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Mackenzie Mgbako

Mgbako, Conerway, Okereke Pulling Out Of NBA Draft

May 27th, 2025 at 10:03am CST by Luke Adams

Forward Mackenzie Mgbako has opted to withdraw his name from the 2025 NBA draft, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN. According to Givony, Mgbako will be transferring from Indiana to Texas A&M for his junior year.

“I decided to withdraw to focus on becoming a lock first-round pick next year,” Mgbako said. “I am committed to making the improvements to my game based upon feedback from NBA teams.”

Mgbako spent his first two college seasons with the Hoosiers, averaging 12.2 points per game as both a freshman and a sophomore. He played slightly fewer minutes in his second year (25.2 MPG) than in his first (27.1 MPG), but increased his rebounds per game from 4.1 to 4.6 and bumped his shooting percentage from 39.5% to 43.7%.

A former top-10 high school recruit and McDonald’s All-American, Mgbako was projected as the No. 58 overall pick in ESPN’s latest mock draft last Monday. He had a solid pre-draft process, earning an invitation to the draft combine after leading the G League Elite Camp in scoring, but will head back to school and look to further improve his draft stock over the course of the 2025/26 season.

We have updates on a couple more prospects pulling out of the NBA draft:

  • Senior guard Tayton Conerway, who has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, will take advantage of that fact by withdrawing from the draft and playing a final college season, per Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). The reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year is transferring to Indiana after averaging 14.2 points, 4.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and a conference-high 2.9 steals per game for Troy last season.
  • After testing the draft waters this spring, forward AK Okereke will remove his name from the draft pool and transfer from Cornell to Vanderbilt, he tells Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Okereke had a solid junior season in 2024/25, putting up 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game while making 59.5% of his field goal attempts.
  • We’re tracking all the draft decisions made by early entrants right here.
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Five NBAGL Elite Camp Standouts Earn Combine Invites

May 11th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has invited the following prospects to its draft combine this week after they were among the standouts at the G League Elite Camp over the weekend, according to the league:

Bates scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting in 22 minutes of action in the first scrimmage of the weekend on Saturday, then chipped in nine more points in 14 minutes in a Sunday scrimmage.

Mgbako was the leading scorer in Saturday’s second scrimmage with 19 points and was also a game-high +28. He poured in another 22 points with seven rebounds in Sunday’s first scrimmage.

Nembhard was a +22 in 19 minutes on Saturday, with six points and nine assists, then chipped in 11 points and six assists in 24 minutes on Sunday.

Niederhauser barely missed a shot over the course of the weekend, scoring a total of 31 points on 14-of-17 field goals.

Olbrich had 16 points and seven rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting on Saturday and followed it up with a 16-point, 10-rebound outing on Sunday. He was a game-high +18 in Sunday’s first scrimmage.

The G League Elite Camp is essentially an opening act for the full-fledged draft combine, featuring lower-rated prospects who are less likely to be drafted. The best players from that first event receive invitations to the combine, where they’ll get the chance to speak to more teams and scrimmage in front of more NBA evaluators.

Both events take place in Chicago. The initial list of combine invitees can be found here, though that list has undergone some minor changes since it was initially announced earlier this month, with Duke’s Isaiah Evans and Serbian big man Bogoljub Markovic among the players who won’t attend.

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44 Prospects Invited To G League Elite Camp

May 5th, 2025 at 7:19am CST by Luke Adams

A total of 44 college and international prospects have been invited to the 2025 G League Elite Camp, aka the G League Combine, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The list of invitees, as reported by Scotto, is as follows:

  1. Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Providence)
  2. Brooks Barnhizer (Northwestern)
  3. Tamar Bates (Missouri)
  4. Nathan Bittle (Oregon)
  5. Dylan Cardwell (Auburn)
  6. Rueben Chinyelu (Florida)
  7. Thierry Darlan (Delaware Blue Coats – G League)
  8. Johnell Davis (Arkansas)
  9. Jyare Davis (Syracuse)
  10. RJ Davis (UNC)
  11. Dawson Garcia (Minnesota)
  12. Keshon Gilbert (Iowa State)
  13. Caleb Grill (Missouri)
  14. Chucky Hepburn (Louisville)
  15. Chase Hunter (Clemson)
  16. Kobe Johnson (UCLA)
  17. Curtis Jones (Iowa State)
  18. Arthur Kaluma (Texas)
  19. Miles Kelly (Auburn)
  20. Viktor Lakhin (Clemson)
  21. Malique Lewis (South East Melbourne – Australia)
  22. Caleb Love (Arizona)
  23. Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh)
  24. Jahmai Mashack (Tennessee)
  25. Chance McMillian (Texas Tech)
  26. Mackenzie Mgbako (Indiana)
  27. Igor Milicic Jr. (Tennessee)
  28. Jacksen Moni (North Dakota State)
  29. Eli Ndiaye (Real Madrid – Spain)
  30. Ryan Nembhard (Gonzaga)
  31. Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Penn State)
  32. Isaac Nogues (Rip City Remix – G League)
  33. Lachlan Olbrich (Illawarra – Australia)
  34. Sean Pedulla (Ole Miss)
  35. Jonathan Pierre (Belmont)
  36. Jaron Pierre Jr. (Jacksonville State)
  37. Will Richard (Florida)
  38. Kadary Richmond (St. John’s)
  39. Joson Sanon (Arizona State)
  40. Nate Santos (Dayton)
  41. Brandon Stroud (South Florida)
  42. Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M)
  43. Amari Williams (Kentucky)
  44. Chris Youngblood (Alabama)

These prospects will meet with NBA evaluators and scrimmage for two days in Chicago starting on May 9, ahead of the league’s annual draft combine. A small group of standout players from this event are generally invited to stay in Chicago for the full-fledged combine that takes place immediately following the G League Elite Camp. Typically, at least a half-dozen players move on.

While the May 11-18 combine focuses on the top-ranked players in each draft class, the G League Elite Camp offers opportunity to prospects further down boards who are more likely to go undrafted.

None of the 44 players invited to the G League Elite Camp show up in the top 50 of ESPN’s list of this year’s top prospects. Williams (No. 58) and Lewis (No. 59) are the top-ranked prospects for the event, per ESPN.

The G League Elite Camp will give invitees who declared for the draft as early entrants an opportunity to see where they stand ahead of the draft withdrawal deadline on May 28. Not all of the players who participate in this event will remain in the draft pool.

Jose Alvarado, Terance Mann, and Jaylen Martin are among the current NBA players who once took part in the G League Elite Camp. Last year’s list of invitees was highlighted by Jaylen Wells, though he ultimately received a combine invite before either event tipped off.

Keion Brooks, Isaiah Crawford, Yongxi Cui, Enrique Freeman, Emanuel Miller, Nae’Qwan Tomlin, and Anton Watson were among the other 2024 participants who signed two-way contracts with NBA teams this past year, while Isaac Jones finished the 2024/25 season on a standard contract in Sacramento.

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