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Sixers Waive Okafor, Jefferson, Johnson

October 13th, 2018 at 5:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

Veteran center Emeka Okafor wasn’t able to earn a roster spot with the Sixers, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Okafor was waived today, along with Cory Jefferson and Darin Johnson.

Okafor, 36, signed a non-guaranteed deal for the veteran’s minimum shortly before training camp opened last month. He had been hoping to win a spot as a backup to Joel Embiid and a veteran leader on one of the NBA’s top teams.

Okafor completed a remarkable comeback story when he earned a roster spot with the Pelicans in February after signing a pair of 10-day contracts. It marked his return to the league after missing four seasons because of injury. He appeared in 26 games, starting 19, and averaged 4.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per night. However, he barely played in the postseason.

New Orleans waived Okafor last month and he signed with the Sixers two days later.

Jefferson and Johnson signed with Philadelphia yesterday and both appear headed for the G League.

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Sixers Sign Cory Jefferson, Darin Johnson

October 12th, 2018 at 5:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder
The Sixers have added forward Cory Jefferson and guard Darin Johnson to their training camp roster and waived guard Matt Farrell and forward DJ Hogg, according to a team press release.
The 6’9” Jefferson has spent the last two seasons playing professionally in Italy and the Philippines. He was on the Spurs’ summer league team and also played for the NBL’s Melbourne United when Philadelphia hosted the Australian team in a preseason game.
Jefferson, a second-round pick in 2014, has appeared in 58 career NBA games with Brooklyn and Phoenix and posted averages of 3.5 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 10.0 MPG.
Johnson, a 6-foot-7 guard, played 44 games last season with the Sixers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. In 17.2 MPG, he averaged 6.5 PPG.
Farrell and Hogg were signed earlier this week and could wind up with the Blue Coats once they clear waivers.
The moves keep Philadelphia’s camp roster at 20 players.
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Official List Of Early Entrants For 2017 NBA Draft

June 14th, 2017 at 8:49am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially announced that 73 early entrant prospects will be eligible to be selected in the 2017 NBA draft next week. Although the number of early entrants (73) is larger than the number of picks in the draft (60), the list of early entrants is still significantly smaller than it was at the entry deadline in April. At that point, 182 early entrants had declared for the draft. More than 100 have withdrawn since then after testing the waters.

Here’s the complete list of early entrant prospects for the 2017 NBA draft:

College underclassmen:

International:

  • Simon Birgander, F/C, Clavijo (Spain)
  • Luka Bozic, SF, Zagreb (Croatia)
  • Vlatko Cancar, SF, Mega Leks (Serbia)
  • Wesley Alves da Silva, SF, Paulistano (Brazil)
  • George de Paula, PG, Paulistano (Brazil)
  • Isaiah Hartenstein, PF, Zalgiris (Lithuania)
  • Jonathan Jeanne, C, Nancy (France)
  • Alpha Kaba, F/C, Mega Leks (Serbia)
  • Tidjane Keita, SF, Cegep de Thetford (Canada)
  • Frank Ntilikina, PG, Strasbourg (France)

The NBA’s official list of early entrants doesn’t include junior forward Darin Johnson of CSU-Northridge or sophomore guard Maverick Rowan of North Carolina State. Those players were listed on the league’s initial list of early entrants, and weren’t named among the players who withdrew last month. It appears that Johnson and Rowan pulled out of the draft after the NCAA’s withdrawal deadline in May, but before the NBA’s withdrawal deadline on Monday, which would cost them their NCAA eligibility going forward.

For details on which prospects originally declared for the draft, then withdrew their names, be sure to check out our previous unofficial early entrant list.

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Draft Roundup: Bullock, Johnson, Taylor, Williams

May 1st, 2017 at 1:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

May is an important month for draft-eligible players, with the draft combine next weekend in Chicago, the lottery on May 16th and the deadline to withdraw on May 24th.

Several early entries have made their commitments, and Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports passes along the decisions:

  • Providence forward Rodney Bullock will return to school for his senior season. The Friars’ top scorer and rebounder this season had declared for the draft, but did not hire an agent.
  • Darin Johnson of Cal State Northridge signed with an agent and will stay in the draft. A transfer from Washington, Johnson averaged 13.8 points and 3.7 rebounds during his lone season at Northridge. He did not receive an invitation to the combine and is not projected to be selected on draft night.
  • New Mexico’s Matt Taylor also signed with an agent. The junior guard averaged just averaged 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds and is not projected as a draft pick.
  • Ohio State’s Kam Williams will return to school for his senior year. The junior guard is shooting 39% from 3-point range as a collegian and was not projected to be drafted.
  • Khadeem Lattin will return to Oklahoma for his senior season. He averaged  8.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks last season after being named to the Big 12 All-Defensive team as a sophomore.
  • Central Michigan’s Cecil Williams will return for his senior season. The swingman averaged 8.0 points and 6.0 rebounds last season.
  • Trae Bell-Haynes will return to Vermont next season. He averaged 11.2 points and 3.9 assists last season as the Catamounts won a record 29 games.
  • Tony Farmer, a junior college standout at Lee College, has signed with an agent and will stay in the draft. He is not projected to be selected.
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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.

Read more

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