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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2025 Draft

By | at April 29, 2025 10:40 am

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.

5 comments 2025 NBA Draft Newsstand

And-Ones: Gores, WNBA, Micic, Bibby, Williams, NIL

By | at March 24, 2025 9:43 pm

A new development plan for the Detroit riverfront includes building a multi-sports complex that would support the city’s bid to gain a WNBA franchise, JC Reindl of the Detroit Free Press reports. Pistons owner Tom Gores and a team of local investors plan to use the site to host the team’s practice facility and headquarters. The Pistons and their G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise, play their games in downtown Detroit.

Reports surfaced in late January that Detroit was one of the cities bidding for a new WNBA franchise.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

  • Anadolu Efes guard and former NBA player Shane Larkin said that Suns guard Vasilije Micic could wind up in the EuroLeague next season, as Eurohoops.net relays. “Me and Vasa talk all the time. He’s one of my good friends,” Larkin said, per Meridian Sports. “Obviously we have a lot of history together. And, you know, he’s happy where he’s at, but he’s definitely open to opportunities.” Micic has appeared in just two games with Phoenix since he was traded by Charlotte. Phoenix holds an $8.1MM option on Micic’s contract for next season, which is a virtual lock to be declined.
  • Mike Bibby, a 14-year NBA veteran, has agreed to become the head coach at Sacramento State, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports. Bibby played the prime of his career with the Kings.
  • Kam Williams of Tulane will test the NBA draft waters, Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets. The 6’8” wing was named to the American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team after averaging 9.3 points per game and shooting 41% on 3-point tries in his first college season.
  • Writing for The Stein Line (Substack link), Jake Fischer interviews agent Daniel Poneman regarding the NIL and how it impacts the NBA draft and college basketball.
0 comments 2025 NBA Draft Detroit Pistons International Phoenix Suns Sacramento Kings WNBA

Cole, Wieskamp Headline G League Draft Pool

By | at October 22, 2022 8:33 am

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)

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Draft Notes: Bradley, Swanigan, Deadline Decisions

By | at May 24, 2017 9:10 am

North Carolina center Tony Bradley will hire an agent and remain in the NBA draft, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical. After helping the Tar Heels capture the national championship, Bradley faces conflicting opinions about his draft status, with DraftExpress placing him 41st on its list of top 100 prospects but ESPN’s Chad Ford projecting him as a first-rounder at No. 22. The 6’10” freshman averaged 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds during his lone season at North Carolina.

Bradley is among several dominoes that will fall as the deadline for withdrawing from the draft looms tonight. Here’s a roundup of some other prospects:

Here are several players have made a final decision to forgo the draft and head back to school:

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

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Draft Roundup: Bullock, Johnson, Taylor, Williams

By | at May 1, 2017 1:08 pm

May is an important month for draft-eligible players, with the draft combine next weekend in Chicago, the lottery on May 16th and the deadline to withdraw on May 24th.

Several early entries have made their commitments, and Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports passes along the decisions:

  • Providence forward Rodney Bullock will return to school for his senior season. The Friars’ top scorer and rebounder this season had declared for the draft, but did not hire an agent.
  • Darin Johnson of Cal State Northridge signed with an agent and will stay in the draft. A transfer from Washington, Johnson averaged 13.8 points and 3.7 rebounds during his lone season at Northridge. He did not receive an invitation to the combine and is not projected to be selected on draft night.
  • New Mexico’s Matt Taylor also signed with an agent. The junior guard averaged just averaged 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds and is not projected as a draft pick.
  • Ohio State’s Kam Williams will return to school for his senior year. The junior guard is shooting 39% from 3-point range as a collegian and was not projected to be drafted.
  • Khadeem Lattin will return to Oklahoma for his senior season. He averaged  8.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks last season after being named to the Big 12 All-Defensive team as a sophomore.
  • Central Michigan’s Cecil Williams will return for his senior season. The swingman averaged 8.0 points and 6.0 rebounds last season.
  • Trae Bell-Haynes will return to Vermont next season. He averaged 11.2 points and 3.9 assists last season as the Catamounts won a record 29 games.
  • Tony Farmer, a junior college standout at Lee College, has signed with an agent and will stay in the draft. He is not projected to be selected.
1 comment 2017 NBA Draft

NBA Confirms 182 Early Entrants For 2017 Draft

By | at April 25, 2017 5:40 pm

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.

Read more

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