Jack Kayil has declared for the NBA draft, but there\u2019s still a strong chance the German combo guard will be playing key minutes for Mark Few and Gonzaga in the fall.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-5 guard who currently plays for Alba Berlin of Germany\u2019s professional Bundesliga division entered his name in the draft on Friday, agents Kevin Bradbury and Milan Nikolic of LIFT Sports Management told Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.<\/p>\n
Kayil\u2019s decision to test the draft waters isn\u2019t coming out of left field. The 20-year-old guard indicated he\u2019d do as much after committing to the Zags back in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy to announce that while keeping my options open for the NBA Draft 2026 I committed to Gonzaga University in the class of 2026,\u201d Kayil wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 2.<\/p>\n
College and international players have until 8:59 p.m. Pacific to declare for the draft. College basketball players have until May 27 to remove their name from the draft to preserve their eligibility, but the deadline for international players like Kayil is 2 p.m. Pacific on June 13.<\/p>\n
Although Kayil is considered one of the top international prospects coming to college basketball next season, the guard generally hasn\u2019t appeared in the first and second round of recent NBA mock drafts, potentially strengthening Gonzaga\u2019s chances of bringing him to Spokane in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
The Bundesliga\u2019s regular season ends on May 10, which could theoretically give Kayil a chance to participate in the NBA draft combine from May 10-17, should the 20-year-old receive an invitation.<\/p>\n
Kayil has averaged 11.7 points, 3.7 assists and 2.9 rebounds for Alba Berlin in 27 Bundesliga games this season, shooting 39.5% from the field, 34.1% from the 3-point line and 75.5% from the free -throw line.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also been a steady contributor for Alba Berlin in the Basketball Champions League, averaging 11.9 ppg, 4.1 apg and 2.9 rpg, making 37.4% from the field, 26.6% from the 3-point line and 77.4% from the free -throw line.<\/p>\n
Kayil\u2019s team recently completed a two-game series in the BCL against Spanish opponent Unicaja Malaga, the hometown club of Gonzaga\u2019s Mario Saint-Supery and the current club of former Zag forward Killian Tillie. Unicaja knocked Alba Berlin out of the European competition, but Kayil sent the second game between the teams into overtime with a pair of late free throws and led all scorers with 25 points on 6 of 20 shooting, 3 of 13 from the 3-point line and 10 of 13 from the charity stripe.<\/p>\n
At Gonzaga, Kayil, who\u2019s capable of playing as a primary point guard or off the ball as a shooting guard, would be a strong candidate to start in the backcourt alongside Saint-Supery. The Zags have already addressed the guard position in the transfer portal, landing a commitment from Houston\u2019s Isiah Harwell, a former top-20 high school prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Kayil has declared for the NBA draft, but there\u2019s still a strong chance the German combo guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-604627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}