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James Nnaji, Tristan Vukcevic To Remain In Draft

June 12th, 2023 at 11:26am CST by Arthur Hill

Monday marks the final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft and remain eligible for a future year. NCAA regulations required players to make their decisions by the end of May to retain their college eligibility, but international players have until 5:00 pm ET today to declare their intentions.

Several prominent prospects have opted to stay in the draft pool, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

That list includes James Nnaji, a Nigerian center projected to be taken in the latter part of the first round (Twitter link). Nnaji, who is 24th in ESPN’s latest ranking of the top 100 prospects, stands 6’11” with a 7’5″ wingspan.

He played this season for Barcelona, which is one of the best clubs in the EuroLeague. His team is still active in the Spanish ACB league playoffs, so Nnaji hasn’t been able to work out for any NBA teams yet.

Tristan Vukcevic, a 7’0″ center out of Serbia, will also stay in the draft (Twitter link). Vukcevic, who plays for Partizan Belgrade, made an impact during a scrimmage at last month’s draft combine by scoring 21 points in 17 minutes, Givony adds. He’s 35th on ESPN’s big board.

Sources have told Givony that Vukcevic hopes to come to the NBA right away, and teams that have expressed interest in drafting him have been informed that he doesn’t want to be stashed in Europe for another year (Twitter link). Vukcevic is hoping to be taken by a franchise that’s willing to pay his buyout fee and give him an immediate opportunity.

Nadir Hifi, whom Givony lists as one of the best available stash options, will also stay in the draft (Twitter link). The 6’3″ French point guard has already committed to play for Paris in the EuroCup next season and is ranked 72nd by ESPN.

Mantas Rubstavicius, who’s listed at 63rd on ESPN’s board, has elected to take his name out of the draft pool (Twitter link). The Lithuanian forward has signed with the New Zealand Breakers and hopes to improve his draft outlook for 2024.

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2023 Draft

April 26th, 2023 at 10:55am CST by Rory Maher

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2023 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 242 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 192 are from colleges, two played in the NBA G League, and 48 are international early entrants.

Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft in 2021 and the 283 who entered last year. Beginning in 2021, the NCAA granted 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.

This year’s total of 242 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by May 31 and again by June 12, 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 58, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2023 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.

  • Miguel Allen, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Idrissa Ba, C, France (born 2002)
  • Elian Benitez, G, France (born 2003)
  • William Beugre-Kassi, G/F, France (born 2004)
  • Sasa Ciani, F, Croatia (born 2003)
  • Ege Demir, F/C, Turkey (born 2004)
  • Thijs De Ridder, F, Belgium (born 2003)
  • Nikola Djurisic, G/F, Serbia (born 2004)
  • Ruben Dominguez, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Quinn Ellis, G, Italy (born 2003)
  • Juan Fernandez, F/C, Spain (born 2002)
  • Clement Frisch, F, France (born 2002)
  • Sananda Fru, F, Germany (born 2003)
  • Gloire Goma, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Hassane Gueye, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ondrej Hanzlik, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Ilias Kamardine, G, France (born 2003)
  • Konstantin Kostadinov, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Oleksandr Kovliar, G, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Liutauras Lelevicius, G, Lithuania (born 2003)
  • Gilad Levy, C, Israel (born 2002)
  • Ruben Lopez, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Assemian Moulare, G, France (born 2003)
  • Daniel Onwenu, G, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Ivan Perasovic, F, Croatia (born 2002)
  • Mantas Rubstavicius, G, Lithuania (born 2002)
  • Musa Sagnia, F/C, Spain (born 2003)
  • Marcio Santos, F/C, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Enzo Shahrvin, F, France (born 2003)
  • Birahima Sylla, G, France (born 2003)
  • Dez Andras Tanoh, G, Hungary (born 2002)
  • Hugo Toom, F, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Armel Traore, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ricards Vanags, G/F, Latvia (born 2002)

Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:

The NBA typically sends its teams a list of “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public. However, we’re assuming that at least one projected top-three pick is on it: Scoot Henderson of the G League Ignite. Overtime Elite standouts Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson would also be on this list, as would Henderson’s Ignite teammate Leonard Miller.

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.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list, at least for the time being.

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