NBA Draft Rumors: Bobi Klintman withdraws, will play in NBL
The deadline for college basketball players who chose early entry into the 2023 NBA Draft to withdraw their names from the draft and return to school passed a couple of weeks ago. So most everyone assumed that the list of available prospects in the draft was essentially set in stone.
That, however, turned out to not be the case.
Bobi Klintman, a 6-foot-10 forward out of Wake Forest, withdrew his name from the 2023 NBA Draft on Monday. With the deadline passed, he won't return to school but, instead, will go to Australia to play for the Cairns Taipans in the NBL as part of the league's Next Stars program, as reported by ESPN's Jonathan Givony.
The Swedish big man, as Givony noted, had plenty of interest around the league and was the No. 44 overall prospect in FanSided's Christopher Kline's final Big Board for this year's draft. Here's what Kline said about the Wake Forest product.
Sporadic playing time at Wake Forest limited Bobi Klintman's exposure to national audiences. He has a ways to go developmentally and he's already 20 years old as a freshman. That said, fluid 6-foot-10 athletes who can grab-and-go in transition, navigate traffic off the bounce, and shoot the 3 aren't easy to find. His upside is significant.
There was a belief that Klintman could've returned to the Demon Deacons for the 2023-24 to elevate his stock and develop further. Now he's taking a gamble on his talent as he heads to Australia to secure that development in hopes of becoming an even more major prospect for the 2024 NBA Draft.
NBA Draft Rumors: Green Room invites (so far) revealed
The NBA Draft Green Room can be a gift and a curse for prospects. On one hand, if a prospect is invited backstage for the night of the draft, that's a good sign that teams around the league think highly of them and that they are likely to be a high selection, pretty comfortably a first-round pick and perhaps going in the lottery.
On the other hand, there are stories every year in every draft when a prospect is invited to the draft's Green Room and then sits there excruciatingly long as their name isn't called as early as expected. That's always a tough scene for everyone.
But just more than a week out from the 2023 draft, we have an early list of invitees to the NBA Draft Green Room that has been released.
- Victor Wembanyama
- Brandon Miller
- Scoot Henderson
- Amen Thompson
- Ausar Thompson
- Cam Whitmore
- Jarace Walker
- Anthony Black
- Taylor Hendricks
- Gradey Dick
- Bilal Coulibaly
- Cason Wallace
- Nick Smith Jr.
- Dereck Lively
- Kobe Bufkin
- Jalen Hood-Schifino
- Jett Howard
- Jordan Hawkins
- Keyonte George
Frankly, that group seems pretty safe in regards to avoiding any major falls down the board on draft night. When you look at guys like Jett Howard, Jordan Hawkins and Keyonte George, there's a chance they could go later in the first round, but they are still expected to not fall much further than that.
This isn't the complete list of NBA Draft invites that will be sent out, or so we think. However, this feels like the safest group given the early stage of their invitations and the draft projections associated with these players.
NBA Draft Rumors: Pelicans could trade Zion Williamson to move up for Scoot Henderson
Whether you choose to believe it or not, things could be getting spicier than good jambalaya with the New Orleans Pelicans.
A recent report from Shams Charania of The Athletic indicated that the Pelicans are trying to trade up to the No. 2 pick in the draft with the Charlotte Hornets with G-League Ignite star and prospect Scoot Henderson being their target in the draft. It's also been noted that it would take a significant package to secure that deal.
In that same report, courtesy of FanDuel TV, Charania also mentioned the notion that New Orleans could discuss including their mercurial and oft-injured star, Zion Williamson, in such a trade, which is highly intriguing after other reports indicated the Pelicans were exploring trade options internally regarding Williamson.
Since being drafted first overall in 2019, Williamson has been a dominant force when on the floor, but his availability has been the bigger issue, playing just 24 games as a rookie, 61 in his sophomore campaign, missing the entirety of the 2021-22 season and then playing 29 games this past year.
Despite that, the talent of the soon-to-be 23-year-old is still extremely enticing. If the Hornets are married to either Henderson or Brandon Miller at the No. 2 pick, then it might take Williamson being in any trade package to even start dealing with the Pelicans. And the potential of a LaMelo Ball-Zion pairing is surely enough to make Charlotte consider that.
Of course, Pelicans fans have been skeptical about the possibility of trading up in the draft given the organization's (See: David Griffin's) tight-lipped nature and these recent rumors. One thing that's certain, though, is that Zion Williamson being traded leading up to or during the draft would send some shockwaves throughout the league.
