2022/23 NBA G League Draft Results
The NBA G League held its draft for the 2022/23 season on Saturday afternoon.
The 28 G League teams affiliated with NBA franchises participated in the event, as did – for the first time – the Mexico City Capitanes. The G League Ignite, which is made up of top prospects and veteran mentors, doesn’t take part in the draft.
[RELATED: NBA G League Announces Schedule, Format For 2022/23 Season]
The first player selected in today’s G League draft was 2020 second-round pick Sam Merrill, a swingman who was in camp with the Kings this fall but missed out on earning a regular season roster spot.
Merrill’s contract with Sacramento included a partial guarantee of $150K, making him ineligible to suit up for the Kings’ G League affiliate in Stockton this season. The Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers‘ affiliate, snared him with the No. 1 overall pick.
The No. 2 pick was another player who was under contract with an NBA team up until last week. Joe Wieskamp was the odd man out in San Antonio, having been waived by the Spurs (despite having a guaranteed 2022/23 salary) to help the team get down to 15 players for the start of the season. The Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks‘ affiliate, grabbed him with the second overall selection today.
Among the other notable picks was No. 4 overall Jared Rhoden, who was selected by the Hawks‘ affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks. Atlanta claimed Rhoden off waivers near the end of the preseason in the hopes of securing his affiliate rights, but it appears he didn’t meet the criteria — the Skyhawks instead secured his G League rights in today’s draft.
The player with the most NBA experience selected in today’s draft was Norris Cole. The veteran guard, with 360 NBA regular season appearances under his belt, went 48th overall to the Grand Rapids Gold, the Nuggets‘ affiliate. Cole, who turned 34 this month, will be looking to take the same path Isaiah Thomas and Lance Stephenson did last season, making an NBA comeback after impressing in Grand Rapids.
Finally, it’s also worth noting that today’s No. 10 overall pick, Amauri Hardy, is the older brother of Mavericks rookie Jaden Hardy. Dallas’ affiliate, the Texas Legends, picked him.
Here are the full 2022/23 G League draft results:
Round One:
- Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers): Sam Merrill
- Wisconsin Herd (Bucks): Joe Wieskamp
- Greensboro Swarm (Hornets): Aaron Wheeler
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): Jared Rhoden
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder): Jericole Hellems
- Sioux Falls Skyforce (Heat): Kadeem Jack
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): Terrell Brown Jr.
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder): Michael Weathers
- Texas Legends (Mavericks): Taze Moore
- Texas Legends (Mavericks): Amauri Hardy
- Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies): Ty Gordon
- Iowa Wolves (Timberwolves): Mamoudou Diarra
- Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Pacers): Abu Kigab
- Ontario Clippers (Clippers): Warith Alatishe
- Westchester Knicks (Knicks): Mayan Kiir
- Capital City Go-Go (Wizards): Theo John
- South Bay Lakers (Lakers): Nate Roberts
- Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies): Keith Williams
- Long Island Nets (Nets): Taz Sherman
- Raptors 905 (Raptors): Devon Daniels
- Sioux Falls Skyforce (Heat): Jai Smith (Overtime Elite)
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): Adrian Delph
- Wisconsin Herd (Bucks): Tyrn Flowers
- Windy City Bulls (Bulls): Nick King
- Ontario Clippers (Clippers): David Collins
- Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers): Derek Culver
- Motor City Cruise (Pistons): Ryan Turell (Yeshiva — Division III)
- Motor City Cruise (Pistons): Tom Digbeu
- Maine Celtics (Celtics): Kendall Smith
Round Two:
- Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers): Rashad Vaughn
- Mexico City Capitanes (N/A): Jassel Perez (Dominican Republic)
- Greensboro Swarm (Hornets): Tyson Jolly
- Raptors 905 (Raptors): Hasahn French
- Greensboro Swarm (Hornets): No pick
- Sioux Falls Skyforce (Heat): Landon Kirkwood
- Austin Spurs (Spurs): Justin Kier
- Iowa Wolves (Timberwolves): No pick
- Santa Cruz Warriors (Warriors): Jayce Johnson
- Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers): No pick
- Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers): Remy Martin
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder): Noah Starkey (Southern Nazarene – Division II)
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder): Philip Flory
- Maine Celtics (Celtics): Zak Irvin
- Westchester Knicks (Knicks): Jahvon Blair
- Sioux Falls Skyforce (Heat): Brandon McCoy
- South Bay Lakers (Lakers): John Meeks
- Stockton Kings (Kings): Seth Allen
- Grand Rapids Gold (Nuggets): Norris Cole
- Memphis Hustle (Grizzlies): No pick
- Stockton Kings (Kings): Austin Trice
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): No pick
- Greensboro Swarm (Hornets): No pick
- Stockton Kings (Kings): Isaac Johnson
- Salt Lake City Stars (Jazz): Elijah Lufile
- Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers): No pick
- Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Rockets): Eron Gordon
- Santa Cruz Warriors (Warriors): Jack Nolan (Washington University in St. Louis – Division III)
- Salt Lake City Stars (Jazz): Armon Fletcher
Round Three:
- Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers): J.J. Moore
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): No pick
- Greensboro Swarm (Hornets): No pick
- Lakeland Magic (Magic): Jachai Taylor
- Lakeland Magic (Magic): No pick
- Birmingham Squadron (Pelicans): Trey McGowens
- Austin Spurs (Spurs): No pick
- Oklahoma City Blue (Thunder): Kevin Kangu
- Windy City Bulls (Bulls): Wayne Stewart Jr. (Texas A&M-Commerce – Division II)
- Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Pacers): No pick
- Maine Celtics (Celtics): No pick
- Cleveland Charge (Cavaliers): No pick
- Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Pacers): No pick
- Maine Celtics (Celtics): No pick
- Westchester Knicks (Knicks): Dazon Ingram
- Grand Rapids Gold (Nuggets): No pick
- Mexico City Capitanes (N/A): No pick
- Windy City Bulls (Bulls): No pick
- Long Island Nets (Nets): Alan Griffin
- Austin Spurs (Spurs): No pick
- Austin Spurs (Spurs): No pick
- College Park Skyhawks (Hawks): No pick
- Wisconsin Herd (Bucks): No pick
- Grand Rapids Gold (Nuggets): No pick
- Ontario Clippers (Clippers): No pick
- Delaware Blue Coats (Sixers): No pick
- Santa Cruz Warriors (Warriors): No pick
- Capital City Go-Go (Wizards): Nick Hornsby
- Raptors 905 (Raptors): No pick
Teams will fill out their rosters with affiliate players, returning-rights players, tryout players, and players who are assigned to the G League from the NBA roster (including those on two-way contracts).
G League training camps open on Monday, with this year’s NBAGL Showcase Cup tournament tipping off on November 4.
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)
- Warith Alatishe (F, Oregon State)
- Chris Allen (G, Iowa State)
- Seth Allen (G, Virginia Tech)
- Arsenio Arrington (F, Aquinas)
- Ron Artest III (F, Cal State Northridge)
- Marcus Azor (G, UMass-Dartmouth)
- Gracin Bakumanya (C, France)
- Kentrell Barkley (G, East Carolina)
- Jahvon Blair (G, Georgetown)
- Vander Blue (G, Marquette)
- Shannon Bogues (G, Stephen F. Austin)
- Tim Bond (F, Eastern Michigan)
- Terrell Brown Jr. (G, Washington)
- Patrick Burnett (G, York (NE))
- Devante Carter (G, Nicholls State)
- Naz Carter (G, Washington)
- Dimon Carrigan (F, West Virginia)
- Gary Chivichyan (G, Pacific)
- Tamenang Choh (G, Brown)
- Chris Clarke (F, Texas Tech)
- Norris Cole (G, Cleveland State)
- David Collins (G, Clemson)
- Derrick Colter (G, Duquesne)
- Markel Crawford (G, Memphis)
- Derek Culver (C, West Virginia)
- Jared Cunningham (G, Oregon State)
- Tulio Da Silva (F, Missouri State)
- Sam Daniel (F, Florida Tech)
- Devon Daniels (G, North Carolina State)
- Adrian Delph (G, Appalachian State)
- Keron Deshields (G, Tennessee State)
- Mamoudou Diarra (F, Tennessee Tech)
- Tom Digbeu (G, Australia)
- Devonaire Doutrive (G, Boise State)
- Malik Dunbar (F, Auburn)
- Nojel Eastern (G, Howard)
- Tarkus Ferguson (G, Illinois-Chicago)
- Armon Fletcher (G, Southern Illinois)
- Philip Flory (G, Wisconsin-Stevens Point)
- Tyrn Flowers (F, Long Island)
- Hasahn French (F, Saint Louis)
- Both Gach (F, Utah)
- Eron Gordon (G, Valparaiso)
- Ty Gordon (G, Nicholls State)
- Kadre Gray (G, Laurentian)
- Alan Griffin (G, Syracuse)
- Haowen Guo (G, China)
- Blake Hamilton (G, Buffalo)
- Amauri Hardy (G, Oregon)
- Jericole Hellems (F, North Carolina State)
- Jay Henderson (G, Louisville)
- J.R. Holder (G, Jacksonville)
- Tra-Deon Hollins (G, Nebraska-Omaha)
- Nick Hornsby (F, Sacramento State)
- Ron Houston (G, Bethany)
- Pe’Shon Howard (G, USC)
- Kevin Hunt Jr. (G, Denver)
- Dazon Ingram (G, Central Florida)
- Zak Irvin (G, Michigan)
- Jimond Ivey (G, Akron)
- Kadeem Jack (C, Rutgers)
- Demetrius Jackson (G, Notre Dame)
- Anthony January (F, Cal State-San Bernardino)
- Theo John (C, Duke)
- Isaac Johnson (F, Appalachian State)
- Jayce Johnson (C, Marquette)
- Tyson Jolly (G, Iona)
- Kevin Kangu (G, Lenoir-Rhyne)
- Justin Kier (G, Arizona)
- Abu Kigab (F, Boise State)
- Mayan Kiir (F, New Mexico State)
- Nick King (F, Middle Tennessee State)
- Landon Kirkwood (G, Barry)
- Ishmael Lane (C, Northwestern State)
- Gabe Levin (F, Long Beach State)
- Trey Lewis (G, Louisville)
- Elijah Lufile (F, Oral Roberts)
- Tevin Mack (G, Clemson)
- Sterling Manley (C, North Carolina)
- Melik Martin (G, Drexel)
- Remy Martin (G, Kansas)
- Brandon McCoy (C, UNLV)
- Brandon McGhee (G, CSU Pueblo)
- Trey McGowens (G, Nebraska)
- Martaveous McKnight (G, Arkansas-Pine Bluff)
- John Meeks (G, Charleston)
- Sam Merrill (G, Utah State)
- JJ Miles (F, East Carolina)
- JJ Moore (F, Rutgers)
- Taze Moore (G, Houston)
- Barra Njie (G, Sweden)
- Jack Nolan (G, Washington U – St. Louis)
- Mike Nuga (G, UNLV)
- Daniel Orton (C, Kentucky)
- Mike Parks Jr. (F, Memphis)
- Jassel Perez (G, Dominican Republic)
- Kavion Pippen (C, Southern Illinois)
- M.J. Randolph (G, Florida A&M)
- Jared Rhoden (G, Seton Hall)
- Nate Roberts (C, Washington)
- Wesley Saunders (G, Harvard)
- Taz Sherman (G, West Virginia)
- Fred Sims Jr. (G, Chicago State)
- Jai Smith (F, Overtime Elite)
- Kendall Smith (G, Oklahoma State)
- Andre Spight (G, Northern Colorado)
- Derek St. Hilaire (G, New Orleans)
- Noah Starkey (C, Southern Nazarene)
- Wayne Stewart Jr. (F, Texas A&M – Commerce)
- Taren Sullivan (F, Findlay)
- Sean Sutherlin (G, Minnesota)
- Jordan Swopshire (F, Colgate)
- Jachai Taylor (F, Queens (NC))
- Marlon Taylor (G, LSU)
- JD Tisdale Jr. (G, Rogers State)
- Austin Trice (F, Old Dominion)
- Jahlil Tripp (F, Pacific)
- Buay Tuach (G, Loyola Marymount)
- Jordan Tucker (F, Butler)
- Ryan Turell (F, Yeshiva)
- Rashad Vaughn (G, UNLV)
- Dantez Walton (F, Northern Kentucky)
- Michael Weathers (G, SMU)
- Aaron Wheeler (F, St. John’s)
- Joe Wieskamp (G, Iowa)
- Keith Williams (G, Cincinnati)
- Kam Williams (G, Ohio State)
- Dion Wright (F, St. Bonaventure)
Draft Notes: Warriors, Hornets, Green Room Invites, Preston
The Warriors brought in some first-round prospects for workouts on Friday, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Chris Duarte, Keon Johnson, Corey Kispert, Trey Murphy III, Ziaire Williams and Ayo Dosunmu visited the Warriors’ training facility. Johnson is the highest-rated prospect on the list, as the Tennessee guard is currently ranked No. 9 overall by ESPN.
Gonzaga’s Kispert (No. 13), Virginia’s Murphy (18), Oregon’s Duarte (23), Stanford’s Williams (24) and Illinois’ Dosunmu (34) could all be off the board by the second round. Golden State holds the seventh and 14th overall picks.
We have more draft-related news and tidbits:
- The Hornets looked at a handful of prospects on Thursday, the team’s PR department tweets. That group included Jahvon Blair (Georgetown), Tahj Eaddy (USC), Balsa Koprivica (Florida State), Sterling Manley (North Carolina) and M.J. Walker (Florida State).
- Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs — the highest-rated prospects — are among the 15 players already invited to Green Room for the draft, which will be held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets. Davion Mitchell, James Bouknight, Keon Johnson, Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner, Jalen Johnson, Kispert and Moses Moody will also be there. As previously noted, Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey and Kai Jones have received invites. The remaining invites will be determined next week, Givony adds in a separate tweet.
- Ohio University guard Jason Preston blogged about the Pistons as a teenager, James Edwards III of The Athletic writes in a feature piece. Edwards details Preston’s journey from a journalism student who wasn’t recruited out of high school to a likely second-round pick. He’s currently slotted at No. 42 on ESPN’s list.
NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2021 Draft
The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2021 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 353 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 296 are from colleges, while 57 are international early entrants.
That number obliterates the previous record of 236 early entrants, established in 2018. That had been expected, however, since the NCAA gave 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.
Since well over half of the college early entrants are seniors, there are actually fewer college underclassmen than usual in this initial group of early entrants.
This year’s total of 353 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by July 7 and again by July 19, 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 60, the number of picks in the draft.
Our tracker of early entrants for the 2021 draft now includes seniors and is fully up to date. It can be found right here. It doesn’t include players who are automatically draft-eligible this year. As Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets, that list of auto-eligible players includes the prospects who played for the G League Ignite, such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.
Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:
Newly-added players:
College players:
These players hadn’t previously been included on our unofficial list of underclassmen early entrants and weren’t on the list of senior early entrants that the NBA sent to teams last week.
- Josiah Agnew, G, Denmark Technical College (SC) (freshman)
- Justin Bean, F, Utah State (junior)
- Chudier Bile, F, Georgetown (senior)
- Jahvon Blair, G, Georgetown (senior)
- Isaac Bonton, G, Washington State (senior)
- Izaiah Brockington, G, Penn State (junior)
- Chaundee Brown, G, Michigan (senior)
- D.J. Burns Jr., F, Winthrop (sophomore)
- Maurice Calloo, F, Oregon State (junior)
- Trevion Crews, G, Bethel (IN) (senior)
- Sam Cunliffe, G/F, Evansville (junior)
- Cartier Diarra, G, Virginia Tech (senior)
- Lydell Elmore, F, High Point (senior)
- Hasahn French, F, Saint Louis (senior)
- Gorjok Gak, C, California Baptist (senior)
- Patrick Greene Jr., G, National Park College (AR) (sophomore)
- Jordan Hall, F, St. Joseph’s (freshman)
- Kashaun Hicks, G/F, Norfolk State (senior)
- Taveion Hollingsworth, G, Western Kentucky (senior)
- Trevor Hudgins, G, NW Missouri State (junior)
- Anthony Hughes Jr., G, Millsaps College (MS) (senior)
- Damien Jefferson, G/F, Creighton (senior)
- Bryson Johnson, G, Univ. of The Ozarks (AR) (senior)
- Latrell Jones, G, Portland (junior)
- Miller Kopp, F, Northwestern (junior)
- Kameron Langley, G, North Carolina A&T (senior)
- Matt Lewis, G, James Madison (senior)
- Makuach Maluach, G/F, New Mexico (senior)
- Steffon Mitchell, F, Boston College (senior)
- Matthew Moyer, F, George Washington (senior)
- Issa Muhammad, F, Daytona State (FL) (sophomore)
- Joel Ntambwe, F, Texas Tech (sophomore)
- Kobi Nwandu, F, Niagara (senior)
- Kevin Obanor, F, Oral Roberts (junior)
- Chris Parker, G, Liberty (senior)
- Jordan Phillips, G/F, UT Arlington (junior)
- Alex Reese, F, Alabama (senior)
- Shawn Royal Jr., G/F, Victory Rock Prep (FL) (post-graduate)
- Marcus Sasser, G, Houston (sophomore)
- Ronaldo Segu, G, Buffalo (junior)
- Roman Silva, C, Oregon State (senior)
- Chris Smith, F, UCLA (senior)
- TJ Starks, G, Cal State Northridge (junior)
- Jeremiah Tilmon, C, Missouri (senior)
- Kyree Walker, G/F, Hillcrest Prep Academy (AZ) (post-graduate)
- Keaton Wallace, G, UTSA (senior)
- Isaiah Washington, G, Long Beach State (senior)
- Richard Washington Jr., G/F, San Jose State (senior)
- Brandon Williams, G, Arizona (sophomore)
- Jeenathan Williams, G/F, Buffalo (junior)
- Bryce Wills, G/F, Stanford (junior)
- Sidney Wilson, G/F, SIU-Edwardsville (junior)
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.
- Vinicius Da Silva, C, Spain (born 2001)
- Aristide Mouaha, G, Italy (born 2000)
- Vladislav Odinokov, F/C, Russia (born 2000)
- Joel Parra, F, Spain (born 2000)
- Tomas Pavelka, C, Spain (born 2000)
- Franger Pirela, G, Spain (born 2002)
- Nemanja Popovic, F, Serbia (born 2001)
- Jaime Pradilla, F/C, Spain (born 2001)
- Sitraka Raharimanantoanina, F, France (born 2001)
- Hugo Robineau, G, France (born 2000)
- Nikos Rogavopoulos, F, Greece (born 2001)
- Alexander Shashkov, C, Russia (born 2000)
- Luc Van Slooten, F, Germany (born 2002)
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 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 for the time being.
- Isaiah Adams, F, UCF (freshman)
- James Akinjo, G, Arizona (junior)
- Avery Anderson, G, Oklahoma State (sophomore)
- Sardaar Calhoun, G, Florida State (junior)
- Michael Devoe, G, Georgia Tech (junior)
- Ron Harper Jr., G/F, Rutgers (junior)
- Justin Minaya, F, South Carolina (junior)
- Malachi Smith, G, Chattanooga (sophomore)
- Shamiel Stevenson, G/F, Nebraska (junior)
- Eric Williams Jr. , G/F, Oregon (junior)
