David DiLeo

Draft Decisions: DeLaurier, Waters, Elleby, Others

As we relayed on Monday evening, Duke is losing one key member of its 2019/20 squad, with center Marques Bolden opting to keep his name in the 2019 NBA draft pool and go pro. However, the Blue Devils did get some good news on the draft front.

According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium (via Twitter), junior big man Javin DeLaurier has opted to withdraw from the 2019 draft and return to school for his senior year.

DeLaurier hasn’t played a huge role for Duke in his first three seasons, but with Bolden out of the picture, he could play more significant minutes in ’19/20. In 38 games (16 starts) last season, DeLaurier posted 3.8 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 1.3 BPG with a .747 FG% in 16.3 minutes per contest. He had a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks) in Duke’s Elite 8 loss to Michigan State.

Here are more of the latest draft decisions made by this year’s early entrants in advance of Wednesday’s deadline:

  • Shaw junior guard Amir Hinton and LSU sophomore guard Tremont Waters are keeping their names in the 2019 draft pool, agent Kim Grillier tells Goodman (Twitter link).
  • A pair of Waters’ teammates, junior guards Marlon Taylor and Skylar Mays, will return to LSU for the 2019/20 season after testing the draft waters, a source tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
  • Kevon Harris, a junior guard out of Stephen F. Austin, is pulling out of the draft and retaining his college eligibility, reports Rothstein (via Twitter).
  • After testing the draft waters, Washington State forward CJ Elleby has elected to return to school for his sophomore season, tweets Rothstein.
  • We can also remove David DiLeo‘s name from the early entrant list, according to Rothstein, who tweets that the forward is headed back to Central Michigan for his senior year.

233 Early Entrants Declare For 2019 NBA Draft

The NBA has released the official list of early entrants for the 2019 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 233 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 175 are from colleges, while 58 are international early entrants.

That number falls just short of the previous record for early entrants, established in 2018. Last year, 236 early entrants declared for the draft, though ultimately only 91 of those prospects remained in the draft by the final deadline.

This year’s total of 233 early entrants also figures to shrink significantly by May 29 and again by June 10, the two key deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like that pool will remain crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants almost certainly exceeding 60, the number of picks in the draft.

Our list of early entrants is now up to date and can be found right here. Here are today’s updates:

College underclassmen:

The following players were listed on the NBA’s official breakdown today, but weren’t yet noted on our own list.

The following players reportedly declared for the draft or planned to, but weren’t named in the NBA’s official announcement today. As such, we’ve removed them from our list.

International players:

The following players were listed on the NBA’s official breakdown today, but weren’t yet noted on our list.

The following international players reportedly declared for the draft or planned to, but weren’t named in the NBA’s official announcement today. As such, we’ve removed them from our list.