The Athletic

OK, we’ve hit another milestone with the 2022 NBA Draft. The early entry list is out, featuring 283 players who have decided to go pro. If that number seems like a lot, it’s actually not. It’s quite a bit less than we saw last year, when more than 350 players declared. Remember, the NBA is again asking seniors to declare their draft intentions, so these numbers will always seem inflated at first glance compared to past numbers. However, a deeper dive tells us that fewer players are actually leaving college basketball early than we’ve seen in a while. In total, only 123 players who weren’t seniors who theoretically would have exhausted their eligibility if not for the extra COVID year given by the NCAA declared early for the draft. That’s the fewest since 2016. On top of that, only 36 international players declared early. That’s the fewest since 2014. What do these numbers tell us?