UAB power forward Yaxel Lendeborg, who led the Blazers in points (17.7), rebounds (11.4), assists (4.2), steals (1.7) and blocks (1.8) per game this past season, plans to enter the 2025 NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Ranked No. 28 overall on ESPN’s latest big board (Insider link), Lendeborg says he is committed to the draft process, but if he instead uses his final season of eligibility, he intends to transfer to Michigan.
“I’m focused on the draft process and making the NBA right now,” Lendeborg said. “I want a guaranteed contract. That’s the biggest thing. Make sure I am in a good spot. I would prefer to play college basketball in Ann Arbor than be in and out of the G League on a two-way. I want to find a safe spot.”
As Givony writes, Lendeborg has an unusual background for a possible first-round pick, as the 22-year-old grew up playing video games and not basketball. Since he started playing organized basketball much later than most prospects, he believes he is “just scratching the surface” of what he “can evolve into, and with more work I can reach that potential.”
According to Givony, Lendeborg is only the second Division I player in history to record at least 600 points, 400 rebounds and 150 assists in a season, joining Hall of Famer Larry Bird. He was named first-team All-AAC and Defensive Player of the Year each of the past two seasons, Givony adds.
Hmmm…Larry Bird was drafted a year before actually played in the NBA. Might be an interesting pick for a team with multiple 2nds. A USA draft and stash.
You can’t stash a draft pick in college basketball
Exactly. There’s a reason the “Bird collegiate rule” came into existence
Then the article is written poorly. It states that he is entering the draft while maintaining his eligibility. It says nothing about a date when he has to give up his eligibility.
Prospects are allowed to enter the draft and still remain eligible for the next NCAA season until some cutoff date (about a month or so before the draft). Then, the NCAA forces players to either commit to the next college season or enter the draft.
I suppose this could have been explained in the article, but I’m sure it’s written somewhere, given the numerous definition posts on this website. Moreover, they’re not going to explain the system for every candidate to enter the draft, or else the articles would get extremely repetitive. At the very least, I wouldn’t say this is written “poorly”
It’s not the NCAA. MLB and NHL teams can draft players multiple times. Why would they have different rule for the NBA? The NCAA doesn’t cover foreign players.
From this very website:
“College underclassmen – and seniors who are eligible to play for more one season – who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by May 29. NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that say the deadline is 10 days after the combine ends.
An early entrant could technically wait until after May 29 to withdraw from the draft and could still retain his NBA draft eligibility for a future year. However, he would forfeit his amateur status in that scenario, making him ineligible to return to his NCAA squad. College players who want to play overseas for a year or two before entering the NBA draft could take this route.”
lol poor little Giants is being a dumb goober
I really wish they would allow draft and stash similar to the system the NHL uses