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Official Early Entrants List For 2025 NBA Draft

June 17th, 2025 at 12:35pm CST by Luke Adams

After announcing 50 withdrawals from the draft last month, the NBA has officially confirmed (via Twitter) that 13 additional early entrant prospects withdrew from the draft prior to Sunday’s deadline, leaving a total of 46 early entrants eligible to be selected in this year’s draft in addition to 2025’s automatically draft-eligible players.

Of those 46 draft-eligible early entrants, 28 are players from colleges (25 underclassmen and three seniors with eligibility remaining), 16 had been playing in international leagues, and two spent last season in the G League.

This year’s 46 early entrants represents the lowest total in well over a decade, since before the NCAA allowed prospects to test the draft waters — it’s just a fraction of the record set in 2021, when 217 early entrants kept their names in the draft. The sharp decline in early entrants in recent years is a reflection of the new NIL opportunities available to college players, who now have less motivation to go pro early in order to get paid.

[RELATED: Full 2025 NBA Draft Order]

A total of 109 prospects initially declared as early entrants, with 50 of those players removing their names from consideration prior to the NCAA’s May 28 withdrawal deadline to retain their college eligibility.

Here’s the complete list of early entrant prospects eligible for the 2025 NBA draft:

College underclassmen:

  1. Ace Bailey, G/F, Rutgers (freshman)
  2. Carter Bryant, F, Arizona (freshman)
  3. Egor Demin, G, BYU (freshman)
  4. V.J. Edgecombe, G, Baylor (freshman)
  5. Jeremiah Fears, G, Oklahoma (freshman)
  6. Cooper Flagg, F, Duke (freshman)
  7. Rasheer Fleming, F/C, St. Joseph’s (junior)
  8. Dylan Harper, G, Rutgers (freshman)
  9. Kasparas Jakucionis, G, Illinois (freshman)
  10. Tre Johnson, G, Texas (freshman)
  11. Kon Knueppel, G/F, Duke (freshman)
  12. RJ Luis, F, St. John’s (junior)
  13. Khaman Maluach, C, Duke (freshman)
  14. Liam McNeeley, F, UConn (freshman)
  15. Collin Murray-Boyles, F, South Carolina (sophomore)
  16. Asa Newell, F, Georgia (freshman)
  17. Yanic Konan Niederhauser, F/C, Penn State (junior)
  18. Drake Powell, G/F, UNC (freshman)
  19. Tyrese Proctor, G, Duke (junior)
  20. Derik Queen, C, Maryland (freshman)
  21. Jase Richardson, G, Michigan State (freshman)
  22. Will Riley, F, Illinois (freshman)
  23. Thomas Sorber, F/C, Georgetown (freshman)
  24. Adou Thiero, F, Arkansas (junior)
  25. Danny Wolf, F/C, Michigan (junior)

College seniors:

  1. Cedric Coward, F, Washington State
  2. Omar Rowe, G, Morehouse
  3. Jamir Watkins, G/F, Florida State

International players:

Note: The country indicates where the player had been playing, not necessarily where he was born.

  1. Izan Almansa, F/C, Australia (born 2005)
  2. Joan Beringer, C, Slovenia (born 2006)
  3. Mohamed Diawara, F, France (born 2005)
  4. Noa Essengue, F, Germany (born 2006)
  5. Hugo Gonzalez, F, Spain (born 2006)
  6. Bogoljub Markovic, F/C, Serbia (born 2005)
  7. Muodubem Muoneke, G, Spain (born 2003)
  8. Ousmane N’Diaye, F/C, Spain (born 2004)
  9. Eli Ndiaye, C, Spain (born 2004)
  10. Saliou Niang, F, Italy (born 2004)
  11. Noah Penda, F, France (born 2005)
  12. Ben Saraf, G, Germany (born 2006)
  13. Alex Toohey, F, Australia (born 2004)
  14. Nolan Traore, G, France (born 2006)
  15. Hansen Yang, C, China (born 2005)
  16. Rocco Zikarsky, C, Australia (born 2006)

Other players

  1. Isaac Nogues, G, Rip City Remix (born 2004)
  2. Dink Pate, G/F, Mexico City Capitanes (born 2006)

For the full list of the players who declared for the draft and then withdrew, click here.

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Top International Prospects Staying In 2025 Draft

June 15th, 2025 at 7:01pm CST by Eli Cohen

Several of the top international prospects among this year’s early entrants have decided to keep their names in this year’s draft pool.

Noa Essengue, Joan Beringer, Hugo Gonzalez, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, Noah Penda, Hansen Yang, Alex Toohey, Bogoljub Markovic, Rocco Zikarsky, Izan Almansa, Saliou Niang, Mohamed Diawara, and Eli Ndiaye are all staying in the 2025 NBA draft, reports ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (via Twitter).

That player group represents 14 of the 15 international players who were ranked on ESPN’s top-100 prospect board coming into the day, with Essengue the highest-ranked prospect at No. 9, and Ndiaye the lowest at No. 97. The lone ranked prospect to withdraw from the draft today was Neoklis Avdalas, ranked No. 51.

While their withdrawals from the draft haven’t been officially confirmed, it sounds like Asim Djulovic, Lazar Gacic, Muodubem Muoneke, Ousmane N’Diaye, and Zaion Nebot also pulled out, since Givony refers to the above list as the “final tally” of international prospects in the draft.

[RELATED: 2025 NBA Draft Early Entrants List]

Dink Pate, who played for the Mexico City Capitanes in the G League this past season, is also keeping his name in the draft pool, Givony notes. Pate is the No. 56 prospect on ESPN’s board.

With a bigger-than-usual amount of lower-ranked NCAA prospects returning to school thanks to NIL deals, the international class has a chance to gain ground with strong pre-draft showings. Essengue, in particular, has seen his draft stock rise following a strong playoff run for Ratiopharm Ulm.

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2025 Draft

April 29th, 2025 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2025 NBA draft, announcing in a press release (Twitter link) that 106 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 73 are from colleges, 30 had been playing for teams internationally, and three were playing non-college ball stateside (in the G League).

While that early entrant total exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (59), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022, 242 in 2023, and 201 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 this year can also be attributed in large part to the fact that most 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 106 early entrants figures to decline significantly by May 28 and again by June 15, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. The leftover early entrants 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 2025 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.

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 NBA’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.

According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link), two-time national champion Alex Karaban of UConn also initially filed paperwork to test the draft waters, but withdrew from the pool before the NBA put out today’s early entrant list. He’ll return to the Huskies for his senior season.

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