A record 236 players made themselves eligible for the NBA draft last year, including 181 from the college ranks. The NBA is bracing for that number to be shattered this year by a significant margin, according to the league office.
As draft prospects' seasons come to a close, underclassmen are being advised by the NBA league office to proceed with caution when testing the draft waters -- a process that has undergone significant changes due to a new rule instilled in the wake of the Commission on College Basketball recommendations following the FBI investigation into corruption.
For the first time, NCAA players are allowed to hire certified agents to guide them through the draft process. This is a significant change from years past, when college coaches or family members were officially tasked with gathering feedback from NBA teams and organizing workouts for players. Unofficially, most legitimate draft prospects worked with agents behind the scenes while the NCAA begrudgingly turned a blind eye.
"Anything that gives the players more info is a step in the right direction," agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management told ESPN. "That's all this is. Bringing everything into the light and allowing agents to have real conversations with teams is a positive and will help families make better decisions. The rules are moving in the right direction, but there's still more that can be done to help families make their best informed decisions."
The NCAA made sweeping changes to its early-entry rules prior to the 2016 draft, allowing players to evaluate their stock by attending the NBA combine and private team workouts between the early-entry list being released in late April and 10 days after the May draft combine. The NBA also has its own early-entry rules, which require players (in this case, mostly internationals) to withdraw no later than 10 days before the draft in order to retain eligibility for future drafts. That deadline this year is 5 p.m. ET on June 10, and the NCAA's deadline is May 29. Early entrants can withdraw from the draft only twice -- and if they do, they're not allowed to withdraw again should they declare a third time before exhausting their college eligibility.
Earlier this month, the NCAA released a memo to college coaches outlining the new rules, which included a reminder that "an institution may cancel a student-athlete's athletics scholarship if ... he jeopardizes his eligibility during this process."
The most important points from the memo include:
1. Players must submit their names for an evaluation from the NBA's Undergraduate Advisory Committee (UAC) before they are allowed to officially sign with (or orally agree to be represented by) an agent (deadline: April 11, 11:59 p.m. ET). Players may submit an evaluation from the UAC as soon as their team's season is over.
2. Players can only be represented by NBPA-certified agents. Starting no later than August 2019, the NCAA will develop its own certification process, which will go into effect for the 2020 draft.
3. Once they officially sign with an agent, players can only accept the following benefits: transportation, lodging and meals related to meeting with the agent or conducting workouts with NBA teams. Players do not have to pay back these expenses if they elect to return to school. Agents cannot pay for training, nutritionists, or "services of other professionals," although players can access those services by paying the "going rate" themselves. Agents cannot help players secure loans, including for disability or loss of value insurance. The NBA pays for players' expenses to attend the combine or G League Elite Camp, and teams are allowed to cover expenses associated with attending private workouts.
4. Players cannot miss class to participate in a private NBA team workout, although there is some gray area regarding online classes. Also, some players receive permission from college professors to alter their class and exam schedules to accommodate their NBA draft aspirations.
5. Players must withdraw in writing from the NBA draft by May 29 by informing both the NBA and their college's athletic director. Players who withdraw from the NBA draft and wish to return to college must terminate their representation agreement with agents before enrolling in the ensuing academic term.
"All these rules are still coming at us," agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports said. "What can we pay for and what we can't. What's silly is that we can't pay for training. That's all part of the pre-draft process. Preparation, workouts, conditioning, getting ready for the interview process. If you are letting a player test the waters, why not give them the same resources as everyone else to create a level playing field? Why handicap a player compared to his peers?
"It's also a little silly the part about not missing class. I'm a huge proponent of kids staying in school as I know there is so much to be gained both on and off the court from the college experience, but we're making it much too difficult for kids to stay eligible."
NBA agent Adam Pensack echoed those statements.
"I'm sure if a top computer engineering student gets an interview with Apple, they're allowed to miss class to attend the interview," he said.
For the first time, the UAC will provide written feedback to players and their head coaches via email, beginning April 1. In the past, this feedback was delivered orally.
The UAC stresses that it is, "Only an educated assessment and is not binding in any way or a commitment or guarantee that a player will or will not be drafted in a certain slot or at all."
The UAC sends NBA executives a series of emails with a list of names, requesting their team's assessment of players' draft stock. The player is then informed of the consensus reached by weighing the NBA executives' responses, with ranges from likely lottery pick to undrafted.
NBA basketball operations personnel may also deliver educational feedback orally over the phone. Following the draft combine but prior to the May 29 NCAA withdrawal deadline, the UAC also will provide updated written feedback regarding a player's draft stock for those who have not yet withdrawn.
Following the all-college seniors Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (April 17-20) and the release of the early-entry list on or around April 23, NBA teams will rank and submit a list of the 100 players they would like to see be invited to the combine (top 60) and G League Elite Camp (61-100) in Chicago. The NBA basketball operations office will create a composite based on feedback from all 30 teams, and begin to send out questionnaires to players in late April to gauge their interest level in attending the events. The G League Elite Camp will be held May 12-14 in Chicago, with some of the top performing players being invited to participate in the combine from May 14-19.
Players who subsequently receive either an NBA draft combine invitation, a conditional combine invitation or a G League Elite Camp invitation may conduct workouts with their college coaches to prepare for these events. But players who don't are not allowed to conduct such workouts. Players are restricted to working out for a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week from the date of receipt of the invitation until the date on which he withdraws from the draft or 10 days after the conclusion of the combine, whichever is earlier.
Many NBA agents are curious to see the extent to which different sized agencies will be willing to commit time and resources to representing players who are likely on the fringes of the draft but may become interesting prospects to represent later on.
"We've been debating this internally in our group -- how many players to get involved with -- because there will be hundreds looking for help, if not more," one agent told ESPN. "Do you take a player now, knowing they aren't ready, and help guide through the process and ultimately return to school, and hope that relationship you built benefits you down the road in a year or two?"