Wizards Rumors: Rebuild, Young Core, Draft, Fears
The Wizards are expected to take a patient approach to their rebuild, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who hears from a team source that the front office plans to continue evaluating its young core through at least the end of the 2027/28 season.
In addition to the current Wizards players who have one or two NBA seasons under their belts, like Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Carlton Carrington, and Kyshawn George, that young core figures to feature at least one or two rookies from the 2025 draft class (Washington controls the sixth, 18th, and 40th overall picks), as well as the player(s) the team drafts in 2026.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Washington will remain at or near the top of the draft lottery for the next three seasons. Houston is an example of a club that has taken a few years to evaluate its young core while supplementing those players on rookie scale contracts with veteran free agents and making a significant move up the standings in the process.
As Robbins explains, the Wizards simply don’t want to give up on any of their young players too early by including them in a trade for a win-now veteran before they get a better sense of what those youngsters can become. Robbins points to the Kings trading Tyrese Haliburton less than two years after drafting him or the Pelicans trading Dyson Daniels after his second season as the types of moves the Wizards will look to avoid in the coming years.
We have more out of D.C.:
- Washington will send its 2026 first-round pick to New York if it lands outside the top eight. If that pick ends up in its protected range, the Knicks will instead receive the Wizards’ 2026 and 2027 second-rounders. Given how important it is to the Wizards to keep that first-rounder after having no luck in the 2025 draft lottery, Robbins says it’s “very difficult” to envision a scenario in which the club risks losing it. In other words, Washington appears likely to be one of the league’s five worst teams again in 2025/26.
- Robbins wouldn’t be surprised if the Wizards look to trade up from No. 6 or No. 18 for a specific player they like. As he points out, they moved up one spot in the 2023 lottery to nab Coulibaly and two spots in 2024 to draft George.
- The Wizards would like to upgrade their backcourt this summer and have done “extensive due diligence” on draft-eligible guards, sources tell Grant Afseth of RG.org, who identifies Jeremiah Fears as a name to watch if the Sooner standout is available at No. 6.
- A team source who spoke to Robbins believes that – with Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper virtually certain to be drafted first and second – the Wizards have six players in their next tier and will decide from among the prospects still available in that group. That tier consists of V.J. Edgecombe, Ace Bailey, Fears, Tre Johnson, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach.
Official Early Entrants List For 2025 NBA Draft
After announcing 50 withdrawals from the draft last month, the NBA has officially confirmed (via Twitter) that 13 additional early entrant prospects withdrew from the draft prior to Sunday’s deadline, leaving a total of 46 early entrants eligible to be selected in this year’s draft in addition to 2025’s automatically draft-eligible players.
Of those 46 draft-eligible early entrants, 28 are players from colleges (25 underclassmen and three seniors with eligibility remaining), 16 had been playing in international leagues, and two spent last season in the G League.
This year’s 46 early entrants represents the lowest total in well over a decade, since before the NCAA allowed prospects to test the draft waters — it’s just a fraction of the record set in 2021, when 217 early entrants kept their names in the draft. The sharp decline in early entrants in recent years is a reflection of the new NIL opportunities available to college players, who now have less motivation to go pro early in order to get paid.
[RELATED: Full 2025 NBA Draft Order]
A total of 109 prospects initially declared as early entrants, with 50 of those players removing their names from consideration prior to the NCAA’s May 28 withdrawal deadline to retain their college eligibility.
Here’s the complete list of early entrant prospects eligible for the 2025 NBA draft:
College underclassmen:
- Ace Bailey, G/F, Rutgers (freshman)
- Carter Bryant, F, Arizona (freshman)
- Egor Demin, G, BYU (freshman)
- V.J. Edgecombe, G, Baylor (freshman)
- Jeremiah Fears, G, Oklahoma (freshman)
- Cooper Flagg, F, Duke (freshman)
- Rasheer Fleming, F/C, St. Joseph’s (junior)
- Dylan Harper, G, Rutgers (freshman)
- Kasparas Jakucionis, G, Illinois (freshman)
- Tre Johnson, G, Texas (freshman)
- Kon Knueppel, G/F, Duke (freshman)
- RJ Luis, F, St. John’s (junior)
- Khaman Maluach, C, Duke (freshman)
- Liam McNeeley, F, UConn (freshman)
- Collin Murray-Boyles, F, South Carolina (sophomore)
- Asa Newell, F, Georgia (freshman)
- Yanic Konan Niederhauser, F/C, Penn State (junior)
- Drake Powell, G/F, UNC (freshman)
- Tyrese Proctor, G, Duke (junior)
- Derik Queen, C, Maryland (freshman)
- Jase Richardson, G, Michigan State (freshman)
- Will Riley, F, Illinois (freshman)
- Thomas Sorber, F/C, Georgetown (freshman)
- Adou Thiero, F, Arkansas (junior)
- Danny Wolf, F/C, Michigan (junior)
College seniors:
- Cedric Coward, F, Washington State
- Omar Rowe, G, Morehouse
- Jamir Watkins, G/F, Florida State
International players:
Note: The country indicates where the player had been playing, not necessarily where he was born.
- Izan Almansa, F/C, Australia (born 2005)
- Joan Beringer, C, Slovenia (born 2006)
- Mohamed Diawara, F, France (born 2005)
- Noa Essengue, F, Germany (born 2006)
- Hugo Gonzalez, F, Spain (born 2006)
- Bogoljub Markovic, F/C, Serbia (born 2005)
- Muodubem Muoneke, G, Spain (born 2003)
- Ousmane N’Diaye, F/C, Spain (born 2004)
- Eli Ndiaye, C, Spain (born 2004)
- Saliou Niang, F, Italy (born 2004)
- Noah Penda, F, France (born 2005)
- Ben Saraf, G, Germany (born 2006)
- Alex Toohey, F, Australia (born 2004)
- Nolan Traore, G, France (born 2006)
- Hansen Yang, C, China (born 2005)
- Rocco Zikarsky, C, Australia (born 2006)
Other players
- Isaac Nogues, G, Rip City Remix (born 2004)
- Dink Pate, G/F, Mexico City Capitanes (born 2006)
For the full list of the players who declared for the draft and then withdrew, click here.
Draft Rumors: Edgecombe, Bailey, Spurs, Knueppel, Fears, Hawks, More
For the first time since the Sixers claimed the No. 3 overall pick in last month’s draft lottery, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo are projecting Baylor guard V.J. Edgecombe, rather than Rutgers forward Ace Bailey, to be the pick in that spot.
As Givony explains within ESPN’s latest mock draft, Edgecombe made a strong positive impression during his visit to Philadelphia, whereas Bailey initially didn’t make plans to meet with the Sixers at all. Bailey has since changed course and will work out for the 76ers later this week, but it sounds like he may not been enthusiastic about his “pathway to development” in Philadelphia.
According to Givony, Bailey hasn’t yet conducted a known workout and has declined invitations from multiple teams in his draft range. Sources tell ESPN that his camp believes he’s a top-three player in the draft class but that they want him to end up in a situation where there’s a path to stardom. With that in mind, some teams have wondered if Bailey has received a promise from a team outside the top five that he views as more favorable in terms of both playing time and geography.
Givony and Woo have Bailey slipping to Washington at No. 6 in their latest mock, with Givony writing that the Wizards and the Pelicans (at No. 7) are both believed to be “highly intrigued” by the 18-year-old’s upside and could probably offer him more minutes right away than a team like Philadelphia could.
Here’s more from ESPN on the 2025 NBA draft:
- Rival teams who have been in touch with the Spurs have come away believing that San Antonio will hang onto the No. 2 overall pick and select Dylan Harper, according to Givony, who says the Spurs are excited about adding a talent like Harper and appear willing to address potential fit issues down the road.
- Although the No. 8 pick is viewed as Kon Knueppel‘s likely floor, he could end up coming off the board a few picks ahead of that. The Hornets (No. 4) and Jazz (No. 5) both appear to have interest in the Duke sharpshooter, Givony reports.
- Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears looks like a relatively safe bet to be drafted between No. 5 and No. 8, writes Woo. The Jazz are viewed as the top end of Fears’ range, while the Pelicans (No. 7) and Nets (No. 8) are thought to be interested. Grant Afseth of RG.org said something similar on Monday while also identifying the Wizards at No. 6 as a possibility for Fears.
- Rival teams believe the Hawks will likely be targeting a big man and a guard with their first-round picks if they hang onto both of them, says Woo. Even if the Hawks do take that route, the order in which they address those two spots will hinge in large part on who’s available after the first 12 picks. ESPN’s mock has Atlanta taking Egor Demin at No. 13 and Danny Wolf at No. 22.
- Collin Murray-Boyles is considered a polarizing prospect, with some evaluators viewing the South Carolina standout as a potential “outstanding” role player while others are concerned about his shooting and his positional size, according to Woo. Murray-Boyles’ range may start around the No. 10 pick.
- Arizona’s Carter Bryant has had a very good pre-draft process and looks like a strong candidate to come off the board in the 9-15 range, per Givony.
Six More Players Receive Green Room Invitations
Noa Essengue (France), Collin Murray-Boyles (South Carolina), Thomas Sorber (Georgetown), Liam McNeeley (UConn), Nolan Traore (France) and Will Riley (Illinois) have been extended green room invitations to next week’s draft, Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets.
That brings the number of invites to 19. The 13 players previously named included Cooper Flagg (Duke), Dylan Harper (Rutgers), Ace Bailey (Rutgers), V.J. Edgecombe (Baylor), Tre Johnson (Texas), Khaman Maluach (Duke), Jeremiah Fears (Oklahoma), Kon Knueppel (Duke), Kasparas Jakucionis (Illinois), Egor Demin (BYU), Carter Bryant (Arizona), Derik Queen (Maryland) and Asa Newell (Georgia).
Among the newcomers on the list, Essengue is the highest ranked on ESPN’s current Best Available list. The 6’10” Essengue has moved up to the No. 9 spot. Murray-Boyles (14), McNeeley (16), Riley (17) and Sorber (18) are all ranked among the top 20 prospects with Traore at No. 25.
According to Givony, five more invites are expected to be extended by the league. The players invited to the green room can usually feel pretty confident about their chances to be first-round picks, since the league only decides who to invite after asking teams to vote on the 25 prospects they expect to come off the board first.
Draft Rumors: Suns, Centers, Pelicans, Nuggets, Kings
The Suns are believed to be “highly intrigued” by the possibility of adding a center who can space the floor as they continue to look for a starting-caliber big man, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
In addition to their rumored NBA targets, the Suns are also eyeing stretch fives in next week’s draft, according to Fischer, who reports that Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud are “very much in consideration” with the 29th overall pick, which the team controls. Kalkbrenner recently worked out for Phoenix, Fischer adds.
Raynaud is ranked No. 24 on ESPN’s big board, while Kalkbrenner is No. 33.
Here are a few more rumors and notes on the 2025 NBA draft:
- The Pelicans, who control the seventh pick, hosted Duke’s Kon Knueppel and Washington State’s Cedric Coward for workouts last week, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. As Scotto notes, Knuppel is projected to go No. 7 overall in HoopsHype’s latest aggregate mock draft, with Coward landing at No. 15 (Oklahoma City). The two wings are ranked No. 8 and No. 29, respectively, on ESPN’s board.
- According to Ohm Younmisuk of ESPN (Twitter link), the Nuggets recently brought in Arizona guard Caleb Love, Kansas center Hunter Dickinson, Bradley forward Darius Hannah and Indiana center Oumar Ballo for a pre-draft workout. Of the four prospects, only Love (No. 75) appears on ESPN’s board.
- The Kings hosted a pre-draft workout on Monday featuring two point guards, two wing and two centers, the team announced (Twitter link via Sean Cunningham of KCRA News). The six players are Mark Sears (Alabama), Javon Small (West Virginia), Kobe Johnson (UCLA), Dink Pate (G League), Oumar Ballo (Indiana) and Bogoljub Markovic (Mega Basket). Markovic (No. 38) is the top-rated player of the group on ESPN’s board, followed by Small (No. 49) and Pate (No. 56).
Top International Prospects Staying In 2025 Draft
Several of the top international prospects among this year’s early entrants have decided to keep their names in this year’s draft pool.
Noa Essengue, Joan Beringer, Hugo Gonzalez, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, Noah Penda, Hansen Yang, Alex Toohey, Bogoljub Markovic, Rocco Zikarsky, Izan Almansa, Saliou Niang, Mohamed Diawara, and Eli Ndiaye are all staying in the 2025 NBA draft, reports ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (via Twitter).
That player group represents 14 of the 15 international players who were ranked on ESPN’s top-100 prospect board coming into the day, with Essengue the highest-ranked prospect at No. 9, and Ndiaye the lowest at No. 97. The lone ranked prospect to withdraw from the draft today was Neoklis Avdalas, ranked No. 51.
While their withdrawals from the draft haven’t been officially confirmed, it sounds like Asim Djulovic, Lazar Gacic, Muodubem Muoneke, Ousmane N’Diaye, and Zaion Nebot also pulled out, since Givony refers to the above list as the “final tally” of international prospects in the draft.
[RELATED: 2025 NBA Draft Early Entrants List]
Dink Pate, who played for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League this past season, is also keeping his name in the draft pool, Givony notes. Pate is the No. 56 prospect on ESPN’s board.
With a bigger-than-usual amount of lower-ranked NCAA prospects returning to school thanks to NIL deals, the international class has a chance to gain ground with strong pre-draft showings. Essengue, in particular, has seen his draft stock rise following a strong playoff run for Ratiopharm Ulm.
Neoklis Avdalas To Withdraw From NBA Draft
Greek forward Neoklis Avdalas is withdrawing from the 2025 NBA draft, agent Alex Saratsis tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link).
The 6’8″ 19-year-old wing was the 51st-ranked prospect on ESPN’s top-100 board and will look to build off a strong pre-draft process going into the 2026 draft.
Avdalas played this season for the Greek team Peristeri, averaging 8.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 19.2 minutes per game while shooting 40.7% from three-point range. He’s a career 35.5% three-point shooter over the last four years of Greek Basket League and EuroLeague play.
International players had until 5:00 pm Eastern time on Sunday to pull their names out of this year’s draft, while May 28 was the deadline for college players to withdraw and keep their NCAA eligibility.
Draft Notes: Amini, Torresani, M’Madi, 2025 Class
Mohammad Amini, a 6’8″ Dominican-Iranian forward, has withdrawn his name from this year’s draft, sources inform Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Amini isn’t among ESPN’s top 100 prospects.
Amini is currently plying his trade for French club Nancy Basket. This past season, he averaged 6.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.1 APG and 0.8 SPG, while logging .579/.313/.585 shooting splits.
There’s more out of the impending draft:
- Italian guard David Torresani has opted to pull his name from this year’s pool of draft candidates, sources tell Chepkevich (via Twitter). According to Chepkevich, the 20-year-old will now consider his NCAA options for 2025/26. Torresani is not considered by ESPN to be one of the best 100 players among this year’s class.
- Morón Basketball Club guard Mathis M’Madi has withdrawn his name from this month’s draft, tweets Chepkevich. The French-born M’Madi will next suit up for Madagascar in AfroBasket this August. Chepkevich notes that M’Madi, who also isn’t in ESPN’s top 100, worked out with three NBA teams this year.
- Jeremy Woo of ESPN shares his “draft superlatives,” outlining the prospects who have a specific skill that stands out in this year’s draft class. Among the young talent, Woo praises Rutgers guard Dylan Harper as the draft class’ best shot creator, Baylor guard V.J. Edgecombe as the top leaper and dunker, and Arizona forward Carter Bryant as having the most NBA-ready frame.
Celtics Notes: Centers, Horford, Kornet, Tatum, Draft
The Celtics should be in the market for center help this summer, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. Kristaps Porzingis is a prime candidate to be traded because of his $30.7MM salary for next season, while Al Horford and Luke Kornet are both headed to free agency. There’s no guarantee that Horford, who turned 39 earlier this month, will continue playing as Boston may take a step back from title contention in the wake of Jayson Tatum‘s Achilles tear.
Robb notes that the Celtics will miss Tatum’s rebounding prowess next season, as none of the team’s current options in the middle are particularly strong on the boards. Tatum averaged 8.7 rebounds this year, and Boston was dominated off the glass without him in its Game 6 loss to New York.
Robb adds that the Celtics will have to take back some salary in the expected deals involving Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and possibly others, so that may be an avenue to find help in the middle. Boston would be limited to veteran’s minimum offers in free agency, and Robb suggests that would involve players in the class of Mason Plumlee, Jaxson Hayes or Paul Reed.
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Steven Adams‘ new contract in Houston takes a prominent center off the free agent market and could increase the value of Horford and Kornet, Robb adds in a separate piece. Once the top names such as Myles Turner and Naz Reid are off the board, Robb suggests that Horford and Kornet could get offers at the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7MM) or higher. The Celtics hold Bird rights on both players.
- Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins could serve as an inspiration for Tatum as he works his way back from the Achilles injury, per Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Wilkins ruptured his Achilles in January of 1992 when it was considered a potential career-ending injury, but he was able to return for opening night of the 1992/93 season and averaged 29.9 PPG while finishing fifth in the MVP voting. “That injury is a serious injury,” Wilkins told Washburn. “And Jayson had the same type of injury I had, meaning he had a complete tear because there is no way you could walk off the floor. That’s a devastating injury, but the thing is the work he puts in is going to determine what he gets out of it. I worked twice a day every day for nine months and came back quicker than anybody. But it was my level of commitment and Jayson is a kid that loves the game and I have a lot of respect and am a fan of his. I have no doubt that he’s going to put in the work to get back to the same level he was.”
- Justin Quinn of Celtics Wire takes a look at all the players the team has hosted for pre-draft workouts, including prominent names such as Cedric Coward and Drake Powell. Boston has the 28th and 32nd picks in this year’s draft.
Mouhamed Faye, Ben Henshall To Pull Out Of NBA Draft
Potential second-round pick Mouhamed Faye will take his name out of this year’s draft, agent Matteo Comellini tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link).
Faye, 20, will consider options in both the EuroLeauge and the NCAA for next season, according to Givony. The 6’10” Senegalese center played this year with Reggie Emilio in Italy, where he averaged 10.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. He ranks 54th on ESPN’s big board.
Faye left Senegal at age 16 to join Reggiana’s youth team for the 2022/23 season. He was promoted to the senior team a year later and was honored as the best player under 22 in Lega Basket Serie A. He also registered for the 2024 draft, but withdrew in mid-June.
Australian guard Ben Henshall is also exiting the draft, agent Sam Rose tells Givony (Twitter link). Henshall, 20, also plans to consider NCAA and professional opportunities for next season. He spent this year with the Perth Wildcats in the NBL, averaging 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Henshall ranks 64th on ESPN’s list of the best prospects.
International players have until June 15 to pull their names out of this year’s draft. The NCAA set a May 28 deadline for college players to withdraw and keep their eligibility.