Point guard Ebuka Okorie still has a few days left to decide to withdraw his name from this year’s NBA draft. With the deadline set on May 27, he still has a week to return for another season at the collegiate level before going pro.
On Friday, analyst Jeff Goodman responded to a fan’s question about whether Ebuka Okorie is confident about declaring for this year’s draft. He responded by highlighting how a few NBA executives believe the point guard can benefit from another year in college.
However, this has not influenced his decision to withdraw his name from the draft.
“Ebuka Okorie says he is staying in the NBA draft even though 6 of the 10 NBA guys I talked to felt as though he should go back to college,” Goodman tweeted.
During high school, Ebuka Okorie was initially committed to play for the Harvard Crimson. However, he later flipped his commitment to join the Stanford Cardinal.
As a freshman last season, the point guard saw time in 31 games. Okorie averaged 23.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Under second-year coach Kyle Smith, the program finished with a 20-13 (9-9 ACC) record.
Stanford failed to make March Madness. However, they decided to accept the invitation to play in the College Basketball Crown. They suffered an 82-77 loss to West Virginia in the quarterfinal.
CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno believes Ebuka Okorie is qualified enough to declare for this year’s draft
On Thursday, CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno shared a report discussing some of the prospects in this year’s NBA draft. When it came to Ebuka Okorie, he had nothing but praise for the point guard.
Salerno believes that Okorie has proved himself as a freshman with Stanford and is a strong one-and-done prospect in this year’s draft.
“Keeping his name in the draft is absolutely the right decision,” Salerno wrote. “Okorie can straight up score. … Despite his size, he can get to and finish at the rim.
“Okorie shot 135 of 250 (54%) at the rim last season, which is excellent volume for a guard at the college level. I’ve said this from the moment I did my first mock draft of the cycle: Okorie is a top 20 pick. One fit I really like for Okorie is No. 19 to the Toronto Raptors.”
The 2026 NBA draft will be held on June 23 and 24 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
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