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Draft Notes: Ingram, Bridges, Jones, Kamardine, More

April 23rd, 2024 at 12:06pm CST by Luke Adams

UNC forward Harrison Ingram, who spent his junior year with the Tar Heels after two seasons at Stanford, has declared for the 2024 NBA draft, he announced on Twitter.

According to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link), while Ingram plans on keeping his name in the draft pool and going pro, he’s maintaining his remaining college eligibility for now. Ingram also tested the draft waters in 2022, participating in the combine that year before withdrawing and returning to school.

[RELATED: 2024 NBA Draft Early Entrants List]

Back in 2022, Ingram barely crack the top 75 on ESPN’s big board of draft prospects, but he currently ranks 34th, making him a good bet to selected in June if he decides to forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility.

The North Carolina standout posted career highs of 12.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game in 2023/24. He also boosted his shooting percentages to 43.0% from the field and 38.5% on three-pointers.

Here are a few more draft-related updates:

  • Baylor forward Jalen Bridges, the No. 56 prospect on ESPN’s board, announced on Instagram that he has decided to enter the 2024 draft. Bridges’ announcement didn’t mention anything about retaining his final year of college eligibility, so it sounds like he plans to go pro. Bridges spent three years at West Virginia and the last two at Baylor, but would still be eligible for a super-senior season because he was a redshirt freshman and then received an extra year of eligibility due to COVID.
  • Memphis senior forward David Jones will enter the 2024 NBA draft pool while maintaining his final year of NCAA eligibility, he announced on Instagram. A member of the All-AAC first team in 2023/24, Jones averaged 21.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals in 32.3 minutes per game across 32 starts, with a shooting line of .459/.380/.797.
  • French guard Ilias Kamardine is entering the draft, according to an announcement from agent Herman Manakyan of Fusion Sports (Twitter link). Kamardine, 20, has been playing for Vichy-Clermont in France’s Pro B league and was named the MVP of the FIBA U20 European Championship in 2023.
  • New Mexico freshman forward JT Toppin will test the NBA draft waters this spring, a source tells Rothstein (Twitter link). In his first college season, Toppin averaged 12.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 26.6 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .623/.344/.565.
  • Arizona guard KJ Lewis will test the draft waters following his freshman season, he announced on Twitter. Lewis came off the bench for the Wildcats in 36 games in 2023/24, averaging 6.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 1.9 APG.
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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2023 Draft

April 26th, 2023 at 10:55am CST by Rory Maher

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2023 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 242 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 192 are from colleges, two played in the NBA G League, and 48 are international early entrants.

Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft in 2021 and the 283 who entered last year. 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.

This year’s total of 242 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by May 31 and again by June 12, 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 2023 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.

  • Miguel Allen, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Idrissa Ba, C, France (born 2002)
  • Elian Benitez, G, France (born 2003)
  • William Beugre-Kassi, G/F, France (born 2004)
  • Sasa Ciani, F, Croatia (born 2003)
  • Ege Demir, F/C, Turkey (born 2004)
  • Thijs De Ridder, F, Belgium (born 2003)
  • Nikola Djurisic, G/F, Serbia (born 2004)
  • Ruben Dominguez, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Quinn Ellis, G, Italy (born 2003)
  • Juan Fernandez, F/C, Spain (born 2002)
  • Clement Frisch, F, France (born 2002)
  • Sananda Fru, F, Germany (born 2003)
  • Gloire Goma, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Hassane Gueye, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ondrej Hanzlik, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Ilias Kamardine, G, France (born 2003)
  • Konstantin Kostadinov, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Oleksandr Kovliar, G, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Liutauras Lelevicius, G, Lithuania (born 2003)
  • Gilad Levy, C, Israel (born 2002)
  • Ruben Lopez, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Assemian Moulare, G, France (born 2003)
  • Daniel Onwenu, G, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Ivan Perasovic, F, Croatia (born 2002)
  • Mantas Rubstavicius, G, Lithuania (born 2002)
  • Musa Sagnia, F/C, Spain (born 2003)
  • Marcio Santos, F/C, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Enzo Shahrvin, F, France (born 2003)
  • Birahima Sylla, G, France (born 2003)
  • Dez Andras Tanoh, G, Hungary (born 2002)
  • Hugo Toom, F, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Armel Traore, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ricards Vanags, G/F, Latvia (born 2002)

Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:

The NBA typically sends its teams a list of “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public. However, we’re assuming that at least one projected top-three pick is on it: Scoot Henderson of the G League Ignite. Overtime Elite standouts Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson would also be on this list, as would Henderson’s Ignite teammate Leonard Miller.

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.

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