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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2024 Draft

April 30th, 2024 at 12:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2024 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 195 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 138 are from colleges, 43 had been playing for teams internationally, and 14 were playing non-college ball stateside (ie. the G League or Overtime Elite).

While that early entrant total obviously far exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (58), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022 and 242 a year ago. The NCAA’s NIL policy, which allows college athletes to be paid based on their name, image, and likeness, has presumably been a major factor in that trend.

This year’s total of 195 early entrants figures to decline significantly by May 29 and again by June 16, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it’s still likely that the eventual number of early entrants will exceed 58 players. That group will join the college seniors with no remaining eligibility and other automatically eligible players in this year’s draft pool.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2024 draft is fully up to date and can be found right here.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:

Newly added players

College players:

These players either didn’t publicly announce that they were entering the draft or we simply missed it when they did.

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.

Other players:

  • Abdullah Ahmed, C, Westchester Knicks (born 2003)
  • Somto Cyril, C, Overtime Elite (born 2005)
  • Reynan Dos Santos, G, Overtime Elite (born 2004)
  • Djordjije Jovanovic, F, Ontario Clippers (born 2003)
  • Jalen Lewis, F/C, Overtime Elite (born 2005)
  • Malique Lewis, F, Mexico City Capitanes (born 2004)
  • Babacar Sane, F, G League Ignite (born 2003)

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 had no NCAA eligibility remaining, making them automatically draft-eligible; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

It seems that last possibility is a real one, as Jonathan Givony of ESPN tweets that a “miscommunication or mishap’ at the league office may result in a dozen or more additional names being added to the NBA’s early entrant list.

We’ve still removed the following names from our early entrant list for the time being, but it sounds like some could be re-added soon.

Note: Some of these players may also be transferring to new schools.

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Princeton’s Xaivian Lee Among Players Entering Draft

April 6th, 2024 at 2:31pm CST by Rory Maher

Princeton sophomore guard Xaivian Lee is declaring for the 2024 NBA draft while maintaining his college eligibility, he told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Lee wasn’t highly recruited entering college — in fact he had no scholarship offers, according to Wojnarowski. But the Toronto-area native had a solid second season, averaging 17.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 3.7 APG and 1.0 SPG on .451/.338/.798 shooting in 29 games for the Tigers.

Butler’s Posh Alexander, a senior guard, is declaring for the draft (Twitter link) while maintaining his fifth and final year of college eligibility. Oklahoma’s Jalon Moore, a junior forward, is another draft early entrant (Twitter link), and while he didn’t say it outright, he suggested he would be maintaining the possibility of returning to Norman.

Evansville’s Yacine Toumi, a Tunisian-French forward, has also declared for the draft, he told Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link). It’s unclear if Toumi will be testing the draft waters or forgoing his final season of eligibility.

South Florida’s Selton Miguel (Instagram link) is another player testing the draft waters while maintaining his eligibility, but he’s also entering the transfer portal. The 6’4″ guard has one season of eligibility left.

None of the players are listed on ESPN’s big board of the top-100 prospects in 2024, seemingly making it unlikely that any of them will hear their name called in June. They’ll be trying to impress NBA teams in pre-draft workouts and interviews to boost their stock.

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