Prospects who declare early for the 2015 NBA draft are allowed to withdraw their names before a certain date, and the league announced which players have elected to exercise that option.
According to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, 34 candidates are no longer on the board, leaving a total of 58 early-entry prospects.
Jerome Hill (Gardner-Webb) and Walter Pitchford (Nebraska) were the only American college players to withdraw. A total of 32 international talents will remain overseas for another season.
That’s all fine and good, but for any hardcore NBA draft-lover out there, what does this mean?
Well, take Sam Vecenie’s mock draft on CBS Sports, for example. At the time of this writing, he had eight of the international players who elected to withdraw being selected. However, none were listed in the first round.
Those eight included: Aleksander Vezenkov (33rd overall), Alpha Kaba (36), George de Paula (45), Timothy Luwawu (46), Lucas Dias (48), Moussa Diagne (54), Marc Garcia (57) and Andzejs Pasecniks (59).
The 2015 NBA draft is set for June 25 at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN. Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor—both early-entry players—are considered the best available prospects.
Photo: USA Today Sports