Officially done at UA, Azuolas Tubelis has chance to slide into NBA Draft

That Azuolas Tubelis wasn’t named on the NBA’s official draft withdrawal list Thursday was no surprise. Arizona already confirmed he’s gone by building a full 13-player roster for next season without the Lithuanian forward.

Instead, the news was that some of the names on that withdrawal list meant he just might slide into the 58-player NBA Draft on June 21.

A first-team all-Pac-12 pick and Most Outstanding Player in the Pac-12 Tournament last season, Tubelis was not commonly projected as a pick when he declared for the draft in April. But he is now often projected as one of the last picks in the draft or one of the top players not taken.

ESPN said Thursday its latest mock draft replaced seven players who were projected to be drafted but withdrew, and while its updated mock draft still didn’t include Tubelis, ESPN moved him up to No. 66 on its overall “best available” list of draft prospects.

HoopsHype, Sports Illustrated and Clutch Points also don’t have Tubelis in their latest mock drafts, but Tubelis is No. 57 on Rookie Scale’s consensus board, No. 63 on NBA Mock Draft database and No. 69 on the NBA Draft Room list. Meanwhile, Walter Football — known for its mock NFL drafts — has Tubelis in the draft at No. 47, and Tankathon has him at No. 52.

A 6-foot-10 lefty forward known for his passing, finishing around the basket and speed for his size, Tubelis said during the NBA Combine last month in Chicago that he had been working most hard this spring on his 3-point shooting. He took only 32 3-point shots over 34 games last season, hitting 10 of them for a 31.2% rate.

“I shot a lot of 3s before the combine... and yeah, my shot is getting better,” Tubelis told the Star. “I’m not afraid to shoot. At Arizona I didn’t shoot that much. I wasn’t really used to just catch and shoot 3s. But now, I’m working on it, off the dribble, off the trail, all that stuff. It’s been working out good. So I’m happy.”

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Even if he doesn’t get drafted, Tubelis is expected to have plenty of well-paying pro options for next season. He might command a two-way contract between the NBA and G League worth $500,000 or an Exhibit 10 deal, in which NBA teams typically pay a $50,000 bonus for attending their training camp, with the option to designate signees to their G League team at a standard G League salary or convert them to two-way players.

As a native of Lithuania, Tubelis could also command a six-figure contract as a non-import player in Europe. He said at the Draft Combine that he was keeping all his options open.

“I just don’t want to sit on the bench,” Tubelis said. “I want to go where I was playing. I want to be like a role player, not the 10 to 11 player who sits on the bench.”

While the Wildcats will adjust without Tubelis next season, the NBA’s withdrawal list also meant their opponents will be a little tougher.

Nine players on the draft withdrawal list will return to schools on UA’s 2023-24 schedule, including Jaden Adkins and A.J. Hoggard of Michigan State, Mark Sears and Jahvon Quinerly of Alabama, Jeremy Roach of Duke, Adem Bona of UCLA, Branden Carlson of Utah, Frankie Collins of ASU and Tristan da Silva of Colorado.

The Wildcats did pull in two players off the withdrawal list themselves, returning wing Pelle Larsson and San Diego State transfer Keshad Johnson. Both tested the draft, but it became clear last month that they would stay in college basketball.