UK MEN’S BASKETBALL What’s next for Otega Oweh and the rest of Kentucky’s NBA draft hopefuls?
A crucial stretch in the 2025 NBA draft process is right around the corner. And what happens over the next few days will have a major impact on Mark Pope’s roster for the 2025-26 season.
Of course, from a Kentucky basketball perspective, the most attention during the month of May will be on Otega Oweh, the Wildcats’ leading scorer in Pope’s first season and the only player on UK’s projected roster for next season with a realistic chance of staying in this year’s NBA draft. Oweh, who has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, got some good news regarding his professional prospects late last week.
He and UK teammate Koby Brea were both invited to the NBA Combine in Chicago, a sign that there is some interest in Oweh from league scouts. The Combine list is put together every year with input from decision-makers in NBA front offices, and Oweh and Brea were two of 75 players who made the cut for the 2025 event. There will be a total of 59 picks in this year’s NBA draft. The annual draft lottery Monday night will set the final selection order, with Duke’s Cooper Flagg expected to be chosen No. 1 overall and the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets all tied for the best chance (14%) at getting the top pick.
The 2025 draft will be held June 25-26 in Brooklyn. The Combine will take place May 11-18 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago and feature organized games in front of NBA scouts, as well as meetings between invited players and NBA team personnel. Going into the event, Oweh is not widely projected as an NBA draft pick this year.
He was not mentioned at all in the new mock draft from The Athletic posted last week, and Oweh is No. 73 overall on ESPN’s list of the top 100 NBA draft prospects. The latest Yahoo Sports mock draft also has no mention of Oweh among the 59 picks. A Bleacher Report mock draft posted Monday has Oweh at No. 59, the very last pick of the draft.
Even if Oweh is able to work his way into second-round territory over the next few weeks, the NIL earnings possibilities at Kentucky next season would almost certainly be more lucrative than what he would earn in year one in the pros.
The expectation remains that he will be back in Lexington for the 2025-26 campaign, though that’s obviously far from a done deal. Players with remaining eligibility will have until 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 28 to remove their names from draft consideration and return to college. And just because the Combine ends on May 18, don’t expect Oweh to make his decision then. NBA teams can still meet with and hold workouts involving draft prospects beyond the Combine end date.
Last year, Jaxson Robinson had a workout with the Milwaukee Bucks on deadline day, and his decision was not known to the general public until the following afternoon. Robinson, of course, decided to remove his name from the draft and promptly committed to Kentucky as a transfer, but fans who stayed up waiting for word at the midnight deadline were still in the dark the following morning. One deadline for Oweh has already passed.
College players wishing to enter the NCAA transfer portal had to enter their names by April 22, and as expected Oweh did not do so. That means if Oweh does pull out of the NBA draft, he will be locked in with Kentucky for one more year. Meanwhile, Brea, who has exhausted his college eligibility, is generally seen as the best NBA prospect from Pope’s first Kentucky team.
ESPN and The Athletic both rank the UK sharpshooter at No. 54 in this year’s draft, while Yahoo Sports has him at No. 44 and Bleacher Report’s mock draft projects him to be the No. 46 pick. Pope has never had an NBA draft pick in his 10 years as a college head coach. He spent four seasons at Utah Valley and five years at BYU before coming to Kentucky last April. Kentucky guards Koby Brea, left, and Otega Oweh are possible selections in this year’s NBA draft.
Ryan C. Hermens rhermens@herald-leader.com Other Kentucky players in NBA draft The NBA also released the official list of invites for its G League Elite Camp this week, and Lamont Butler and Amari Williams were among the 45 players to make the cut there. The G League camp will begin Friday in Chicago, and a few players who excel at that event will be invited to move on to the NBA Combine next week. While Butler is not projected as a draft pick he’s not even on ESPN’s top 100 list Williams’ omission from the main Combine list was a bit of a surprise.
Both ESPN and The Athletic project him at No. 59 in this year’s draft, which would make him the final pick. The Herald-Leader was also told by multiple league scouts going into the NCAA Tournament that Williams seemed to have the most draft intrigue of any Kentucky player at that late stage in the college season.
NBA decision-makers will also be in attendance at the G League camp, so he’ll be able to make his case there. Kentucky transfer portal addition Jaland Lowe the starting point guard at Pittsburgh last season has also been invited to this week’s G League camp, though there have been no indications that he will remain in the draft pool beyond the May 28 deadline. He is not on ESPN’s top 100 list. Departing UK seniors Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson and Ansley Almonor are also draft-eligible this year, but none of those players received invites to either camp.
Robinson, who is listed at No. 77 overall by ESPN, remains sidelined with the wrist injury that ended his 2024-25 season prematurely and would be unable to physically compete. Carr participated in the Portsmouth Invitational a postseason, predraft camp specifically for college seniors last week. He averaged 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds over three games at that event, though he shot just 34.4% from the field and 3-for-13 from 3-point range. ESPN ranks Carr as the No. 93 overall player in this year’s draft pool.
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