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Serbia, Greece Set 12-Man Rosters For Olympics

July 23rd, 2024 at 9:10am CST by Luke Adams

Two more nations have set their 12-man rosters for the upcoming Olympic games in Paris, with Serbia and Greece both officially announcing their squads (Twitter links).

The Serbian roster is headlined by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and includes a few more NBA players beyond the Nuggets center. Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Hornets guard Vasilije Micic, and Heat forward Nikola Jovic will also represent Serbia in Paris.

Jovic’s inclusion is particularly notable, since there was some uncertainty earlier this month about whether he’d be healthy enough to play. He injured his ankle during an offseason workout in Miami in June, but has apparently received medical clearance for the Olympics.

Nikola Milutinov, Ognjen Dobric, Vanja Marinkovic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, Aleksa Avramovic, Dejan Davidovac, and Uros Plavsic round out Serbia’s roster. Former NBA first-round pick Aleksej Pokusevski, who finished last season with the Hornets, isn’t among the final 12.

Meanwhile, Greece has also confirmed its Olympic roster, which will be led by another former NBA MVP, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis is the only Antetokounmpo suiting up for Greece in France at this year’s event, since his brothers Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Kostas Antetokounmpo are both dealing with injuries.

While Giannis is the only active NBA player on the Greek roster, a few others have previously played in the league, including Nick Calathes, Georgios Papagiannis, and Kostas Papanikolaou. Former Stephen F. Austin standout Thomas Walkup also signed an NBA contract back in 2016, though he never appeared in a regular season game.

Dinos Mitoglou, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Vassilis Charalampopoulos, Nikos Chougkaz, Dimitris Moraitis, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, and Vassilis Toliopoulos make up the rest of Greece’s roster.

Serbia’s first pool-play game of the Olympics will take place on Sunday vs. Team USA, while Greece’s Olympic schedule will tip off a day earlier, with a Saturday showdown vs. Canada.

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2021 Draft

June 2nd, 2021 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2021 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 353 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 296 are from colleges, while 57 are international early entrants.

That number obliterates the previous record of 236 early entrants, established in 2018. That had been expected, however, since the NCAA gave players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.

Since well over half of the college early entrants are seniors, there are actually fewer college underclassmen than usual in this initial group of early entrants.

This year’s total of 353 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by July 7 and again by July 19, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 60, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2021 draft now includes seniors and is fully up to date. It can be found right here. It doesn’t include players who are automatically draft-eligible this year. As Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets, that list of auto-eligible players includes the prospects who played for the G League Ignite, such as Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:

Newly-added players:

College players:

These players hadn’t previously been included on our unofficial list of underclassmen early entrants and weren’t on the list of senior early entrants that the NBA sent to teams last week.

International players:

These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.

Players removed:

Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.

That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list for the time being.

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Draft Notes: Njie, Chougkaz, Alocen, Diop, Diouf, Camara

May 30th, 2021 at 7:34pm CST by JD Shaw

International point guard Barra Njie is declaring for the 2021 NBA Draft after spending last season in Sweden, agent Jerry Dianis told Hoops Rumors.

The 6’3″ Njie was the Rookie of the Year in the Swedish Basketball League, averaging 17.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. His impressive athleticism and crafty scoring ability are two intriguing pieces of his game, possessing a 6’10” wingspan at just 20 years of age.

Njie attended St. Benedict’s Preparatory School before heading overseas. He was also teammates with Precious Achiuwa in 2018-19. Achiuwa was drafted No. 20 overall by Miami in last year’s event.

Here are some other draft decisions announced today:

  • Greek forward Nikos Chougkaz has declared for the draft, as relayed by Sportando. Chougkaz plans to keep his name in this year’s pool after averaging 10.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with Ionikos in the Greek Basket League last season.
  • Spanish senior national team guard Carlos Alocen has also declared for the draft, Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets. Alocen appeared in 63 games for Real Madrid during the Euroleague, ACB and domestic cups this past season.
  • In addition to Njie, Chougkaz and Alocen, Italian-based players Ousmane Diop, Mouhamet Diouf and Gora Camara have also declared for the draft, Givony reports (via Twitter). The deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft is Sunday night at 11:59pm ET. This year’s draft is set to be held on Thursday, July 29.
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