Mgbako, Conerway, Okereke Pulling Out Of NBA Draft
Forward Mackenzie Mgbako has opted to withdraw his name from the 2025 NBA draft, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. According to Givony, Mgbako will be transferring from Indiana to Texas A&M for his junior year.
“I decided to withdraw to focus on becoming a lock first-round pick next year,” Mgbako said. “I am committed to making the improvements to my game based upon feedback from NBA teams.”
Mgbako spent his first two college seasons with the Hoosiers, averaging 12.2 points per game as both a freshman and a sophomore. He played slightly fewer minutes in his second year (25.2 MPG) than in his first (27.1 MPG), but increased his rebounds per game from 4.1 to 4.6 and bumped his shooting percentage from 39.5% to 43.7%.
A former top-10 high school recruit and McDonald’s All-American, Mgbako was projected as the No. 58 overall pick in ESPN’s latest mock draft last Monday. He had a solid pre-draft process, earning an invitation to the draft combine after leading the G League Elite Camp in scoring, but will head back to school and look to further improve his draft stock over the course of the 2025/26 season.
We have updates on a couple more prospects pulling out of the NBA draft:
- Senior guard Tayton Conerway, who has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, will take advantage of that fact by withdrawing from the draft and playing a final college season, per Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). The reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year is transferring to Indiana after averaging 14.2 points, 4.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and a conference-high 2.9 steals per game for Troy last season.
- After testing the draft waters this spring, forward AK Okereke will remove his name from the draft pool and transfer from Cornell to Vanderbilt, he tells Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Okereke had a solid junior season in 2024/25, putting up 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game while making 59.5% of his field goal attempts.
- We’re tracking all the draft decisions made by early entrants right here.
Nets Viewed As Candidate To Move Up In Draft
No NBA team has more first-rounders or total picks in the 2025 draft than the Nets, who currently control the eighth, 19th, 26th, 27th, and 36th overall selections.
According to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link), Brooklyn’s collection of 2025 picks, combined with general manager Sean Marks‘ history of draft-day trades, “almost immediately” led to chatter at this month’s combine about the Nets looking to move up in the draft.
As Lewis details, there has been plenty of speculation about the possibility of the Nets trying to move up to No. 2, since they heavily scouted local star Dylan Harper, whose father Ron Harper also addressed the idea of a Brooklyn trade on Twitter. Additionally, the Spurs, who currently hold that pick, already have De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle in their backcourt.
However, one source told Lewis that reports linking the Nets to the No. 2 pick are “all BS and rumors,” while a separate league source who spoke to The New York Post said he can’t envision a scenario in which Harper ends up in Brooklyn.
If the Nets do move up from No. 8, the Sixers (No. 3), Jazz (No. 5), and Wizards (No. 6) are considered likelier trade partners, in Lewis’ view.
Multiple reports have indicated that the 76ers, specifically, would only consider trading that No. 3 pick in scenarios where they move just a few spots back in the lottery (rather than further back, or out of the first round entirely), since they still want to add a “dynamic young talent” to their roster. A deal with Brooklyn might fit that criteria.
Still, Lewis stresses that even if the Nets are exploring trading up in the draft, that doesn’t necessarily mean a deal would have to involve the No. 8 pick. In fact, giving up assets to move up two or three spots from No. 8 might not make sense in a draft that doesn’t have a clear-cut top tier of six or seven prospects, he adds.
The sentiment around the league, Lewis explains, is that Brooklyn might actually try to acquire a second lottery pick (perhaps further back in the top 14) by using some combination of the team’s other first-round picks (Nos. 19, 26, and 27), future draft capital, and/or veteran wing Cameron Johnson. The Nets will also have substantial cap room this offseason, so they could further sweeten any trade offer by agreeing to take on an unwanted contract.
Houston’s Milos Uzan Withdrawing From NBA Draft
After testing the NBA draft waters this spring, Houston Cougars guard Milos Uzan has decided to withdraw his name from the pool and return to college for another season, his agent Aman Dhesi tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
It’s the second straight year in which Uzan has declared for the draft and then opted not to go pro. In 2024, he withdrew and transferred from Oklahoma to Houston after spending his first two college seasons with the Sooners.
Uzan had his best college season as a junior in 2024/25, averaging 11.4 points, 4.3 assists, and 3.1 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game across 40 outings (all starts). His 42.8% three-point percentage and 78.3% mark on free throws were both career highs.
Uzan earned a spot on the All-Big 12 second team after helping to lead Houston to a Big 12 title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. However, his Cougars fell to Florida in the national championship game, so he’ll be seeking his first NCAA title as a senior. With Uzan returning alongside Emanuel Sharp and Joseph Tugler, the squad is a strong candidate for the preseason No. 1 ranking, Givony writes.
Uzan, who was ranked as the No. 41 prospect on ESPN’s big board for 2025, will be automatically draft-eligible in 2026.
College early entrants have until the end of the day on Wednesday to withdraw from the NBA draft if they want to retain their NCAA eligibility.
Pacers Notes: Nesmith, Game 3 Loss, Haliburton, Offense
Pacers wing Aaron Nesmith was able to return to Sunday’s game in the fourth quarter after spraining his right ankle in the third quarter, but he was in pain when he woke up on Monday, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.
According to head coach Rick Carlisle, Nesmith will be listed as questionable on the injury report for Game 4 and will likely be a game-time decision on Tuesday.
It’s a potentially significant development for the Pacers, given that Nesmith has been one of their most important players during the playoffs. The 25-year-old has increased his averages to 15.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game with a 53.5% mark on three-pointers in the postseason — all of those marks would be career highs. Additionally, his +8.8 playoff net rating is the third-best mark on the team behind only Myles Turner (+9.1) and Tyrese Haliburton (+8.9).
We have more on the Pacers:
- The Pacers have made a series of historic comebacks during these playoffs, but they found themselves on the other end of a major in-game swing at home on Sunday, blowing a 20-point first-half lead and losing Game 3 by a score of 106-100. Haliburton took the blame after the loss for allowing the team’s usual up-tempo pace to lag in the third and fourth quarters, according to Dopirak. “I felt like I was walking the ball up every play.” Haliburton said. “It’s definitely an area where I know when I watch film I’m going to kick myself for. I’m already thinking about it, kicking myself for it. Honestly, I think a lot of our offensive struggles in the second half are going to be due to me. I gotta be better there and I will be better in Game 4.”
- Although he was unhappy about the Pacers’ second-half offense, Haliburton was pleased with how the team performed on defense against a talented Knicks group, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “You hold a team like that to 106 (points), that’s — you should win that game,” Haliburton said. “… I mean, 100 points isn’t us, you know? So kudos to them, they did a good job, but there’s definitely areas that we can improve on. We’ll have a great film session (on Monday). Guys will watch film on their own tonight and tomorrow, and see where we can get better.”
- John Haliburton, Tyrese’s father, will be permitted to attend Indiana’s home games in a suite beginning on Tuesday, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania. The elder Haliburton agreed not to attend the team’s home or road games after getting involved in an on-court altercation with Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo at the end of their first-round series and hasn’t been at any of the past eight contests since then. He will continue to remain away from road games.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Brooklyn Nets
After officially bringing their "big three" era to an end by trading away Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at the February 2023 deadline, the Nets stumbled down the stretch of that season, then found themselves stuck in the middle in 2023/24 -- not good enough to seriously contend for a playoff spot, but with no incentive to tank due to the fact that the Rockets controlled their 2024 first-round pick.
Having finished with a 32-50 record in '23/24, Brooklyn saw Houston capitalize on some lottery luck by claiming the No. 3 overall pick when the Nets' pick moved up six spots from its pre-lottery position.
Maybe that was the final straw that convinced general manager Sean Marks to regain control of the Nets' 2025 and 2026 first-round picks, but I suspect he was already plotting that move anyway. Brooklyn had no easy short-term path back to contention, and without those draft picks in hand, there was no way for the team to benefit from bottoming out.
The Nets paid a significant price to negate the Rockets' swap rights for their 2025 first-rounder and to reacquire their own 2026 pick, giving up control of four future Suns first-rounders (either outright or via swaps), including one that landed in the '25 lottery. However, the move set up the Nets to tear down their roster, lose a ton, and hopefully be in position to add their next franchise player in the 2025 or 2026 draft.
Brooklyn traded Mikal Bridges during the summer of 2024 and entered the fall projected to be the NBA's worst team, but new head coach Jordi Fernandez showed why the organization wanted to hire him in the first place by guiding the Nets to some unexpected first-half success. A club that bettors projected to finish with fewer than 20 victories won nine games in the span of a month before the end of November, prompting Marks to take action. Brooklyn was involved in two of the NBA's first three in-season trades of 2024/25, sending out Dennis Schröder to Golden State and Dorian Finney-Smith to the Lakers before the new year.
While losing Schröder and Finney-Smith slowed down the Nets, Fernandez's club continued to display impressive resilience, taking six of seven games right before the All-Star break to reach the 20-win mark with two months left in the season. This still wasn't a good team, of course, but it outperformed expectations at 26-56, making that first-round pick a little less valuable than anticipated -- especially after Brooklyn was unable to replicate Houston's lottery luck from a year ago, resulting in a slide to No. 8 overall.
Marks repeatedly stated over the course of the season that he loved seeing Fernandez and the Nets win games and that he wasn't looking to instill a losing culture in Brooklyn. That attitude may very well pay off in the long run, and it's not like losing more would've given the Nets a shot at Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper, both of whom will likely be drafted by teams who finished ahead of Brooklyn in the standings.
Still, the Nets' 2024/25 performance sets up an interesting dilemma. Armed with cap room entering this summer, do they look to accelerate their rebuild by adding more win-now players and seeing what Fernandez is capable of when given more talent to work with? Or will Marks want to keep taking things slow in order to take another shot at a high lottery pick and ensure that 2026 first-rounder is worth the price he paid for it?
The Nets' Offseason Plan
It has been widely reported that the Nets are the only NBA team that will have significant cap room, which is accurate. The exact amount of space they'll have is a little trickier to pin down.
Stein’s Latest: Suns’ HC Search, Giannis, Bucks, Sixers
While it remains unclear which head coaching candidates will advance to the final round of the interview process for the Suns, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link) says there are “rumbles in coaching circles” that Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney and Heat assistant Chris Quinn made strong impressions during the early stages of Phoenix’s search.
[RELATED: Suns Ready To Move On To Next Round In Coaching Search]
As Stein notes, it’s also worth keeping an eye on the Michigan State alums in the candidate pool, since Suns owner Mat Ishbia values ties to his alma mater, as evidenced by the fact that he named fellow Spartan Brian Gregory the team’s new general manager earlier this spring. Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott and Nets assistant Steve Hetzel both attended Michigan State, according to Stein, who singles out Ott as a name to monitor.
The expectation is that the Suns will narrow their pool of candidates to about three finalists, Stein reports.
Here are a few more items of interest from Stein’s latest Substack article:
- As the Bucks try to convince Giannis Antetokounmpo to continue his career in Milwaukee, one factor they’re emphasizing is the ability to continue competing in a weakened Eastern Conference, Stein writes. Although Milwaukee has been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for three consecutive years, the path to the NBA Finals still looks much clearer in the East than in the West, especially given the injury-related uncertainties surrounding would-be contenders like Boston and Philadelphia, Stein adds.
- The Bucks also hope that Doc Rivers‘ ongoing presence helps strengthen their case to Antetokounmpo, who is believed to have a “strong working relationship” with the veteran coach, Stein writes.
- Stein confirms prior reporting from his Stein Line colleague Jake Fischer, writing that the Sixers want to add a “dynamic young talent” to their roster and therefore won’t be inclined to trade the No. 3 overall pick if it would mean trading out of the draft or moving down more than a few spots in the lottery.
- In case you missed it, Stein also identified a few veteran point guards who might be targets for the Mavericks this summer. We have the full story on that here.
PJ Haggerty Withdraws From 2025 NBA Draft
Guard PJ Haggerty, who was a consensus second-team All-American and the AAC Player of the Year in 2024/25, has elected to withdraw from the NBA draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link).
Having spent time at TCU, Tulsa, and Memphis since 2022, Haggerty will be transferring to Kansas State for the 2025/26 season, he tells ESPN.
After appearing in just six games for TCU in 2022/23, Haggerty had a breakout year as a redshirt freshman for Tulsa the following year, averaging 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.9 steals per game in 31 outings (all starts).
The 6’3″ guard put up nearly identical marks for Memphis last season, with averages of 21.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.8 steals in 36.6 minutes per game. He also put up career highs in three-point percentage (36.4%) and free throw percentage (81.8%) during his lone year as a Tiger.
Haggerty was ranked 64th overall on ESPN’s big board of 2025 prospects, making him a borderline candidate to be drafted. The 21-year-old will continue earning NIL money at the college level for at least one more season while looking to further boost his draft stock. According to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com (Twitter link), Haggerty’s NIL earnings next season are expected to exceed $2MM.
College early entrants have until the end of the day on May 28 to withdraw from the NBA draft if they want to retain their NCAA eligibility.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Portland Trail Blazers
The Trail Blazers entered the 2021/22 and '22/23 seasons with postseason aspirations, but sold off veterans at the trade deadline and shut down a handful of injured regulars during the second half of each season, resulting in consecutive lottery finishes. Recognizing the limitations of their roster, the Blazers leaned fully into the rebuild in 2023 by trading away longtime star Damian Lillard and subsequently posted a 2023/24 record of 21-61, tied for the second-worst mark ever for a franchise that has been active for more than a half-century.
Portland looked headed for a similar outcome early in '24/25. Head coach Chauncey Billups was already believed to be on the hot seat entering the season, so when the Blazers lost 18 of their first 26 games and posted a 13-28 first-half record, it seemed to just be a question of whether or not management would wait until the end of the regular season to replace him.
Then something unexpected happened: Portland caught fire.
From January 19 through the end of February, the Trail Blazers went 14-5, reeling off three separate winning streaks of four-plus games and posting the NBA's second-best defensive rating. While they weren't exactly facing a murderer's row of opponents during that stretch, the Blazers registered some impressive victories, with their only losses coming against strong playoff teams (the Thunder, Timberwolves, Nuggets, and Lakers).
The Blazers cooled off in March and fell out of legitimate play-in contention by April, but their 23-18 second-half run represented some of the best basketball they'd played in years. It was also enough to earn Billups and general manager Joe Cronin contract extensions, ensuring that they'll continue to lead the franchise for the foreseeable future.
You could argue that the Blazers are overvaluing the importance of a strong couple months -- after all, it's probably not realistic to expect this team to play at a 46-win pace for an entire season. Still, several of the club's young players, including Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, and newly minted All-Defensive second-teamer Toumani Camara, made legitimate strides and provided reasons for optimism going forward. And Cronin and his front office presumably know there's still work to be done before this roster can be considered playoff-caliber.
The Trail Blazers' Offseason Plan
Most of the players currently under contract with the Trail Blazers for the 2025/26 season fall into one of two groups: veterans who may be offseason trade candidates and young players whom the team is building around. Let's start with the veterans.
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Fischer’s Latest: Irving, Mavs, Harden, Clippers, Point Guards
Before suffering a torn ACL in early March, Kyrie Irving was widely expected to sign an extension or a new free agent contract with the Mavericks this offseason, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), who says that perception hasn’t changed since Irving’s injury. However, the veteran point guard’s ACL recovery, which figures to extend well into next season, may complicate those negotiations to some extent.
According to Fischer, there have been rumblings all season that the Mavericks would like to lock up Irving for the next three seasons for approximately $40MM per year. In other words, they’d be comfortable essentially making the same three-year, $120MM offer that Irving signed as a free agent in 2023.
Irving was coming off a tumultuous stint in Brooklyn and had only been a Maverick for a half-season when he agreed to that contract in 2023. He has since established himself as a cornerstone player for the franchise, helping to lead Dallas to an NBA Finals appearance a year ago.
As Fischer writes, if he had stayed healthy, Irving could have sought a higher annual salary based on his production and leadership over the past two seasons — especially given the leverage he would’ve had as the team’s primary backcourt play-maker following the February trade of Luka Doncic. Now that he’s recovering from a major knee injury at age 33, a massive payday that exceeds his previous deal may be less realistic for Irving.
Here’s more from Fischer, whose latest Substack article focuses on a few of this year’s top free agent point guards:
- “The whole league knows” the Mavericks want to add ball-handling and play-making to their backcourt after trading Doncic and seeing Irving go down with an ACL tear, Fischer writes. Sources tell The Stein Line that Dallas’ goal will be to add a player who can fill in as a starter with Irving sidelined and then transition to a complementary role once Kyrie returns. While the Mavs’ cap flexibility will be very limited, there’s optimism that they might be able to convince a solid player to accept the veteran’s minimum with the promise of a starting role, like Phoenix did with Tyus Jones a year ago.
- Multiple sources who have spoken to Fischer have suggested that Irving’s new deal with Dallas could “serve as a barometer” for what James Harden does with the Clippers this summer. Like Irving, Harden isn’t expected to leave his current team, and like Irving, he’d have the ability to exercise his player option (worth $36.3MM) and negotiate an extension or opt out to sign a new contract. Whichever direction he and the team go, there’s an expectation that the Clippers will be looking to line up Harden’s new contract with Kawhi Leonard‘s, which runs through 2026/27, Fischer notes. That would mean no more than two guaranteed years for the former MVP.
- Fischer adds that multiple rival teams view the Clippers as a club to watch on the trade market this offseason once they get the Harden situation resolved.
- Front offices around the league consider Fred VanVleet (Rockets) and Josh Giddey (Bulls) likely to return to their respective teams, according to Fischer. Dennis Schröder might end up being one of the top point guards available on the open market, though the Pistons are known to have interest in bringing him back, Fischer says.