The 2025 NBA Draft may look a little bit different than previous years because the college basketball landscape is changing rapidly and dramatically.
Collegiate prospects who fully exhausts their college eligibility and international prospect who turns 22 years old in the calendar year of the draft are considered automatically eligible. But all other prospects had until April 26 at 11:59 p.m. ET to declare as early entry candidates.
There were only 106 names that appeared on this list, which is actually a shockingly low number. For comparison, per ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, that is the lowest total number of initial early entry candidates since 2015. The NBA received as many as 363 candidates just four years ago in 2021.
Among those 106 names, meanwhile, only 73 played college basketball last season.
Then, from that group, those players have until May 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET to withdraw from the draft if they wish to play in the NCAA next season. After the 2025 NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, many of them will ultimately take that opportunity.
From the 73 collegiate players who will at least test the waters of the 2025 NBA Draft, 29 of them (e.g. Darrion Williams, Boogie Fland, RJ Luis, PJ Haggerty) are also in the transfer portal. Even within that group, 19 of those players (e.g. Yaxel Lendeborg, Chad Baker-Mazara, Tayton Conerway, and Silas Demary Jr.) have already made commitments to new schools.
The reality is that many of the best players in college basketball can earn more money on name, image, and likeness deals as collegiate stars than they would have in the first year of their rookie contracts or two-way deals in the pros.
For example, Texas Tech’s J.T. Toppin will reportedly receive more than $4 million from NIL to return to Texas Tech. That is more than whoever becomes the No. 19 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft will receive on his rookie scale deal, and that is higher than where Toppin was projected in most mocks.
Some other notable names who did not appear on the early entry list include Alex Karaban (who will return to UConn) and Ian Jackson (who will transfer from North Carolina to St. John’s).
This is good news for talent evaluators, good news for college basketball fans, good news for NBA pro teams, and good news for college basketball players.
While it might mean a longer journey to the NBA unless you are a bona fide top pick like Cooper Flagg, the current system allows for more development time while still receiving a big paycheck.
Meanwhile, for more prospect coverage, here is our latest NBA mock draft at For The Win.
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