The Step Back 2018 NBA Draft Big Board: Post-Withdrawal Edition

One of the last remaining deadlines before the 2018 NBA Draft has now passed, as Wednesday night marked the deadline for early entry players who had declared for the draft to decide on returning to school. As usual, most of the class’s best prospects stayed in the draft, but a few notable names have returned to school. The bombshell of the group was Jontay Porter, who looked like he might be a lottery prospect. The 18-year old reclassified into the 2018 recruiting class, so he will be a sophomore younger than several freshmen next season. Several other players who had mixed draft reviews decided to return to school, including Kris Wilkes of UCLA, P.J. Washington of Kentucky, and Segaba Konate of West Virginia.

The major impact of Porter’s return to school is that we now have a dearth of bigs in the class behind the big five – Jaren Jackson Jr., Marvin Bagley, Mohamed Bamba, Wendell Carter, and DeAndre Ayton. All five of those players are favorites to go in the top 10, but we are very likely to see a long, long run on wings through the rest of the first round. This is good news for Robert Williams of Texas A&M, Mitchell Robinson, and Omari Spellman of Villanova, who all suddenly look more valuable to teams who want to add depth inside.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of options for the teams that want wing depth, as this year’s class was bolstered by several strong performances at the Draft Combine and in workouts. The Combine was dominated by a trio of wings — De’Anthony Melton of USC, Kevin Huerter of Maryland, and Donte DiVincenzo of Villanova — who hadn’t gotten much love prior to the Combine. All three likely played themselves into the first round conversation, joining Zhaire Smith of Texas Tech, Lonnie Walker of Miami, and others who already filled out what looks to be a banner year for the fabled “3-and-D” archetype.

Meanwhile, top overall pick Luka Doncic missed the Combine – because he was busy winning a Euroleague title, as well as MVP awards for the Euroleague regular season and Final Four. He’s the youngest winner ever for both awards, which seems promising.

We now have less than three weeks until the draft, and it’s coming up quickly. Below, we have your top 60 prospects to watch as teams spend the next few weeks bringing players in for workouts.