NBA Announces 38 Early Entrants Withdrew From Draft
The NBA has officially announced the 38 early entrants who have withdrawn from the 2026 draft (Twitter link). The majority of those players — 35 of the 38 — played college basketball last season and will be headed back to the NCAA.
Early entrants who played college basketball had to withdraw by the end of Wednesday if they wished to retain their NCAA eligibility. One player who wasn’t on the NBA’s initial early entrant list was among those who withdrew: John Mobley Jr., who said when he declared for the draft that he planned to return to Ohio State if he pulled out.
Our tracker of early entrants, including the 26 college underclassmen who are expected to remain in the draft and the eight international prospects who remain eligible to be drafted, has been updated to reflect the news.
Here’s the full list of college underclassmen who have withdrawn from the draft:
Note: Some of these players may also be transferring to new schools; their 2025/26 school is listed here.
- Matt Able, G, North Carolina State (freshman)
- Amari Allen, F, Alabama (freshman)
- Alijah Arenas, G, USC (freshman)
- Flory Bidunga, F/C, Kansas (sophomore)
- Finley Bizjack, G, Butler (junior)
- John Blackwell, G, Wisconsin (junior)
- Shane Blakeney, G, Drexel (junior)
- Anton Bonke, C, Charlotte (junior)
- Rowan Brumbaugh, G, Tulane (junior)
- Elliot Cadeau, G, Michigan (junior)
- Rueben Chinyelu, C, Florida (junior)
- Jacob Cofie, F, USC (sophomore)
- Cruz Davis, G, Hofstra (junior)
- Kennard Davis, G/F, BYU (junior)
- Keanu Dawes, F, Utah (junior)
- Gabe Dynes, C, USC (junior)
- Eian Elmer, F, Miami (OH) (junior)
- Jeremy Fears, G, Michigan State (junior)
- Colby Garland, G, San Jose State (junior)
- Juke Harris, G, Wake Forest (sophomore)
- Isiah Harwell, G, Houston (freshman)
- Louis Hutchinson, G/F, Alabama A&M (junior)
- Acaden Lewis, G, Villanova (freshman)
- John Mobley Jr., G, Ohio State (sophomore)
- Milan Momcilovic, F, Iowa State (junior)
- Malachi Moreno, C, Kentucky (freshman)
- Paulius Murauskas, F, Saint Mary’s (junior)
- Dennis Parker, G, Radford (junior)
- Sebastian Rancik, F, Colorado (sophomore)
- Billy Richmond, G/F, Arkansas (sophomore)
- Andrej Stojakovic, G/F, Illinois (junior)
- Tyler Tanner, G, Vanderbilt (sophomore)
- Aiden Tobiason, G, Temple (sophomore)
- LeJuan Watts, F, Texas Tech (junior)
- Tounde Yessoufou, G/F, Baylor (freshman)
Three international early entrants have withdrawn from the draft as well. The country indicates where the player had been playing, not necessarily where he was born.
- Bassala Bagayoko, C, Spain (born 2006)
- Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada, G, France (born 2006)
- Alex Samodurov, F, Greece (born 2005)
With the NCAA withdrawal deadline behind us, the next big draft-related date to watch is June 13, which is the NBA’s withdrawal deadline. The eight remaining international early entrants will have until that Saturday to decide whether to keep their names in or pull out.
NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2026 Draft
The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2026 draft, announcing in a press release (Twitter link) that 71 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 60 are from colleges and 11 had been playing for teams internationally.
While that early entrant total exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (60), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. In fact, it’s the lowest since 2003, per Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022, 242 in 2023, 201 in 2024, and 109 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 in the past two years can also be attributed in large part to the fact that nearly all 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 71 early entrants figures to decline even further by May 27 and again by June 13, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. The former date is for college players who wish to retain their NCAA eligibility, while the latter is for international prospects. The leftover early entrants after June 13 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 2026 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.
- Alijah Arenas, G, USC (freshman)
- Jacob Cofie, F, USC (sophomore)
- Cruz Davis, G, Hofstra (junior)
- Kennard Davis, G/F, BYU (junior)
- Gabe Dynes, C, USC (junior)
- Eian Elmer, F, Miami (OH) (junior)
- Colby Garland, G, San Jose State (junior)
- Isiah Harwell, G, Houston (freshman)
- Louis Hutchinson, G/F, Alabama (junior)
- Paulius Murauskas, F, Saint Mary’s (junior)
- Sebastian Rancik, F, Colorado (sophomore)
- Andrej Stojakovic, G/F, Illinois (junior)
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.
- Francesco Ferrari, F, Italy (born (2005)
- Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada, G, France (born 2006)
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 league’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. Their 2025/26 school is listed here.
- Dai Dai Ames, G, California (junior)
- Terrence Brown, G, Utah (junior)
- John Mobley Jr., G, Ohio State (sophomore)