The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2022 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 283 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 247 are from colleges, while 36 are international early entrants.
Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft a year ago. 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.
That tweak to the NCAA’s eligibility rules has increased the number of total early entrants due to the influx of seniors into the pool. However, as Jonathan Givony of ESPN observes (via Twitter), the number of college non-seniors (123) on the initial early entry list this year is actually the lowest since 2016, while the number of international prospects (36) is the lowest since 2014.
This year’s total of 283 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by June 1 and again by June 13, 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 2022 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.
- Max Abmas, G, Oral Roberts (junior)
- Tez Allen, G/F, Southern Oregon (senior)
- Avery Anderson III, G, Oklahoma State (junior)
- Eric Ayala, G, Maryland (senior)
- Marcus Azor, G, UMass Dartmouth (senior)
- Emmanuel Bandoumel, G, SMU (senior)
- Evan Battey, F, Colorado (senior)
- James Bishop, G, George Washington (junior)
- Henry Blair Jr., G, Bob Jones (SC) (junior)
- Buddy Boeheim, G, Syracuse (senior)
- Rasir Bolton, G, Gonzaga (senior)
- Mike Bothwell, G, Furman (senior)
- Jordan Brown, F, Louisiana (junior)
- John Butler Jr., F/C, Florida State (freshman)
- Jared Bynum, G, Providence (junior)
- Toumani Camara, F, Dayton (junior)
- Dylan Cardwell, C, Auburn (sophomore)
- Xavier Castaneda, G, Akron (senior)
- Dhieu Deing, G, UTSA (junior)
- Dylan Disu, F, Texas (junior)
- Boogie Ellis, G, USC (junior)
- BJ Fitzgerald, G, Virginia State (junior)
- Allen Flanigan, G/F, Auburn (junior)
- Joe French, G, Bethune-Cookman (sophomore)
- Jacob Grandison, G/F, Illinois (senior)
- Tykei Greene, G, Stony Brook (senior)
- Quincy Guerrier, F, Oregon (junior)
- Mouhamed Gueye, F/C, Washington State (freshman)
- D.J. Harvey, G/F, Detroit (senior)
- Jericole Hellems, F, North Carolina State (senior)
- Cedric Henderson Jr., G/F, Campbell (senior)
- D’Moi Hodge, G, Cleveland State (senior)
- Trevor Hudgins, G, Northwest Missouri State (senior)
- Bodie Hume, G/F, Northern Colorado (senior)
- Austin Hutcherson, G, Illinois (junior)
- Josiah-Jordan James, G/F, Tennessee (junior)
- Deante Johnson, F, Cleveland State (senior)
- Andrew Jones, G, Texas (senior)
- Noah Kirkwood, G, Harvard (senior)
- Hyunjung Lee, G/F, Davidson (junior)
- Kyle Lofton, G, St. Bonaventure (senior)
- Josh Mballa, F, Buffalo (senior)
- Trey McGowens, G, Nebraska (senior)
- Nathan Mensah, F/C, San Diego State (senior)
- Isaih Moore, F, Southern Mississippi (senior)
- Bryson Mozone, G/F, USC Upstate (senior)
- Grayson Murphy, G, Belmont (senior)
- Dwight Murray Jr., G, Rider (senior)
- Nick Muszynski, C, Belmont (senior)
- Ike Obiagu, C, Seton Hall (senior)
- Edward Oliver-Hampton, F, South Carolina State (senior)
- Shareef O’Neal, F, LSU (junior)
- Nick Ongenda, C, DePaul (junior)
- Malik Osborne, F, Florida State (senior)
- Osayi Osifo, F, Jacksonville (senior)
- Zyon Pullin, G, UC-Riverside (junior)
- Eric Reed Jr., G, Southeast Missouri State (senior)
- Will Richardson, G, Oregon (senior)
- Orlando Robinson, F/C, Fresno State (junior)
- KJ Simon, G, UT-Martin (junior)
- Jalen Slawson, F, Furman (senior)
- Jamari Smith, F, Queens University (NC) (junior)
- Amadou Sow, F, Santa Barbara (senior)
- Seth Stanley, F, Hendrix College (AR) (senior)
- Gabe Stefanini, G, San Francisco (senior)
- Sasha Stefanovic, G, Purdue (senior)
- AJ Taylor, F, Grambling (junior)
- Kerwin Walton, G, North Carolina (sophomore)
- Collin Welp, F, UC Irvine (senior)
- Aaron Wheeler, F, St. John’s (senior)
- Khristien White, G, Southwest Christian (senior)
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.
- Ibou Badji, C, Spain (born 2002)
- Kay Bruhnke, G/F, Germany (born 2001)
- Tom Digbeu, G/F, Australia (born 2001)
- Fallou Gueye, G, Senegal (born 2003)
- Millan Jimenez, G/F, Spain (born 2002)
- Yannick Kraag, G/F, Spain (born 2002)
- Zsombor Maronka, F, Spain (born 2002)
- Mario Nakic, F, Spain (born 2001)
- Jaime Pradilla, F/C, Spain (born 2001)
- Pavel Savkov, G, Spain (born 2002)
- Luka Scuka, F, Slovenia (born 2002)
- Emil Stoilov, C, Spain (born 2002)
- Giorgos Tanoulis, F/C, Greece (born 2002)
- Luke Travers, G/F, Australia (born 2001)
- Nicolas Vanel, G, France (born 2003)
Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:
The NBA sent its teams a list of 33 “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public, but Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link) shared some of the most notable players on it, and we’ve added them to our early entrant tracker. They are as follows:
- Dominick Barlow, F, Overtime Elite
- MarJon Beauchamp, G/F, G League Ignite
- Dyson Daniels, G, G League Ignite
- Henri Drell, G/F, Windy City Bulls
- Michael Foster, F, G League Ignite
- Jaden Hardy, G, G League Ignite
- Makur Maker, C, Sydney Kings (formerly Howard Bison)
- Jean Montero, G, Overtime Elite
- Samson Ruzhentsev, G/F, Mega Basket (formerly Florida Gators)
- Kai Sotto, C, Adelaide 36ers (formerly G League Ignite)
- Zaire Wade, G, Salt Lake City Stars
- Kok Yat, F, Overtime Elite
- Fanbo Zeng, F, G League Ignite
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.
- Joe Bryant, G, Norfolk State (senior)
- Keyshawn Bryant, F, South Carolina (senior)
- Ricky Council IV, G, Wichita State (sophomore)
- Devonaire Doutrive, G, Boise State (senior)
- Kevin Easley Jr., F, Duquesne (junior)
- Umoja Gibson, G, Oklahoma (senior)
- Jalen Hawkins, G, Norfolk State (senior)
- Makhel Mitchell, F/C, Rhode Island (sophomore)
- Makhi Mitchell, F/C, Rhode Island (sophomore)
- Lamar Norman, G, Western Michigan (junior)
- Chuba Ohams, F, Fordham (senior)
- Nana Opoku, F, Mount St. Mary’s (senior)
- Anthony Roberts, G, Stony Brook (junior)
- Nate Roberts, F/C, Washington (junior)
- Luis Rodriguez, G/F, Ole Miss (junior)
- Tariq Silver, G, Austin Peay (senior)
- Derek St. Hilaire, G, New Orleans (senior)
- John Walker III, F, Texas Southern (senior)
- Eric Williams Jr., G/F, Oregon (senior)
Finally, Givony reports (via Twitter) that Canadian forward Leonard Miller, from the Fort Erie International Academy has been asked to fill out additional paperwork to finalize his entrance into the draft pool. According to Givony, there’s an expectation that Miller will be added to the list, so we’ve left him listed in our early entrant tracker among the international players.
There’s actually on 58 picks in the draft this year I think
The other two were lost as NBA-mandated penalties. Like fines, they will be put in a pool to split up among the other teams, once they figure out how that can possibly be done. :θ