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Malachi Smith

Draft Notes: Mitchell, Shannon, Early Entrants, Mock Draft

By | at April 12, 2023 7:42 pm

Texas freshman Dillon Mitchell will test the NBA draft waters while maintaining his college eligibility. The 19-year-old small forward made the announcement this evening on his Twitter page.

Mitchell is ranked 34th on ESPN’s list of the best available players, but he was considered the No. 4 recruit in the nation coming into college, writes Jonathan Givony of ESPN. Mitchell played just 17 minutes per game in his first season with the Longhorns, averaging 4.3 points and 3.9 rebounds. Although he shot 64% from the field, Givony notes that Mitchell’s usage rate would be the lowest of any player drafted over the last 30 years.

Mitchell will have to rely on next month’s draft combine and workouts with individual teams to show that he’s ready for the NBA. Givony points out that his unique combination of physical skills could still make him attractive as a draft prospect.

There’s more on this year’s draft:

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Draft Decisions: LaRavia, McGowens, Abogidi, Bolton, More

By | at June 1, 2022 7:27 am

Wake Forest junior forward Jake LaRavia will remain in the 2022 NBA draft rather than returning to school and taking advantage of his remaining NCAA eligibility, he announced on Twitter. LaRavia, who spent a single season with the Demon Deacons after transferring from Indiana State, is considered a borderline first-round pick. He currently ranks No. 32 overall on ESPN’s big board.

Meanwhile, Nebraska guard Trey McGowens is also going pro and remaining in the draft rather than using his final year of college eligibility, according to a press release from the school. Unlike his brother Bryce McGowens – who is the No. 29 player on ESPN’s board – Trey isn’t in the top 100, so he’s a long shot to be among the 58 players drafted later this month.

While LaRavia and McGowens will remain in the draft, the following early entrants are withdrawing, according to various reports and announcements:

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Two Arkansas Players Among Draft’s Recent Early Entrants

By | at April 6, 2022 4:00 pm

Arkansas sophomore forward/center Jaylin Williams announced this week that he’ll test the NBA draft waters this spring, entering the 2022 draft pool while maintaining his college eligibility, as Curtis Wilkerson of HawgSports.com details.

A reserve for most of his freshman year, Williams entered the starting lineup for the Razorbacks in 2021/22, filling up the box score with 10.9 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.3 SPG, and 1.1 BPG in 37 games (31.6 MPG). While he only made 46.1% of his shots from the field, including 23.9% from the floor, Williams made the All-SEC First Team and SEC All-Defensive team. He’s currently the No. 45 prospect on ESPN’s big board.

Williams’ teammate, Arkansas senior shooting guard Au’Diese Toney, is also entering the 2022 NBA draft, he announced on Instagram. Toney’s announcement doesn’t say anything about maintaining his final year of NCAA eligibility, so it sounds like he intends to go pro after averaging 10.5 PPG and 5.2 RPG in 36 games (32.4 MPG) for Arkansas following three seasons at Pitt.

Here are a few more players who recently declared for the draft or announced they intend to:

Expected to remain in draft and forgo remaining NCAA eligibility:

Testing draft waters:

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2021 Draft

By | at June 2, 2021 10:38 am

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.

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 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.

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Marcus Bagley Among Prospects Entering 2021 Draft

By | at April 6, 2021 11:11 am

Arizona State forward Marcus Bagley has decided to declare for the 2021 NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility, he tells ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

Bagley, the younger brother of Kings big man Marvin Bagley III, currently ranks 27th overall on ESPN’s big board of 2021 prospects. He missed a portion of his freshman season due to COVID-related interruptions and ankle and calf injuries, but showed enough in 12 games to make him a potential first-round pick.

The 19-year-old averaged 10.8 PPG and 6.2 RPG while shooting 34.7% from beyond the arc in 29.2 minutes per contest during his first – and possibly only – college season.

Bagley is one of many early entrants who has declared for the draft in recent days. Here are some others:

Expected to go pro:

Testing the draft waters:

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