Lamont Paris opens up on his NBA Draft conversations with Collin Murray-Boyles

Collin Murray-Boyles has one of the bigger decisions in the class in choosing to either return to South Carolina or remain in for the 2025 NBA Draft. That said, Lamont Paris is keeping out of that process in trying to support his star player.

Paris addressed the latest on Murray-Boyles’ process and his role within that during a stop on the Welcome Home Tour in Summerville. He said the Gamecocks keep in touch with him but don’t try to affect either of the good decisions he has in front of him about his future.

“We communicate with him. I mean, I’m probably due to call him. That was probably on my to-do list today or tomorrow,” said Paris. “But, I also kind of let him do his thing. I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be perceived as, as trying to influence him in his decision. I, I had a talk with him and with his family. But I had a talk with him at the end of the season and I, I just tried to assure him that, you know, as long as he does what he really wants to do, what Collin Murray-Boyles really wants to do, it can’t turn out poorly. You can’t make a bad decision.

“So, I’m here to, just support him and not try to – to answer your question, I don’t want to be perceived by him or anyone as trying to discourage him from going to the NBA or, or encouraging him to come back. It’s just, that’s not my role.”

South Carolina is building next season’s roster with Murray-Boyles in mind, though, if he does want to return. They’ve worked toward next year’s team this offseason, full knowing that he may likely not be back, with a spot there for him if he decides to come back to college.

“We also wanted to provide an environment that, that when and if Collin Murray-Boyles decides he wants to come back here that we would welcome him with open arms,” said Paris. “I’m, I’m rooting for him to get everything he wants out of this draft process, the information that he wants. But, certainly, if he decides that the future involves coming back to Columbia, we would be ecstatic about that and we’ve put the pieces in to surround him in an environment where he can be extremely, extremely successful.

“Yeah, I’m definitely leaving the door open for a possible return. And, and I know that that is unlikely just based on the feedback that we’ve gotten in terms of his – I think he is a viable first-round draft pick almost any way you slice it. But, some guys want to be selected in a certain area. They want to be in the lottery, maybe, or. So, we’re leaving the door open for him to gather all that information, try to, try to talk with people that he needs to talk with, get some real feedback, honest feedback and then make a decision based on that. If he wants to come back, I just, there was no way I was ever going to try to construct a team where there wasn’t a place for Collin Murray-Boyles to come back…There was no chance we were going to build a team in a way that, if he decided to come back, that we couldn’t make that happen.”

Murray-Boyles, a projected first-round pick this summer, declared for the draft last month following his sophomore season. He’ll have been working out in preparation for the draft since then as he was on the list of those invited to the NBA Draft Combine, which will take place next week in Chicago. That’ll better determine his stock in this class, with On3’s James Fletcher rating him as the top power forward on his latest big board, ahead of the deadline to keep his name in to go to the NBA or pull it out for a return to Columbia.

This is after Murray-Boyles improved his stats in year two with them to 16.8 points (58.6% FG), 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks as a do-it-all, versatile big. He earned a spot on the All-SEC Second Team with that and has further positioned himself for the NBA Draft.

Murray-Boyles is the star that South Carolina is waiting on as for next season. Paris is just going to keep circling around him with that in waiting to see what he decides to do as far as playing basketball next season.

“I told him there’s a solar system that’s around him and he is the sun in that solar system and I am in orbit around him, not the other way around,” said Paris. “And so, anything I can do to help him, with his decision is, is what my role is and I’m looking forward to doing that.”