The deadline for players who declared for the 2026 NBA draft as early entrants to withdraw their names from the pool is June 13 at 4:00 pm Central time.
A player who withdraws from the 2026 draft by that deadline would be eligible to be drafted in a future season — that could happen as early as 2027 if the player declares again as an early entrant or is automatically draft-eligible next year, or he could become draft-eligible in 2028 or 2029.
However, the NCAA sets its own withdrawal deadline each year. While the NBA’s deadline comes 10 days before the start of the draft, the NCAA’s deadline occurs just 10 days after the combine ends. This year, the NCAA’s withdrawal deadline is May 27 (this Wednesday) at 10:59 pm CT.
A college player who is testing the draft waters could technically put off his decision for another two-and-a-half weeks, but if he withdraws from the draft pool on June 13, he would lose the ability to return to an NCAA program for the 2026/27 season. That route would only make sense for a player who had lined up a non-college opportunity, such as playing in a professional league overseas.
In other words, virtually all of the college players who declared for this year’s draft as early entrants will finalize their decisions on whether to return to school or go pro by the end of the day on Wednesday.
As our tracker shows, there are still a couple dozen prospects in the “testing the draft waters” section whose intentions haven’t been confirmed, including Santa Clara’s Allen Graves, Arizona’s Koa Peat, and Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner. Additionally, some of the players on our “expected to remain in the draft” list technically haven’t forgone their NCAA eligibility yet and could still reverse course before the end of the day on Wednesday.
[UPDATE: Allen Graves To Remain In 2026 NBA Draft]
We’ll be keeping close tabs over the next couple days on the decisions made by those early entrants. Once Wednesday’s deadline passes, we should have a clearer idea of what this year’s draft pool will look like.