Derek St. Hilaire

Cole, Wieskamp Headline G League Draft Pool

Norris Cole and Joe Wieskamp are among 128 players who are eligible for the annual NBA G League draft, which will take place on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Cole, 34, played for Miami, New Orleans and Oklahoma City during his NBA career, which spanned 2011-17. He’s played for a variety of European teams since, most recently JL Bourg in France. He also played for Team USA this summer.

Wieskamp was waived by the Spurs on Monday. Wieskamp, 23, was drafted 41st overall in 2021 by the Spurs and spent most of his rookie season on a two-way contract with the team. He was converted to a rest-of-season standard contract in March, then re-signed with San Antonio in August on a two-year deal that includes a guaranteed $2.175MM salary for 2022/23.

Jared Rhoden, who was waived by both the Trail Blazers and Hawks this preseason, is another prominent name on the list.

Here is the full list of players eligible to be drafted, as provided by a G League press release:

Name (Position, School)

NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2022 Draft

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2022 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 283 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 247 are from colleges, while 36 are international early entrants.

Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft a year ago. Beginning in 2021, the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.

That tweak to the NCAA’s eligibility rules has increased the number of total early entrants due to the influx of seniors into the pool. However, as Jonathan Givony of ESPN observes (via Twitter), the number of college non-seniors (123) on the initial early entry list this year is actually the lowest since 2016, while the number of international prospects (36) is the lowest since 2014.

This year’s total of 283 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by June 1 and again by June 13, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 58, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2022 draft is fully up to date and can be found right here.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:


Newly-added players:

College players:

These players either didn’t publicly announce that they were entering the draft or we simply missed it when they did.

International players:

These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.

Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:

The NBA sent its teams a list of 33 “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public, but Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link) shared some of the most notable players on it, and we’ve added them to our early entrant tracker. They are as follows:

  1. Dominick Barlow, F, Overtime Elite
  2. MarJon Beauchamp, G/F, G League Ignite
  3. Dyson Daniels, G, G League Ignite
  4. Henri Drell, G/F, Windy City Bulls
  5. Michael Foster, F, G League Ignite
  6. Jaden Hardy, G, G League Ignite
  7. Makur Maker, C, Sydney Kings (formerly Howard Bison)
  8. Jean Montero, G, Overtime Elite
  9. Samson Ruzhentsev, G/F, Mega Basket (formerly Florida Gators)
  10. Kai Sotto, C, Adelaide 36ers (formerly G League Ignite)
  11. Zaire Wade, G, Salt Lake City Stars
  12. Kok Yat, F, Overtime Elite
  13. Fanbo Zeng, F, G League Ignite

Players removed:

Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.

That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have had no NCAA eligibility remaining, making them automatically draft-eligible; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list, at least for the time being.

Finally, Givony reports (via Twitter) that Canadian forward Leonard Miller, from the Fort Erie International Academy has been asked to fill out additional paperwork to finalize his entrance into the draft pool. According to Givony, there’s an expectation that Miller will be added to the list, so we’ve left him listed in our early entrant tracker among the international players.

Draft Notes: Latest Mock, Senior Eligibility, Timme, Rollins, Williams, St. Hilaire, Sasser

Gonzaga freshman big man Chet Holmgren goes No. 1 to Houston in Jonathan Givony’s latest mock draft on ESPN. Givony projects Orlando taking Auburn freshman Jabari Smith with the second pick and Detroit selecting Duke’s Paolo Banchero in the No. 3 slot. Purdue guard Jaden Ivey and Iowa forward Keegan Murray round out the top five in the post-NCAA Tournament mock.

We have more draft-related notes:

  • As it did last year, the NBA will require fourth-year college seniors to declare themselves eligible for the draft, Givony confirms (via Twitter). Players can withdraw by June 1 in order to retain their NCAA eligibility.
  • Gonzaga junior forward Drew Timme has declared for the draft, he announced on Twitter. Timme, who is ranked No. 57 overall on ESPN’s Best Available rankings, averaged 18.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG and 2.8 APG this season for the Bulldogs. His announcement doesn’t say anything about maintaining his college eligibility, so it sounds like he’s prepared to go pro.
  • Toledo sophomore Ryan Rollins is entering the draft and will hire an agent, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. A shooting guard, Rollins is ranked No. 70 on ESPN’s Best Available list. He averaged 18.9 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.6 APG this season.
  • VCU forward Vince Williams has declared for the draft, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein tweets. Williams is ranked No. 92 on ESPN’s prospects list. He averaged 14.1 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.0 APG as a senior.
  • New Orleans guard Derek St. Hilaire has declared for the draft and will forgo his final year of eligibility, he revealed in a tweet. He averaged 20.1 PPG in his senior year.
  • Houston guard Marcus Sasser will test the draft waters but won’t hire an agent, Mark Berman of Fox 26 tweets. The junior averaged 17.7 PPG in 12 games for the Cougars before a toe injury sidelined him.