NBA Draft Candidates Dip As More Players Elect To Stay In College

SALT LAKE CITY- The 2025 NBA Draft is less than two months away, and the Draft Lottery just two weeks away, and the Utah Jazz will have one of the top picks, which is sure to make for an exciting next season.

While exhilarating young talents like Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, and V.J. Edgecombe are sure to dominate the narrative, the overall pool of prospects will be the lowest it’s been in a decade as a result of the financial incentives for many athletes to play college sports for as long as possible.

Less than two weeks until the NBA Draft Lottery. Should be a fun day on here.

— Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) April 29, 2025

Fewest NBA Draft Early Entry Candidates In A Decade

According to NBA Communications on X, only 106 NBA hopeful basketball players from the NCAA filed as early entry candidates for the NBA Draft.

Early entry candidacy allows a collegiate athlete to explore the professional avenue while still maintaining any remaining NCAA eligibility. It allows them to go through the entire draft process, including the combine and pre-draft workouts, but if they are not selected on draft night, they can return to college and continue to play there.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that 106 players have filed as early entry candidates for NBA Draft 2025 presented by State Farm, which will be held Wednesday, June 25 (First Round) and Thursday June 26 (Second Round) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New… pic.twitter.com/e4mr12UrBa

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 29, 2025

The 106 early entry candidates in 2025 represent the smallest number since 2015. Since Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) was implemented in 2021, there has been a rapid decline in early entry candidates. In 2021, there were 353 college basketball players who filed as early entry candidates, 247 more than this year.

The cause of such a rapid decline is due to the new landscape of college athletics and the massive amounts of money that are being given to college athletes.

Now, unless you are a first-round pick in the NBA Draft, it is very likely that a basketball player will make more money from NIL than from a rookie contract in the NBA, something that was unfathomable just a few years ago.

The salaries for first-round picks are determined by a scale based on your draft position, but second-round salaries are completely variable and are up to negotiations between the player and the team.

For example, in the 2024 NBA Draft, Jonathan Mogbo was the 31st overall pick to the Toronto Raptors, and he signed a 3-year $6.1 million deal, but Kyle Filipowski, who was the 32nd pick to the Utah Jazz, signed a four-year $12 million deal, nearly doubling the contract value of the player picked directly in front of him.

The Utah Jazz signed rookie Kyle Filipowski to a four-year, $12 million deal, league sources told @hoopshype. The deal is fully guaranteed for the first two years, is non-guaranteed Year 3, and has a team option Year 4. The former Duke star was the 32nd pick of the 2024 NBA Draft pic.twitter.com/5KDWb5lW3h

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) August 13, 2024

Based on the 16 players picked in last year’s second round who have publicly disclosed multi-year deals, the average contract value was $7.73 million over the lifetime of a multi-year deal.

Now compare that to the NIL money that is being dished out in college basketball, where there are players making nearly $3 million in just a single year. JT Toppin, a forward for Texas Tech and Big 12 Player of the Year, is currently valued by On3 Sports at $2.8 million, and since JT will only be a junior next season, he will likely make more than that per year until he either runs out of eligibility or declares for the NBA Draft.

While Toppin will likely be a top prospect when he decides to go pro, there are others with not-so-great draft stock that are cashing checks in college while they can. Donovan Dent, who transferred to UCLA, is valued by On3 Sports at $2 million, but NBA Draft Room has him projected as a possible second-round pick in the draft, meaning that even if Dent did declare for the draft and get selected, his NIL deal in college would be more valuable than a four-year contract based on last year’s second round average.

BREAKING: New Mexico guard Donovan Dent, the Mountain West POY, is entering the transfer portal, he told @On3sports.

The 6-2 junior averaged 20.6 points and 6.4 assists per game this season. Shot 41% from three. Will consider a possible return to New Mexico.… pic.twitter.com/9ZUl4VTsRM

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) March 25, 2025

“One-and-done” players in the past, like Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins, used to only play for one year in college, then move on to the NBA to not only go pro, but also make money, but now that those same financial opportunities have been opened to college athletes, many are choosing to stay in college for longer, even if they might get drafted, which is a complete shift in just a short few years.

Tanner Tripp is a sports writer for KSL Sports covering all teams across the state of Utah. Follow him on X @tanner_tripp and Instagram @tanner.tripp here.

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