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NBA Confirms 182 Early Entrants For 2017 Draft

April 25th, 2017 at 5:40pm CST by Luke Adams

With the deadline for early entrants to enter the 2017 NBA draft now behind us, the league has officially released the list of this year’s early entry candidates, and it’s a long one. According to the NBA’s announcement, 182 players have declared early for the draft — 137 college players and 45 international prospects. That’s a new record.

As was the case a year ago, NCAA rules changes allow underclassmen to “test the waters” before officially committing to the 2017 NBA draft. NCAA early entrants can withdraw their names any time up until May 24 while maintaining their NCAA eligibility, as long as they haven’t hired agents. That means that prospects testing the waters can take part in the NBA draft combine from May 9-14 – if invited – and they can work out for individual teams in the coming weeks.

International early entrants can also withdraw their names from the draft pool within the next several weeks. The final draft list will be set after the early entrant withdrawal deadline for international and other non-NCAA players passes on June 12.

A year ago, a whopping 162 NCAA and international players declared their intent to enter the draft early, but 91 of those players eventually withdrew. This year should follow a similar pattern, so the group of eligible draftees for 2017 figures to be reduced significantly by June 12.

Listed below are the current early entrants, according to the NBA. Players whose intent to declare wasn’t previously reported on Hoops Rumors are listed in italics.

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Draft Notes: Robinson, Blackmon, Clark, Sina

April 7th, 2017 at 10:13am CST by Luke Adams

With the NCAA tournament over and the deadline for early-entry candidates inching closer, we can expect to hear word of more underclassmen declaring their intent to test the draft waters in the coming weeks. A year ago, 162 players initially entered the draft before more than half of them withdrew their names. This year, we’re almost halfway to 162, with plenty more to come.

With all sorts of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors putting their names into the draft pool, we don’t want to let any slip through the cracks, so here’s the latest round-up of early entrant news, including a couple reports from last week:

  • Florida forward Devin Robinson has opted to enter the draft without hiring an agent, giving him the option of returning to the Gators for his senior year, according to Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun. Robinson, the 38th-ranked prospect on DraftExpress’ big board, is leaning toward going pro, but will make his decision after getting feedback in the coming weeks, says Dooley.
  • Indiana junior guard James Blackmon Jr., who ranks 15th among Big Ten prospects according to DraftExpress, will test the draft waters. As Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star reports, Blackmon has decided to enter the draft but won’t hire an agent. That will give him the option to withdraw his name, as he did a year ago after testing the waters.
  • UMass junior swingman Donte Clark has declared for the draft, but will also put off hiring an agent in order to retain his NCAA eligibility for now, writes Matt Vautour of The Daily Hampshire Gazette. As Clark explains, he’ll make his draft decision first, then will decide whether to return to UMass for one more year or transfer to another program.
  • Jaren Sina, a junior guard at George Washington, has decided to turn pro and will be represented by agent Misko Raznatovic, a source tells Sportando. Sina isn’t considered a top prospect by draft experts, but given his choice of agents, he likely intends to play international ball.
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