesn’t) think that a year away from the United States can decrease the chances of being chosen.” And he’s not wrong.

Whatever choice Moretti settles on amidst all this chaos, we can’t be anything but proud of his excellence both on and off the court as a Red Raider. Alla prossima!