NCAA or NBA Draft

The dream of getting drafted to the NBA is nearly impossible as only 0.02% of high school players make it to the NBA.

With recent rules, high school players can't go to the NBA right after high school, instead, they have to do 1 year of college or 1 year with a professional contract overseas or in the US. Even at the collegiate level, only 3.6% of high schoolers play there (NCAA), and only 1% get D1 offers.

The NBA Draft invites players to the combine who are the best performers in the NCAA D1 or Overseas. This means that being in NCAA Division 1, you have a higher chance of getting invited and drafted. Players in Division 2 and Division 3 often decide to play professional basketball overseas or even stop playing after their collegiate careers.

Still, there are many D2 & D3 players that are very good and should be playing in D1 but didn't have offers to do that.

The question is: Should a top-ranked college player enter the draft or continue their collegiate career?

The NBA Draft has 2 rounds and 58 picks. Most first-round picks will get a contract with an NBA team and start their professional basketball careers. The guys that get drafted in the second round will probably get a 2 way contract, meaning that they will participate in the affiliate G-League team or they could also get waived and not get a contract. This way, many players are supposed to get drafted in the late second round, and decide to continue their college or professional careers and rejoin the draft in the next year.

Answer to the question: If you are NOT a first-round pick you should talk with your agent and teams to see if you'll get a chance to sign a contract. If not, you should get back to college or even go overseas and join the draft next year for better results.