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Andrew Wiggins wants to play for the Raptors. Can he not declare for the draft and sign with them as a free agent?

Nope.

1 The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.
2 He has not.
3 So he is not eligible to be signed by any team until he does.
4 When he does, he will undoubtedly be selected.
5 That team will then be the sole team with whom he can negotiate.

Thanks, I figured there was a reason or everybody would be doing the same thing.

DBoys wrote:Nope.

1 The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.
2 He has not.
3 So he is not eligible to be signed by any team until he does.
4 When he does, he will undoubtedly be selected.
5 That team will then be the sole team with whom he can negotiate.

If he wasn't happy with who drafted him he does have the right to sit out a year and then re-enter the draft. Of course he still wouldn't be able to choose where he plays - and he'd also be costing himself millions of dollars in earnings. So probably not going to happen.

DBoys wrote:The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.

Pretty messed up, when you think about it.

Sham wrote:

DBoys wrote:The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.

Pretty messed up, when you think about it.

Eh. Not really. Shouldn't think about the nature of sports business compared to any other business just because so many elements about what they are producing and how they produce it are so drastically different. If there wasn't a draft the league would be much worse off.

DBoys wrote:Nope.

1 The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.
2 He has not.
3 So he is not eligible to be signed by any team until he does.
4 When he does, he will undoubtedly be selected.
5 That team will then be the sole team with whom he can negotiate.

I don't think this is right. For example, Jose Calderon wasn't drafted and is in the NBA. How did he get into the NBA? He signed a 3 year contract with the Raptors even though he never entered the draft.

Nanogeek wrote:

DBoys wrote:Nope.

1 The only way to enter the NBA is by first going through an NBA Entry Draft.
2 He has not.
3 So he is not eligible to be signed by any team until he does.
4 When he does, he will undoubtedly be selected.
5 That team will then be the sole team with whom he can negotiate.

I don't think this is right. For example, Jose Calderon wasn't drafted and is in the NBA. How did he get into the NBA? He signed a 3 year contract with the Raptors even though he never entered the draft.

Jose Calderon went undrafted in the 2003 NBA Draft making him an Unrestricted FA.

Rest assured that every player in the NBA has been draft-eligible for one draft,* whether anyone was generally aware of it when it happened or not.




* Technically you can be drafted, sit out all basketball for a year, and go back into another draft. But afaik that never actually happens.

DBoys wrote:Rest assured that every player in the NBA has been draft-eligible for one draft,* whether anyone was generally aware of it when it happened or not.




* Technically you can be drafted, sit out all basketball for a year, and go back into another draft. But afaik that never actually happens.

Voshon Lenard. Drafted in second round of 1994 draft by the Bucks but went back to Minnesota to play his senior year for the Gophers. Went undrafted the next year.

Scoot McGroot wrote:

DBoys wrote:Rest assured that every player in the NBA has been draft-eligible for one draft,* whether anyone was generally aware of it when it happened or not.




* Technically you can be drafted, sit out all basketball for a year, and go back into another draft. But afaik that never actually happens.

Voshon Lenard. Drafted in second round of 1994 draft by the Bucks but went back to Minnesota to play his senior year for the Gophers. Went undrafted the next year.

I was addressing the draft rules that govern things these days. Leonard was back in 1994, and under a different set of draft rules. Things have changed since then, on several levels.
a - Under the current NBA rules "went back to Minnesota" would not be considered sitting out of basketball for a year.
b - But also, under the current NCAA rules, he couldn't go back to Minny again after having been drafted.

DBoys wrote:

Scoot McGroot wrote:

DBoys wrote:Rest assured that every player in the NBA has been draft-eligible for one draft,* whether anyone was generally aware of it when it happened or not.




* Technically you can be drafted, sit out all basketball for a year, and go back into another draft. But afaik that never actually happens.

Voshon Lenard. Drafted in second round of 1994 draft by the Bucks but went back to Minnesota to play his senior year for the Gophers. Went undrafted the next year.

I was addressing the draft rules that govern things these days. Leonard was back in 1994, and under a different set of draft rules. Things have changed since then, on several levels.
a - Under the current NBA rules "went back to Minnesota" would not be considered sitting out of basketball for a year.
b - But also, under the current NCAA rules, he couldn't go back to Minny again after having been drafted.

Sorry. Wasn't trying to "show you up" or anything. It was just a weird thing that I happened to remember. For the most important, it affirmed your assertion of how rare it is.

No prob. And I wanted to highlight the point that the NBA has pretty successfully kept the "NBA entry" route from having any loopholes. Any current V Leonard wanna-be's now have MULTIPLE obstacles in the way.

Stay in school until Toronto wins the lottery?

His best bet would be to get drafted and threaten to hold out and play in Europe unless the team that drafted him traded him to Toronto.

Y-Knot wrote:His best bet would be to get drafted and threaten to hold out and play in Europe unless the team that drafted him traded him to Toronto.

Cut off his own nose to spite his face? Not a smart move.

Similar strategies worked for Elway and Eli Manning.

Y-Knot wrote:Similar strategies worked for Elway and Eli Manning.

Different sport, different rules. NBA rules are specifically designed to thwart that sort of tactic.

You could be right but Ricky Rubio came close to pulling this off and Wiggins would likely have much more clout.

Y-Knot wrote:You could be right but Ricky Rubio came close to pulling this off and Wiggins would likely have much more clout.

For a guy that *could* be a franchise guy in Rubio, but wasn't a sure thing, some teams may decide not to trouble themselves with the threats and holdouts. For a guy like Wiggins that is supposedly the next big thing, whoever has #1 will take him and make it happen.