Moussa Diagne Rumors | Hoops Rumors

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.

NBA Draft Withdrawal Deadline Updates

June 15th, 2015 at 3:47pm CST by Chuck Myron

The deadline for college underclassmen to pull out of the draft and retain NCAA eligibility was way back on April 12th, but the NBA’s deadline isn’t until 4:00pm Central time today. That means that prospects from overseas who aren’t automatically draft-eligible finally have a decision to make. It’s possible that an early entrant from college or two will pull out, too, though that would force them to play in the D-League or overseas next season.

We’ll be tracking news of each player withdrawing from the draft today with this post, and we’ll pass along news about players deciding to stay in the draft here, too. A few reports came in over the recent days and weeks — Cyprus-born small forward Aleksandar Vezenkov is expected to withdraw, and so will German forward Paul Zipser, while South Korean center Jong-Hyun Lee is staying in the draft — but if the narrative changes on them, we’ll note it.

A few prospects changed their minds in the hours leading up to the deadline last year, so we’ll transfer names from one list below to the other if that happens again. Once it’s all settled, we’ll update our early entrants list with the final account as the draft, set for a week from Thursday, approaches.

So, here’s our list as it stands now. We’ll update it and bump it to the top of our home page as new information comes in.

Withdrawing from the draft

Brazilian point guard George de Paula, aka George Lucas, has left the draft, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
Rade Zagorac, a Serbian small forward is out of the draft, agent Misko Raznatovic says, as Givony reports (Twitter link).
Russian center Andrey Desyatnikov will withdraw from the draft, according to the ASM Sports Agency, Givony tweets.
Nedim Buza, a small forward from Bosnia and Herzegovina, will pull out of the draft, Givony tweets.
Combo forward Lucas Dias, aka Lucas Dias Silva, and small forward Humberto Gomes, both from Brazil, have withdrawn from the draft, according to their agent, as Givony tweets.
Point guard Miroslav Pasajlic, shooting guard Dusan Kutlesic and center Djoko Salic, all from Serbia, are pulling out of the draft, agent Alex Raskovic tells Givony (Twitter link).
Another Serbian, center Marko Tejic, will also withdraw from the draft, Raznatovic tells Givony (Twitter link).
Vladislav Korenyuk, a Ukrainian center, will pull out of the draft, agent Saulius Svetkauskas confirmed to Oleksandr Proshuta of basket-planet.com (Twitter link; hat tip to Givony).
Brazilian shooting guard Danilo Fuzaro will withdraw, agent Vinicius Fontana tells Givony (Twitter link).
Moussa Diagne, a center from Senegal, is out of the draft, according to agent Herb Rudoy, as Givony tweets.
French power forward Alexandre Chassang will pull out of the draft, according to agent Pedja Materic, Givony tweets.
Big man Alpha Kaba of France won’t keep his name in, either, Materic says, as Givony relays (Twitter link).
Swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, another Frenchman, is also coming off the early-entrant list, Materic tells Givony (Twitter link).
Simone Fontecchio, a small forward from Italy, is pulling out of the draft, a source told Daniele Labanti of Corriere di Bologna (Twitter link).
French small forward Kevin Harley has decided to come off the draft board, agent Olivier Mazet tweets (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
Latvian center Andzejs Pasecniks is withdrawing from the draft, agent Artūrs Kalnītis tweets (hat tip to Givony).

Remaining in the draft

It’s no surprise, but Latvian power forward Kristaps Porzingis and Croatian shooting guard Mario Hezonja, both candidates to become top-10 picks, will stay in the draft, tweets Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Guillermo Hernangomez, a center from Spain, will stick on this year’s early entrants list, according to the ASM Sports Agency, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
Serbian point guard Nikola Radicevic is staying in the draft, agent Alex Raskovic said to Givony (Twitter link).
Mouhammadou Jaiteh, a center from France, will remain draft-eligible, agent Herman Manakyan tells Givony (Twitter link).
Serbian center Nikola Milutinov will stay in the draft, agent Marc Fleisher says, according to Givony (on Twitter).
Satnam Singh, a center from India, is keeping his name on the draft list, agent Travis King tells Givony (Twitter link).
Macedonian-born small forward Cedi Osman will stay in the draft, tweets Can Pelister of Trendbasket.
Greek power forward Dimitrios Agravanis is staying in the draft, tweets agent Georgios Dimitropoulos (hat tip to Givony).

Moussa Diagne To Enter Draft

April 24th, 2015 at 8:21am CST by Chuck Myron

Senegalese center Moussa Diagne is entering this year’s draft, the Interperformances agency confirms to Shams Charania of RealGM. The 21-year-old Herb Rudoy client is No. 42 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com prospect rankings and 56th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, so it appears Diagne is in line to become a second-round pick. Of course, that’s assuming he stays in the draft and doesn’t withdraw as he did after declaring for last year’s draft.

The 6’10” Diagne has played a reserve role for Baloncesto Fuenlabrada, his Spanish league team, averaging 4.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 14.0 minutes per game this season. He impressed on the boards at last year’s Adidas EuroCamp, a prestigious showcase for overseas players, pulling down 5.7 boards in 16.5 MPG, but his offense lagged behind, as he scored only 4.0 PPG at the event.

The deadline for Diagne and other international prospects to withdraw isn’t until June 15th, so he and Rudoy will have plenty of opportunity to get a better feel for how NBA front offices view him. He’ll probably have the chance to attend this year’s EuroCamp, and he can perform individual workouts for NBA teams. Regardless, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ends up as a draft-and-stash prospect and remains overseas even if he is drafted this year.

NBA Draft Withdrawal Deadline Updates

June 17th, 2014 at 2:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

Monday was the deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA draft, and the league has announced the list of those who’ve pulled out. The deadline applied mostly to prospects from overseas, since any collegian who takes his name out of consideration at this point isn’t be able to return to NCAA competition. Mychal Ammons of South Alabama is the only U.S.-based player who withdrew, but he’d already signed a deal with an overseas club.

Yesterday’s reports identified several of the prospects taking their names out of the draft, as well as some high-profile players staying in, and we’ve added the previously unreported names of those pulling out to the top of the list below. For the complete register of early entrants denoting those who’ve withdrawn, click here.

Withdrawing from the draft

Ammons, Berkay Candan, Tomas Dimsa, Marko Ramljak, Alejandro Suarez, Devon Van Oostrum are all out of the draft, the NBA announced.
Joonas Caven has pulled out of the draft, agent K.C. Callero tells Givony (Twitter link).
Matias Bortolin is withdrawing from the draft, his agent tells Sportando (Twitter link).
Ilja Gromovs will exit the draft, too, agent Arturs Kalnitis says to Givony (Twitter link).
Mateusz Ponitka has removed his name from draft consideration, Givony tweets.
Moussa Diagne and Guillem Vives will take their names out of the draft, agent Herb Ruboy says to Givony (Twitter link).
Rasmus Larsen has decided to exit the draft, as agent Doug Neustadt informs Givony (Twitter link).
OKK Spars Sarajevo teammates Nedim Buza and Adin Vrabac have decided to pull out of the draft, agent Alexander Raskovic tweets.
Lefteris Bochoridis has withdrawn from the draft, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM.

Remaining in the draft

Jokic isn’t the only prospect to flip-flop today. Damien Inglis changed his mind and has decided to keep his name in the draft, agent Pedja Materic tells Jonthan Givony of DraftExpress (via Twitter).
Raznatovic, Saric’s agent, took to Twitter to confirm that his client will remain in the draft (hat tip to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
Nikola Jokic has changed his mind and will remain in the draft after all, Raznatovic tweets (hat tip to Chad Ford of ESPN.com).
Dario Saric will stay in the draft, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link).
Vasilije Micic remains in the draft, agent Misko Raznatovic tweets.
Clint Capela will keep his name in this year’s draft, agent Bouna Ndiaye tells Givony (Twitter link).

Behanan, Dimsa, Diagne, Vives To Enter Draft

April 23rd, 2014 at 11:37am CST by Chuck Myron

A flurry of second-round prospects are headed into this year’s draft field. A source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that former Louisville power forward Chane Behanan has hired an agent and will declare for the draft this week. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress hears Lithuanian shooting guard Tomas Dimsa, Senegalese big man Moussa Diagne and Spanish guard Guillem Vives are entering the draft, too (All Twitter links). Dimsa’s agent, Sarunas Broga, confirms the news on his client to Givony. None of the four fall within Givony’s top 100 prospects, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has Behanan at No. 100 and Dimsa at No. 111,

Behanan, a junior, was set to transfer to Colorado State for his senior season after Louisville dismissed him from the team in December, but it appears he won’t suit up for the Rams. He’d be ineligible to return to play in the NCAA after declaring for the draft and signing with an agent. He averaged 7.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 18.6 minutes per game over 12 appearances for the Cardinals this past season.

Dimsa plays for Zalgiris in his home country, averaging just 3.8 points in 16.1 minutes per game this season. Diagne is with Baloncesto Fuenlabrada in Spain, where he’s notched 3.3 PPG in 14.7 MPG, though he has come away with 4.8 rebounds per contest. Vives, who’s with Joventut Badalona in Spain, sees more playing time, averaging 28.2 MPG and 8.1 PPG. He also dishes out 4.2 assists per game against 2.3 turnovers.