With so many Kentucky players contemplating decisions regarding their basketball futures and John Calipari’s roster for the 2024-25 season largely unsettled, it should be a busy couple of weeks for the Wildcats. Sophomore forward Adou Thiero was the first of UK’s 10 scholarship underclassmen to make an announcement on what comes next, and his two-part reveal didn’t do much to answer that basic question.
Two days after it was confirmed that Thiero entered the NCAA transfer portal, the 19-year-old posted over the weekend that he was also entering the NBA draft, while “keeping all of my options open” — including a possible return to Kentucky next season. Perhaps future announcements will provide more clarity. There will be a lot of them. Of the nine other UK scholarship players with remaining eligibility — Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves will be moving on from college — seven of those Wildcats have been projected as possible 2024 draft picks at some point over the past few months. That group includes freshmen Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard, D.J. Wagner, Justin Edwards, Aaron Bradshaw and Zvonimir Ivisic, along with sophomore Ugonna Onyenso. That will leave those particular Kentucky players with quite a bit to ponder, and — similar to Thiero’s case — there could be as many questions as answers in the wake of their initial announcements. Calipari held individual meetings with his current players late last week, and the stay-or-go-or-I-don’t-know decisions should continue to roll in over the next few days. Here’s a look at the timeline for these Wildcats, along with a breakdown of the rather complicated NBA pre-draft process and some deadlines that could put Calipari and his coaching staff in a bind. THE NBA DRAFT PROCESS The feedback from NBA teams can actually take place before a college player enters the draft. Typically, the first step is to request an evaluation from the NBA’s “Undergraduate Advisory Committee” — a group of league executives that will return a confidential draft projection to any college player who asks for that information. The deadline to make that request is April 18, and the results from the league are sent to both the player and his college head coach. Calipari usually takes care of this step as soon as the initial individual meetings with each of his players — the ones that took place last week — are completed. This evaluation will tell the player where he’s projected to be drafted this year, with five different possibilities: 1.) lottery pick (1-14 range), 2.) later in first round (15-30 range), 3.) first half of second round (31-45 range), 4.) second half of second round (46-58 range) or 5.) not drafted at all. This exercise is available even to players that do not enter their name in the draft, and the feedback from the league decision-makers is typically delivered within 7-10 days of the request, with every player who asks for an evaluation receiving his report by the early-entry deadline.
Also projected as a top-10 pick, Sheppard has deep and obvious ties to the UK program, but there’s not much he could do to improve his stock in another year in college, and returning for a sophomore season might even highlight weaknesses in his game, especially with Reeves and Dillingham no longer playing alongside him. Turning down the 2024 NBA draft would mean turning down a net gain of millions of dollars — even taking NIL possibilities in Lexington into account — and delaying a second contract, which would be even more lucrative, by another year. As much as he loves UK, that would be an extremely difficult decision to make. The NBA draft decisions of Zvonimir Ivisic, left, and Reed Sheppard will be closely watched in Kentucky basketball circles this spring. Silas Walker swalker@herald-leader.com Justin Edwards: Still projected as a possible first-round pick, Edwards is most likely to enter his name in the draft and stay there. D.J. Wagner: Updated projections from ESPN and The Ringer have Wagner at No. 47 and 51, respectively, this year. Still 18 years old, the point guard could raise his stock with another season at Kentucky — a return remains a real possibility — though he’s likely to at least go through the draft process, which would almost certainly include a combine invitation. Ugonna Onyenso and Aaron Bradshaw: Rated No. 46 and No. 73, respectively, on ESPN’s latest list, both UK bigs are likely to go through the draft process before making a final decision. Both would probably be invited to the combine, and the transfer portal will also remain an option — though neither has entered his name there yet — even if one or both returns to college. It’s worth noting here that players who stay in the draft through the combine will need to enter their names in the portal before the May 1 deadline to keep that as an option, so it’s likely that there will be several players — and perhaps multiple Wildcats — that go into the combine with the possibilities of staying in the draft, returning to their current school or transferring to a new college all on the table. The month of May will be an eventful one. Zvonimir Ivisic: A unique situation, Ivisic has already entered the NBA draft twice and withdrawn both times. So, according to league rules, if Ivisic enters this year’s draft he will not be permitted to remove his name a third time and will no longer have any NCAA eligibility. Ivisic will have to make that decision before midnight April 27, so he could be one of the first Kentucky players to reveal a firm answer on his future this offseason.
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