Southeast Notes: Beal, M. Williams, Ross, Atkinson, Hornets Workout
Bradley Beal didn’t provide any hints regarding free agency during a public appearance today, but he revealed that “a lot” of players have been encouraging him to join their teams, writes Noah Trister of The Associated Press. Beal is facing a decision on a $36.4MM player option for next season that will have a huge effect on the Wizards‘ future, but he didn’t give any indication on which way he’s leaning.
The star guard did provide an update on his injured left wrist, which required surgery in February that brought his season to an early end. He said the recovery process is going well and estimates that 80-90% of his range of motion has returned.
“The rest is going to be strengthening and stuff,” he said. “I’m cleared to do stuff on the court now, which is good.”
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- After working out for the Wizards today, Mark Williams said it’s the last one on his schedule before Thursday’s draft, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. The Duke center also had sessions with the Hornets, Knicks, Spurs and Bulls.
- The Magic are still trying to find a taker for Terrence Ross, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Prior to February’s deadline, Orlando was asking for a first-round pick in exchange for the 31-year-old swingman, but Scotto says teams are hoping the price will fall to multiple second-rounders, just as it did when the Magic traded Evan Fournier. Ross has an expiring $11.5MM contract for next season.
- Before changing his mind about becoming the Hornets‘ next head coach, Kenny Atkinson called all the team’s current assistants and had planned to meet with every staff member before the draft, tweets Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report.
- The Hornets hosted six players in a pre-draft workout today, the team tweeted. On hand were Keve Aluma of Virginia Tech, Jamaree Bouyea of San Francisco, Yoan Makoundou of Cholet Basket in France, Wendell Moore of Duke, Scotty Pippen Jr. of Vanderbilt and Jaden Shackelford of Alabama. Charlotte owns the 13th, 15th and 45th picks in the draft.
Draft Workout Notes: Kings, Wizards, Wolves, Jazz, More
The Kings hosted several prospects for pre-draft workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday, the team announced (Twitter links).
The Tuesday group featured Trey McGowens, Ziga Samar, Ron Harper Jr., Brady Manek and Dallas Walton. Wednesday’s group was Jacob Gilyard, Fatts Russell, Yoan Makoundou, Karlo Matkovic, Yannick Nzosa and Kai Sotto.
The Kings control the fourth, 37th and 49th picks in the 2022 draft, and a handful of those players could be targets with one of those second-round picks. Nzosa, Samar, Harper and Matkovic are ranked between 53rd and 58th on ESPN’s big board.
Here are more workout-related notes from around the NBA:
- The Wizards are hosting a workout featuring six prospects on Friday, tweets Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The six are Akoldah Gak, Ty Gordon, Storm Murphy, Shareef O’Neal, Daeqwon Plowden and Vince Williams Jr. All six players are projected to go undrafted. Washington currently controls the 10th and 56th picks. Chuba Ohams will also workout for the team on Monday, reports Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com (via Twitter).
- Thursday’s workout hosted by the Timberwolves features Jake LaRavia, Max Christie, Marcus Weathers, Lucas Williamson, Cole Swider and Ryan Hawkins, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). LaRavia is the highest-rated prospect of the group at 28th on ESPN’s board. The Wolves hold the 19th, 40th, 48th and 50th picks.
- The Jazz are holding a workout on Thursday featuring Moussa Diabate, Ron Harper Jr., Drake Jeffries, Kur Kuath, Jaden Shackelford and Jeenathan Williams, as Andy Larson of The Salt Lake Tribune relays (via Twitter). Utah doesn’t own a pick at the moment, but most of those prospects are projected to go undrafted.
- Wednesday’s group workout hosted by the Hornets (Twitter link) included Marcus Bingham, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Makur Maker, Ikenna Ndugba, Taz Sherman and Payton Willis. All six prospects are expected to go undrafted. The Hornets own the 13th, 15th and 45th picks.
- The Pacers held a group workout on Wednesday featuring Andrew Nembhard, Scotty Pippen Jr., Gabriele Procida, Luke Travers, Quenton Jackson and Drake Jeffries, tweets Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. Nembhard is considered the top prospect of the group with the 35th spot on ESPN’s board. Indiana owns the sixth, 31st and 60th picks of the draft.
Deadline Day For Early Entrant Draft Decisions
Today is Monday, July 19, which means it’s deadline day for the early entrants who declared for the 2021 NBA draft. Those players have until 5:00 pm ET today to decide whether they’ll remain in this year’s draft pool or remove their names and become draft-eligible in a future year.
The NCAA always sets its own early entrant withdrawal deadline that comes before the NBA’s deadline, and that one occurred earlier this month, on July 7. Most college players who are going to pull out of the draft did so by that deadline
A college player could theoretically wait until today to withdraw from the draft. However, in that scenario he’d lose his NCAA eligibility and would likely end up playing professionally in an international league for the next year before becoming draft-eligible.
Most of the players who will withdraw between July 7 and today’s deadline are international prospects who don’t have to worry about the NCAA’s rules. According to recent reports, these are some of the players who have removed their names from the draft pool after initially declaring as early entrants:
- Carlos Alocen, G, Spain (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jonathan Givony)
- Aleksander Balcerowski, C, Spain (Twitter link via agent Misko Raznatovic)
- Kenny Baptiste, F, France (Twitter link via Givony)
- Hugo Besson, G, France (Twitter link via Givony)
- Malcolm Cazalon, G, Serbia (Twitter link via Raznatovic)
- Tom Digbeu, G/F, Lithuania (Twitter link via Givony)
- Ousmane Diop, F, Italy (Twitter link via Givony)
- Yoan Makoundou, F, France (Twitter link via Givony)
- Zsombor Maronka, F/C, Spain (Twitter link via Givony)
- Karlo Matkovic, F/C, Serbia (Twitter link via Raznatovic)
- Mario Nakic, F, Belgium (Twitter link via Raznatovic)
- Barra Njie, G, Sweden (Twitter link via JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors)
- Pavel Savkov, G/F, Spain (Twitter link via Givony)
- Boris Tisma, F, Spain (Twitter link via Raznatovic)
Once today’s deadline passes, the NBA will put out an official list of the early entrants who are eligible to be drafted in 2021. That list typically shows up within about 24 hours of the withdrawal deadline, though it’s possible it could take a little longer this year since the list of eligible players will be longer (since NCAA seniors are also on it). In the meantime, our extremely unofficial early entrant list can be found right here.
One international early entrant who won’t be withdrawing, according to Givony (Twitter link), is Juhann Begarin, who will turn 19 next month. The French shooting guard is coming off a strong season playing for Paris Basketball, and agent Bouna Ndiaye tells Givony that his client will keep his name in the draft.
Jared Butler, Others Enter 2021 NBA Draft
Ahead of Sunday’s early entry deadline, Baylor junior guard Jared Butler announced (via Twitter) that he was declaring for the 2021 NBA draft. While his announcement doesn’t explicitly state that he’s forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility, it strongly suggests he intends to go pro.
While it took a while for him to make it official, Butler was always considered a good bet to enter this year’s draft following an impressive 2020/21 campaign in which he averaged 16.7 PPG, 4.8 APG, and 2.0 SPG on .471/.416/.780 shooting in 30 games (30.3 MPG) for the eventual national champs.
A consensus first-team All-American, Butler was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player after the Bears defeated Gonzaga in the championship game. He’s the No. 23 prospect on ESPN’s big board, making him a strong candidate to be a first-round pick in July.
Here are a few more draft-related updates:
- Fresno State sophomore guard Deon Stroud is testing the draft waters while maintaining his NCAA eligibility, according to an announcement from the school (Twitter link). Stroud, who began his college career at UTEP, averaged 12.2 PPG on .482/.357/.613 shooting in 23 games (23.1 MPG) in 2020/21.
- Italian wing Gabriele Procida has declared for the draft, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, who tweets that the 18-year-old is a projected second-round pick.
- Givony also published a series of tweets listing several more international players who have entered the 2021 NBA draft pool. Those players are as follows (the countries listed represent where they last played, not where they were born):
- Mert Akay, G, Serbia (born 2000)
- Ibou Badji, C, Spain (born 2002)
- Kenny Baptiste, F, France (born 2000)
- Juhann Begarin, G/F, France (born 2002)
- Hugo Besson, G, France (born 2001)
- Tarik Biberovic, G/F, Turkey (born 2001)
- Vrenz Bleijenbergh, G/F, Belgium (born 2000)
- Tom Digbeu, G/F, Lithuania (born 2001)
- Biram Faye, F/C, Spain (born 2000)
- Gregor Glas, G, Serbia (born 2001)
- Haowen Guo, F, China (born 2000)
- Ariel Hukporti, C, Lithuania (born 2002)
- Jovan Kljajic, G, Spain (born 2001)
- Yoan Makoundou, F, France (born 2000)
- Zsombor Maronka, F/C, Spain (born 2002)
- Ivan Perasovic, F, Croatia (born 2002)
- Ziga Samar, G, Spain (born 2001)
- Pavel Savkov, G/F, Russia (born 2002)
- Amar Sylla, F/C, Belgium (born 2001)
- Bojan Tomasevic, F, Serbia (born 2001)
- Uros Trifunovic, G, Serbia (born 2000)
- Since the NBA’s early entry deadline has now passed, we should get a full, official list of early entrants from the league on Tuesday. In the meantime, our unofficial tracker is here.