A member of Villanova’s championship team, redshirt freshman forward Omari Spellman, is the latest underclassman to announce that he’s declaring for the 2018 NBA draft. The program confirmed today in a press release that Spellman will be entering his name in this year’s draft pool, albeit without hiring an agent in order to retain his NCAA eligibility.
Spellman, who averaged 10.9 PPG and 8.0 in his first season with the Wildcats, is one of nearly 140 early entrants from the NCAA who have announced their intent to enter this year’s draft. According to the information we’ve compiled in our early entrants tracker, the breakdown looks like this:
- NCAA underclassmen expected to hire an agent and go pro: 50
- NCAA underclassmen testing draft waters without an agent: 89
- International early entrants entering draft pool: 13
- Total: 152
Our list may not be 100% accurate — there are a small handful of players whose statuses we’ve been unable to confirm, and it’s possible we’ve missed some announcements from smaller NCAA programs or lesser-known international squads. Additionally, some players who announced their intent to test the waters may ultimately decide not to do so.
Still, our early entrants list gives us a pretty accurate sense of what the current count looks like, and it’s about in line with the last couple years. In 2017, for instance, the NBA’s list of early entrants for the draft initially included 182 names. However, many of those prospects ultimately pulled their names from consideration before the withdrawal deadlines.
We’re nearing the first of this year’s deadlines, as early entrants now have less than one week to officially enter their names in the draft pool. Once an NCAA underclassman hires an agent, he has officially relinquished his amateur status, but international players and NCAA prospects without agents can withdraw their names later in the process. Here are the key dates to watch:
- Deadline for early entrants to submit their names for the 2018 draft pool: April 22
- NCAA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw and retain their NCAA eligibility: May 30
- NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw: June 11
We can expect to get a complete list of 2018’s initial group of early entrants sometime next week. Because prospects will have the opportunity to withdraw though, the final list of early entrants won’t be official until June.
If there are going to be this many early entrants AND the G League is going to have an affiliate for every team (eventually), they need to expand the draft to 3 or 4 or possibly even 5 rounds. Treat the G League just like a AAA franchise in baseball with everyone’s rights on both rosters belonging to the NBA franchise. You might even add a second lower affiliate as well. If the NBA is really going to let high school players and freshmen enter the draft, it needs to give them an actual avenue to be successful. The current route of 152 names for 60 draft spots is not it and many of these players are going to be left out with nothing to fall back on. Yes, I realize some will go back, but I guarantee there will be more than 60 names remaining on the list after the deadline.
The current system works well for the top tier of early entrants, but ANY system would work well for a Lebron James type. The current system does not work well at all for a soon to be undrafted free agent that is too arrogant or scared to realize that college is the best place for him.
Dpesn’t the Gleague have a draft? I would rather be a Gleague firstrounder than an NBA thirdrounder. More commitment from the next team I’d be playing for!
You really rather be drafted in the 1st round by a team that is going to pay you $44,000 max instead of in the 3rd round by an NBA team that will probably pay you 3-4 times that?
Plus the G League draft does not give rights to an NBA team, nor does it make it likely for an in-season call up. I guess if your goal is to just play pro basketball, your idea would work. But I think the goal of most players is to make it to the NBA.
NBA teams barely keep second-rounders. 3rd rounders, good luck. If you’re that lowly ranked, you’re going to have to go though the GLeague regardless. I’d rather have mgmt on my side, rather than be an assignee!