Karim Jallow

Draft Decisions: Antetokounmpo, Bowen, Kurucs, Bonga

Kostas Antetokounmpo opted to remain in the draft prior to Monday afternoon’s early-entry deadline, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony tweets. The 6’10” forward, Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s brother, cancelled all of his remaining scheduled private workouts, Givony adds. That suggests that he might have a guarantee from some team to draft him.

The Dayton freshman averaged a mere 5.2 PPG and 2.9 RPG in 15.1 MPG during his lone college season. Givony has the younger Antetokounmpo ranked No. 57 in his latest Top 100 rankings.

We have other early-entrant decisions to pass along:

  • Swingman Brian Bowen has withdrawn his name from the draft, Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com reports. Bowen, who was swept up in the Louisville scandal and then transferred to South Carolina, would have had to sit out next college season. He is now free to pursue opportunities in the NBA G League or overseas and then potentially re-enter the draft next year, Zagoria adds.
  • Rodions Kurucs will remain in the draft, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets. The 6’10” Latvian forward, who withdrew from the draft last year, is ranked No. 42 by Givony. Isaac Bonga has also remained in the June draft, Charania adds in another tweet. The 6’9”, 18-year-old German forward is ranked No. 54 by Givony.
  • Matur Maker, brother of the Bucks’ Thon Maker, has withdrawn from the draft, Zagoria tweets.
  • Karim Jallow, a small forward from Greece, has decided to pass on this year’s draft, according to Givony (Twitter link). He was ranked No. 67. Georgios Kalaitzakis and Vasilis Charalampopoulos, another pair of Greek prospects, have withdrawn their names, Givony tweets. The same goes for two French prospects, Adam Mokoka and Amine Noua, Givony adds in another tweet.
  • We relayed several other prospects’ decisions earlier today, including that of Luka Doncic.

Draft Updates: Jallow, Holman, Molson, Reese

German prospect Karim Jallow has entered his name in the 2018 NBA draft pool, his agency Lumani10.7 announced today (story in German; English link via Sportando).

A 6’7″ small forward, Jallow has spent the season playing for Bayern Munich’s second team in Germany. He has been the club’s leading scorer in 22 German League games, averaging 18.9 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, and 2.1 SPG. Jallow currently ranks 71st on Jonathan Givony’s big board at ESPN.com.

Here are a few more draft-related notes worth passing along:

  • Mississippi State forward Aric Holman, the 84th prospect on Givony’s 2018 big board, is entering the draft without hiring an agent, reports Evan Daniels of 247Sports.com (Twitter link). In his junior year, Holman established new career highs in PPG (10.9), RPG (6.7), FG% (.573), and 3PT% (.440) despite playing slightly less than he did in his sophomore season.
  • A pair of Canisius underclassmen are testing the 2018 draft waters this spring, with the program announcing that freshman guard Takal Molson and sophomore guard Isaiah Reese will both enter the draft without hiring agents. The backcourt mates were Canisius’ second- and third-leading scorers in 2017/18, with Reese posting 16.9 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 4.7 APG, while Molson averaged 12.6 PPG on .442/.369/.685 shooting.
  • Charleston Southern guard Christian Keeling is testing the NBA draft waters, he announced this week (via Twitter). Keeling is coming off a sophomore season in which he averaged 17.6 PPG and 5.2 RPG.