An update on Georgia forward Yante Maten and NBA draft
Yante Maten led Georgia in scoring and rebounding before spraining his knee barely a minute into the Kentucky game.
CORY A. COLE/UGA
ATHENS — The deadline for players to pull out of the NBA draft is eight days away, and UGA is still waiting for official word from its star, Yante Maten.
It’s been relatively quiet on the Maten front since he declared for the draft without signing with an agent on April 13. Maten was not invited to the NBA combine, which can be an indicator of the player’s stock. There are two rounds in the draft and 67 players were on the official combine invite list. But other indications are that the junior forward continues to go through the process.
Maten is scheduled to work out with an unidentified NBA team later this week, according to two people familiar with the situation. It’s not clear whether Maten has had any other individual workouts. Either way, if the workout goes through, then Maten is likely to wait until next week to announce his final decision.
The NCAA deadline for players to withdraw is May 24, a week from Wednesday.
Georgia head coach Mark Fox, in a radio interview after the NBA combine list was announced, said Maten was still “going through the process.”
“There’s a target that he would like to hit and if he hits it, I think he would stay in the draft and if he doesn’t than he will come back,” Fox said during an interview earlier this month on the Bulldog Roundtable on AM 680.
Maten was a first-team All-SEC pick by the coaches after this season, when he averaged 18.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, despite missing four full games with a sprained knee.
Meanwhile, guard J.J. Frazier is also trying to get in front of pro scouts. The now-former Georgia guard, who was a senior this past season, was among the players invited to the first annual Pro Basketball Combine at IMG Academy, held this week.
