Aleksej Nikolic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Draft Notes: Jackson, Sabonis, Zimmerman

April 19th, 2016 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson, who declared for the draft last month, has signed with Priority Sports for his representation, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Projections are divided for the 21-year-old who ranks as the 11th-best prospect according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress but comes in just 25th in the listings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles.

Plenty of other news about the draft has emerged with the June 23rd event barely more than two months away. Here’s the latest.

Gonzaga sophomore forward/center Domantas Sabonis has hired the Wasserman agency, reports Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link), with Greg Lawrence and Jason Ranne to represent him, according to Liz Mullen of The Sports Business Journal (Twitter link). That closes off the possibility that he’d withdraw from the draft and return to school. The 6’10” 20-year-old is the 15th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings and No. 19 on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress list.
Texas A&M senior combo guard Alex Caruso has signed with agent Greg Lawrence of the Wasserman agency, Mullen relays (on Twitter).
UNLV freshman center Stephen Zimmerman has also signed with the Wasserman Media Group, D’Bria Bradshaw of The Sports Agent Blog relays. Agent Darren ‘Mats’ Matsubara will represent Zimmerman, Bradshaw notes.
West Virginia junior power forward Devin Williams has signed with agent Aaron Turner of Verus Management, Goodman reports (Twitter link). The 6’9″ 21-year-old is the 94th-best prospect in Ford’s rankings, while Givony has him outside the top 100, simply listing him as the 35th-best junior.
Florida Gulf Coast University junior Marc-Eddy Norelia will enter the draft without hiring an agent, the school announced. He’s a long-shot prospect, falling outside Ford’s and Givony’s rankings. The 6’8″ forward can retain his college eligibility if he withdraws from the draft by May 25th and doesn’t sign with an agent.
Czech power forward Adam Pechacek is entering the draft, his representatives at SigmaSports announced (via Twitter). The 21-year-old averaged 13.1 points and 5.2 rebounds playing in Poland last season.
Greek center Georgios Papagiannis, Turkish power forward/center Ege Arar and Slovenian point guard Aleksej Nikolic will all enter the draft, Jonathan Givony of Draft Express relays in a series of tweets. Of the trio, Papagiannis is the most likely to be drafted, with the 7’2″ 18-year-old coming in at No. 48 overall according to Givony. Neither Arar or Nikolic are locks to be selected, with Arar ranked as the No. 36 overall international prospect in his class by Givony, who slots Nikolic at No. 50.

And-Ones: Borrego, Draft, Crawford

June 16th, 2015 at 10:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Walter Pitchford, a center from Nebraska, and Gardner-Webb combo forward Jerome Hill are the two U.S. players who withdrew from the draft in advance of Monday’s deadline to do so, the league announced. The deadline to withdraw while still maintaining college eligibility was more than two months ago, so neither is able to return to NCAA ball. Neither had much chance to be drafted this year, so the outcome of their respective decisions Monday, at least as far as next season is concerned, is likely the same, with either the D-League or overseas play probably in the future for them. Still, both will have the chance to go through the draft process again next year, when they’ll be automatically draft-eligible.

Here’s more from around the league:

Also withdrawing from the draft were Spanish small forward Alberto Abalde and Oriol Pauli, Ukrainian centers Vladislav Korenyuk and Sergiy Zagreba, Lebanese point guard Wael Arakji, Greek shooting guard Eleftherios Bochoridis, Georgian forward Beka Burjanadze, Senegalese center Moussa Diagne, Croatian shooting guard Ognjen Dobric, Spanish shooting guard Marc Garcia, Spanish forward Juan Alberto Hernangomez, Slovenian point guard Aleksej Nikolic and Kazakhstani power forward Alexandr Zhigulin, the league announced in the same press release. Several other overseas prospects also withdrew, according to Monday reports that the league confirmed.
Former University of Washington center Robert Upshaw has been cleared to resume workouts after his heart issue scare, Reid Forgrave of FOXSports.com relays (Twitter link). Upshaw has already worked out for the Mavericks, and will show his wares for the Rockets on Wednesday, Forgrave adds.
Clippers guard Jamal Crawford has hired Wasserman Media Group to represent him, Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Crawford was previously with Andy Miller of ASM Sports.
Former Magic interim coach James Borrego is finalizing a deal with the Spurs to join coach Gregg Popovich‘s staff as an assistant, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (via Twitter).
The Hornets held workouts today for Treveon Graham (VCU), Alan Williams (Santa Barbara), Trevor Lacey (NC State), Sir’Dominic Pointer (St. John’s), Shannon Scott (Ohio State), and Seth Tuttle (Northern Iowa), the team announced (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.