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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2025 Draft

April 29th, 2025 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2025 NBA draft, announcing in a press release (Twitter link) that 106 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 73 are from colleges, 30 had been playing for teams internationally, and three were playing non-college ball stateside (in the G League).

While that early entrant total exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (59), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022, 242 in 2023, and 201 a year ago.

The NCAA’s NIL policy, which allows college athletes to be paid based on their name, image, and likeness, has been a major factor in that downward trend — fewer prospects feel the need to go pro as soon as possible when they’re earning big money at the college level.

The huge dip this year can also be attributed in large part to the fact that most college seniors are now automatically draft-eligible. In recent years, most fourth-year seniors faced an “early entrant” decision because they were granted an extra year of NCAA eligibility due to COVID-19 and didn’t have the 2020/21 season count toward their typical limit.

This year’s total of 106 early entrants figures to decline significantly by May 28 and again by June 15, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. The leftover early entrants will join the college seniors with no remaining eligibility and other automatically eligible players in this year’s draft pool.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2025 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.

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.

Because they’re absent from the NBA’s official list, we’ve removed the following names from our own early entrant list.

Note: Some of these players may also be transferring to new schools.

According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link), two-time national champion Alex Karaban of UConn also initially filed paperwork to test the draft waters, but withdrew from the pool before the NBA put out today’s early entrant list. He’ll return to the Huskies for his senior season.

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And-Ones: Morris, Morey, NCAA Tourney, 2025 Draft

March 19th, 2025 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show podcast, veteran forward Marcus Morris, who is currently a free agent, was asked by Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports about Daryl Morey‘s recent comments about using AI in Sixers decisions. The question prompted some pointed comments from Morris about the longtime NBA executive.

“I don’t trust Daryl Morey. I just don’t trust him,” Morris said (Twitter video link). “I think he’s thinking too far ahead of the way basketball needs to be played. He’s trying to do a whole new team. He’s trying to bring guys in, flipping them in and out, in and out, in and out. Does he even understand the dynamic of being in Philadelphia (and) what guys you need to play in Philadelphia?”

“… You tell my guy (James Harden) that you’re gonna do something for him, a guy that you brought from all these teams, and then you don’t. Like, did AI tell him not to pay James Harden this amount of money? Does the AI tell him to go get Paul George, hire Nick Nurse?

“Does AI tell you to get the guy from Miami, Caleb Martin, because he played well in the Boston series? He can’t shoot the ball. You got three dominant guys that need the ball in their hands. Why is that the first guy that you go get? How did you come up with picking a team? Why do you want to start a brand-new team and try to win a championship? I haven’t seen any team that has 10 new guys be really good the following year. I don’t even know if any team has ever done that.

“I’m just not a fan of how he goes about choosing players and flipping players in and out. It’s kind of like he’s trying to outsmart the game too much.”

Morris, a Philadelphia native, has played under Morey multiple times over the course of his 13-year NBA career and acknowledged that those experiences influence his views on the former Rockets and current Sixers president. Morris said Morey sent him to the G League during his rookie season “for no reason” and then traded him off the 76ers last season for a “bag of chips,” even though he was playing well for his hometown team.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

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And-Ones: Watanabe, Japan, Risacher, McDonald’s All-Americans, All-Stars

January 25th, 2024 at 10:54pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Japan won its first FIBA World Cup game in 17 years in 2023, and Suns wing Yuta Watanabe was a big part of that team. Watanabe reminisced on his summer in a conversation with HoopsHype’s Sam Yip, expressing optimism for Japan’s future in basketball.

“If I’m going to retire in five, six years in a realistic world, we [are probably] not going to be one of the top teams in the world in five years, but I think at least we will be good enough to compete against those great teams,” Watanabe said. “I mean we did a good job against Germany and Australia in the World Cup. We lost by 20 but we won the second half. I think in five, six years we gonna be there to compete against those teams.”

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • French wing Zaccharie Risacher is making a case to be one of the first players selected in the 2024 draft during a historically productive season, ESPN’s Jeremy Woo writes (ESPN+ link). Risacher boasts a mix of positional size, scoring, play-making, defense and smarts, according to Woo. His physical profile is similar to that of Shane Battier and Ziaire Williams. Woo breaks down the rest of Risacher’s game, explaining why he could go No. 1 overall and considering which teams might make sense for him.
  • The 2024 McDonald’s All-American Game roster was unveiled on ESPN on Tuesday, and it features potential 2025 No. 1 overall picks Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jonathan Givony). Kentucky commit Boogie Fland, Duke commit Isaiah Evans, Washington commit Zoom Diallo and Rutgers commit Dylan Harper are among others featured on the rosters.
  • Ahead of the All-Star starters being unveiled earlier Thursday, The Ringer’s Michael Pina broke down his official starter ballot, as well as who he thinks the reserves should be. Pina voted for Tyrese Haliburton, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, all of which mirrored the official selections. However, Pina had New York’s Jalen Brunson over Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard on his ballot. He also picked the Lakers’ Anthony Davis and the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard over LeBron James and Phoenix’s Kevin Durant. Check out the rest of his selections here.
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