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NBA Confirms 182 Early Entrants For 2017 Draft

April 25th, 2017 at 5:40pm CST by Luke Adams

With the deadline for early entrants to enter the 2017 NBA draft now behind us, the league has officially released the list of this year’s early entry candidates, and it’s a long one. According to the NBA’s announcement, 182 players have declared early for the draft — 137 college players and 45 international prospects. That’s a new record.

As was the case a year ago, NCAA rules changes allow underclassmen to “test the waters” before officially committing to the 2017 NBA draft. NCAA early entrants can withdraw their names any time up until May 24 while maintaining their NCAA eligibility, as long as they haven’t hired agents. That means that prospects testing the waters can take part in the NBA draft combine from May 9-14 – if invited – and they can work out for individual teams in the coming weeks.

International early entrants can also withdraw their names from the draft pool within the next several weeks. The final draft list will be set after the early entrant withdrawal deadline for international and other non-NCAA players passes on June 12.

A year ago, a whopping 162 NCAA and international players declared their intent to enter the draft early, but 91 of those players eventually withdrew. This year should follow a similar pattern, so the group of eligible draftees for 2017 figures to be reduced significantly by June 12.

Listed below are the current early entrants, according to the NBA. Players whose intent to declare wasn’t previously reported on Hoops Rumors are listed in italics.

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And-Ones: Telfair, Lee, Robinson

April 20th, 2016 at 10:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Idaho State junior point guard Ethan Telfair intends to test the waters and declare for the 2016 NBA Draft, Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Ethan, who is the younger brother of former NBA player Sebastian Telfair, doesn’t intend to hire an agent, which would allow him to withdraw and return to school prior to the May 25th cutoff date, Goodman adds. The junior is a long shot to be selected this June, not appearing among the top 100 prospects according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress or Chad Ford of ESPN.com. In 29 games for Idaho State this season, Telfair averaged 20.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists to accompany a slash line of .397/.375/.864.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Kentucky junior power forward Marcus Lee fully intends to make the jump to the NBA next season, but he’ll hold off on hiring an agent to keep his options open, Goodman relays in a separate piece. “I haven’t hired an agent,” Lee told Goodman. “Because I want to keep my eligibility just in case I decide to come back, but my plan is to go to the NBA. That’s the only goal. I want people to know I am serious about this. I’ve talked to Coach Cal [John Calipari] about this, and he definitely understands that I’m going to the NBA this year.”
  • Former NBA combo guard Nate Robinson hasn’t begun training for it, but he still fully intends to pursue his dream of making it into the NFL, as he told ESPN’s Kevin Pelton. When asked if he was still serious about making an NFL bid, Robinson responded, “Serious as a heart attack. Totally serious. As soon as I get the opportunity, if it comes my way, I’ll take full advantage of it.” The veteran currently plays for Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv, the club he signed with in March.
  • Turkish point guard Berk Ugurlu intends to enter this year’s draft, international journalist David Pick reports (via Twitter). The 19-year-old isn’t among Givony‘s top 100 players. Givony instead ranks Ugurlu as the No. 12 international player in his class.
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