He said the potential to take the season two wins further in 2019-20 will "absolutely" factor into his decision.
"I want to win a championship," Winston said. "I want to do that on each and every level. When I leave my mark on Michigan State I want to be known as a winner, and you can't do that without that last piece."
The NBA didn't look like an option for Winston a few months ago, but he changed that with a terrific junior season. The Big Ten Player of the Year was one of only two players in the country to average more than 18 points and more than seven assists per game. The other is a likely top-five pick in the draft: Ja Morant.
The deadline to declare for the draft this year is April 21, though Winston can go through the combine in May and withdraw his name, should he be so inclined, at a later date.
Asked when he has to make a decision, Winston laughed and said, "I have no clue how none of that works. I’m enjoying here, I love being a Spartan, so I’m just enjoying this."
Other Spartans who could potentially leave for the NBA are junior Nick Ward and sophomore Xavier Tillman, although Tillman has no intentions of doing so. Asked if he'll be back next season, he seemed surprised by the very question.
"Me? Yeah," Tillman said. "I’ll be here."
As for Ward, who missed the final month of the regular season with a hand injury, his mind isn't made up. He tested the draft waters last spring before deciding to return to school, and could very well do the same this year.
"I’m not really worried about that right now," he said. "I just want to spend this time with my guys."
He did make it sound like he has one more season in store. Asked how he wants this year's team to be remembered, Ward said, "As a team that handled adversity well. We overcame a lot of obstacles and we'll be back."
Prior to his hand injury, Ward was averaging 15.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
After coming within two wins of the national championship, Tom Izzo understandably wasn't in the mood to talk about which players might be targeted for the NBA.
"The last thing I’m going to talk about is anybody leaving," he said. "I apologize. You have the right to ask that question, and I have the right to say I got 16 guys crying in (the locker room), I got a coach who feels like crap. The last thing I’m going to answer is anything like that.
"We’ll do what we do every year. We’ll have a meeting at the end of the year. Put it this way, we got a lot of guys that have to get better in a lot of areas. Being good enough to be great is one thing, being good enough to be an NBA player is another -- and if we think somebody is, we’ll advise them of that. But we’ll do that by talking to the people we know in the league."