The NBA recently announced that early entrants who wish to declare for the 2021 NBA draft have until the end of the day on Sunday, May 30 to make that decision official. That means college and international players who aren’t automatically draft-eligible still have nearly two months to apply.
In recent years, we’ve generally over 200 players declare for each draft as early entrants, with fewer than half of those players ultimately keeping their names in the draft and going pro. We can probably expect that pattern to continue in 2021, with many early entrants declaring before the end of May, and then withdrawing from consideration by the NCAA’s deadline (TBD) or the NBA’s deadline (July 19).
The list of “early” entrants figures to be even bigger than usual this season because the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic. That means seniors who would’ve typically become automatically eligible for the draft now have the option of declaring or remaining in college for an extra year.
However, because those seniors were all originally on track to become draft-eligible in 2021, we’re not considering the ones who declare for this year’s draft to be early entrants, and we won’t be including them on our list below. We’ll be tracking college freshman, sophomores, and juniors who enter the draft, as well as international early entrants who were born in 2000 or later.
We’ll use this post to keep track of reports and announcements on early entrant prospects and their decisions. We’ll archive them all in a running list here, which will be accessible anytime under “Hoops Rumors Features” on the right sidebar of our desktop site, or in the “Features” page found in our mobile menu.
The players below are listed in alphabetical order. If you have any corrections or omissions, please contact us.
Last updated 4-1-21 (4:00pm CT)
College Players:
Expected to forgo remaining eligibility:
Note: Not all of these players have explicitly stated that they’ll be going pro. We’ve placed some players in this group based on the wording of their announcements — it’s possible a few will return to school.
- Charles Bassey, C, Western Kentucky (junior) (link)
- Brandon Boston Jr., G/F, Kentucky (freshman) (link)
- James Bouknight, G, UConn (sophomore) (link)
- Josh Christopher, G, Arizona State (freshman) (link)
- Terrence Clarke, G, Kentucky (freshman) (link)
- Cade Cunningham, G, Oklahoma State (freshman) (link)
- De’Vion Harmon, G, Oklahoma (sophomore) (link)
- Feron Hunt, F, SMU (junior) (link)
- Jalen Johnson, F, Duke (freshman) (link)
- Kai Jones, F, Texas (sophomore) (link)
- Tre Mann, G, Florida (sophomore) (link)
- Neemias Queta, C, Utah State (junior) (link)
- Day’Ron Sharpe, F/C, North Carolina (freshman) (link)
- Jaden Springer, G, Tennessee (freshman) (link)
- Ziaire Williams, F, Stanford (freshman) (link)
Testing the draft waters:
- James Akinjo, G, Arizona (junior) (link)
- Keyshawn Bryant, F, South Carolina (junior) (link)
- Marcus Carr, G, Minnesota (junior) (link)
- Colin Castleton, C, Florida (junior) (link)
- Julian Champagnie, G/F, St. John’s (sophomore) (link)
- Justin Champagnie, G/F, Pittsburgh (sophomore) (link)
- Kendric Davis, G, SMU (junior) (link)
- Michael Devoe, G, Georgia Tech (junior) (link)
- Quincy Guerrier, F, Syracuse (sophomore) (link)
- Bryce Hamilton, G, UNLV (junior) (link)
- Isaiah Jackson, F, Kentucky (freshman) (link)
- E.J. Liddell, F, Ohio State (sophomore) (link)
- Sean McNeil, G, West Virginia (junior) (link)
- JT Thor, F, Auburn (freshman) (link)