I guess your argument is that eventually Crawford will stop playing basketball and need to find a job. Having a Wake degree will help him with that. That is not my only argument. I also believe staying another year would improve his earning potential on the basketball front - and that the resulting improvement in his salary would outweigh the advantage of starting to make money a year earlier. We will never know which argument is correct there but I think my position is credible - especially given his relative 'down' year last year.
The counter argument is that Crawford is good enough to have a decent career professionally. He'll be paid a tax-free 6-figure salary immediately with most of his expenses covered by the team. I'm not so sure this is true. Definitely not tax free and no certainty that it will be 6 figures. Another year at Wake Forest with more talent, more time to establish his name, and more free coaching, weight-training, etc. would improve his chances at all of this. At the point when he stops playing basketball and wants to have a second career, it's unlikely that the Wake degree from 2019 will do much. This simply makes no sense. A degree from any college, especially a prestigious school like Wake Forest, immensely improves anyone's earning potential. There simply is no credible argument that it doesn't. Even if he wants to get into coaching, schools typically require coaches to have degrees - at least head coaches at major schools. By not having one, all you do is close doors that could otherwise be open to you. If that career involves basketball his "work experience" is better. And if he wants to go back and get his degree, he can do that at WFU or somewhere else. Sure, you can always go back. But then you are likely paying your own way and doing it without all of the advantages he has now - the structure of study halls, the help of tutors, etc. - and he will be older, perhaps married, with kids, a job, responsibilities, etc. Anyone who has gone back to school later (like me) will tell you it is much, much easier to do it when you are young and free - especially as a scholarship athlete with all the built-in advantages.
What's lost in all of this is that I'm making a purely financial argument. Most players don't take this path because they want to be loyal to their coaches, their team and their university. Why cut college short? The fact those factors don't outweigh the financial ones for Crawford is the bigger issue. I give no weight whatsoever to loyalty - there is none in this industry. I am also making a financial argument - a long-term one versus the short-term one you are making. Every statistical model you can run would show his long-term earning as greater if he stays another year, playing and finishing his degree, versus leaving now. The only exception would be if he were going to be drafted - which he is not.