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Draft Notes: Aiken, Wieskamp, Bowen, Jazz

May 23rd, 2019 at 4:18pm CST by Luke Adams

All-Ivy League guard Bryce Aiken will take advantage of his final remaining year of NCAA eligibility and will return to Harvard for his senior season, the program announced today in a press release. Aiken had elected to test the draft waters this spring, but ultimately decided to pull out of the 2019 pool before next Wednesday’s withdrawal deadline.

“After having the opportunity to experience the NBA underclassmen process, I’m looking forward to graduating with my class next year, and, hopefully, leading Harvard basketball to unprecedented heights,” Aiken said in a statement.

Here are a few more draft-related notes and updates:

Count Iowa guard Joe Wieskamp among those early entrants who has also decided to withdraw from the draft process and return to school. The Hawkeyes made Wieskamp’s decision official in a press release.
Draft-eligible prospect Brian Bowen has workouts lined up with the Jazz, Warriors, and Kings, a league source tells Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com (Twitter link). Bowen previously worked out for Indiana.
Minnesota forward Jordan Murphy, who previously worked out for the Grizzlies, will be part of the Jazz‘s group workout tomorrow, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Oshae Brissett (Syracuse), Jon Axel Gudmundsson (Davidson), Zach Norvell Jr. (Gonzaga), Corey Davis Jr. (Houston), and Donnie Tillman (Utah) will also be part of that workout, according to the Jazz (Twitter link).
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic shares some of his takeaways from last week’s draft combine, identifying Luka Samanic, Nicolas Claxton, and Mfiondu Kabengele as a few of the event’s standouts, and digging into Bol Bol‘s draft stock.

Draft Notes: Hampton, Elite Camp, Celtics, Simonds, Hawks

May 5th, 2019 at 9:56pm CST by JD Shaw

RJ Hampton has decided to graduate high school early and reclassify to the Class of 2019, he told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. Hampton is the No. 4 player in ESPN’s top-100 class of early 2020 rankings, explaining his major decision to reclassify to Givony.

“I’ve decided to reclassify to the 2019 class,” Hampton told ESPN. “I am doing this because I feel that from a development standpoint, this is the right move for me at this time in order to play against the highest level of competition possible. I am eager to test myself against older and more physically developed players in order to help improve my weaknesses and prepare me for reaching the ultimate goal of playing in the NBA.”

With his decision, Hampton will enroll for college this summer and be eligible for the 2020 NBA Draft. A 6-foot-5 versatile player at 188 pounds, Hampton is one of the most promising young point guards in high school, now shifting his focus to interested schools such as Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis and Texas Tech, according to ESPN.

“This is a move we’ve been contemplating for some time and we don’t take lightly,” Hampton’s father, Rod, told ESPN. “As someone that played in college as well as professionally in Europe, I know that you can’t skip steps in a player’s development. Thankfully, because of the hard work that RJ has put in in the classroom — achieving a 3.75 GPA and a 1280 SAT — he was able to have this option. This weekend playing against the top players in high school basketball at the Nike EYBL, as well as earlier this month at USA Basketball, my wife, Markita, and I realized that RJ is ready to take the next step and challenge himself by taking the next step in level of competition.”

Here are some other draft-related notes today:

In speaking with some agents and executives around the NBA, there appears to be some confusion over whether prospects attending the NBA G League Combine are only working out for teams in the G League, according to Givony (Twitter link). The combine is set to include officials from all 30 NBA teams.
The Celtics brought in several players for a workout last week in preparation for the NBA Draft, as relayed by Sportando. Among the players who attended the workout were Hofstra’s Justin Wright-Foreman, Ole Miss’ Terence Davis , Auburn’s Bryce Brown, St. Bonaventure’s Courtney Stockard and Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp.
Georgia State’s D’Marcus Simonds sprained his ankle while working out for the Hawks, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Simonds said he should be fine, according to Vivlamore, and future workouts have already been scheduled with the Cavaliers and Spurs.
The Hawks will hold a pre-draft workout on Monday, the team announced today. Tennessee center Kyle Alexander, St. Louis forward Javon Bess, Terence Davis, Shaw guard Amir Hinton, Xavier guard Paul Scruggs and Stanford center Josh Sharma are all set to be in attendance.

Stanford’s KZ Okpala Declares For NBA Draft

April 11th, 2019 at 6:40pm CST by Clark Crum

Stanford sophomore forward and potential lottery pick KZ Okpala has declared for the 2019 NBA draft, per Evan Daniels of 247Sports. Per new rules, he is permitted to sign with an NBA certified agent and still return to school if he withdraws his name by May 29.

“I have decided to declare for the NBA Draft,” Okpala said. “I have learned so much over these last two years at Stanford and am looking forward to continuing to improve along this journey. I am excited to see where it will take me.”

A rather interesting story, Okpala stood only 5’10” as a freshman in high school before spurting to a relatively incredible 6’7” as a senior. He is now listed at 6’9”. Because of his size, he wasn’t recruited by any high-major programs until late in his high school career, when Stanford saw him play on the AAU circuit.

As a sophomore this past season, Okpala averaged 16.8 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.0 APG while connecting on 36.8% of his three-point attempts. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony currently ranks Okpala as 2019’s No. 26 overall prospect, with his scouting report detailing how Okpala fits the modern NBA with his defensive versatility and greatly improved jumper. Per Givony, the 19-year-old may potentially generate some interest in back-end of the lottery.

In addition to Okpala, several other prospects have made themselves early entrants for the 2019 NBA draft:

Javonte Smart, G, LSU (freshman) (via Instagram)
Joe Wieskamp, G, Iowa (freshman) (Twitter link via Jeff Goodman of Stadium)
Armoni Brooks, G, Houston (junior) (Twitter link via Jeff Goodman of Stadium)
Emmitt Williams, F, LSU (freshman) (Twitter link via Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports)
Four players from Xavier – Paul Scruggs, Naji Marshall, Quentin Goodin, and Tyrique Jones (Twitter link via Jeff Goodman of Stadium)