{"id":134655,"date":"2025-04-15T23:25:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T03:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=134655"},"modified":"2025-04-15T23:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T03:25:45","slug":"kentucky-otega-oweh-declares-2025-nba-draft-with-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/15\/kentucky-otega-oweh-declares-2025-nba-draft-with-catch\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Transfer Declares For NBA Draft, With Catch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kentucky has had 137 former players reach the NBA. Since 1989, when the league cut the NBA Draft to two rounds, 90 have been selected. From NBA champions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/princta01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tayshaun Prince<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkean02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Antoine Walker<\/a> to MVP contenders like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/isselda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan Issel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, former Wildcats have weaved themselves into the fabric of history with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/04\/shai-gilgeous-alexanders-50-for-50-accents-his-dominant-scoring\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">stupendous and serendipitous moments<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky junior Otega Oweh will look to join that proud family, announcing that he\u2019ll test the 2025 NBA Draft waters on Instagram (h\/t CBS reporter Lee K. Howard). However, at this time, he won\u2019t hire a certified agent. As a result, he\u2019ll retain his college eligibility.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Otega Oweh will go through the NBA Draft process, while keeping his NCAA eligibility. Good decision for him to gain feedback from the NBA ahead of what could be a monster season at UK. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0I4eWb5BkV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0I4eWb5BkV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lee K. Howard \u2600\ufe0f (@HowardWKYT) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HowardWKYT\/status\/1912274211701146015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Should he opt to return, he\u2019ll likely remain at Kentucky.<\/p>\n<h2>Kentucky\u2019s Otega Oweh Declares For NBA Draft, With Catch<\/h2>\n<p>In 2024-25, Oweh averaged 16.2 points and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 49.2 percent from the floor and 35.5 percent from 3. While playing for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2023-24, he averaged 11.4 points and 1.5 steals per game, shooting 49.3 percent from the field and \u00a037.7 percent from outside.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"in\">OTEGA OWEH MIXTAPE <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2ejO1vf0jX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/2ejO1vf0jX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Casey (@BleedBlueCasey) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleedBlueCasey\/status\/1902507360154784194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 19, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In that time, he\u2019s helped both programs finish with 20-win seasons. In 2024-25, he was even named an All-SEC second team selection, an honor shared with Texas freshman Tre Johnson and South Carolina sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles. Of note, both Johnson and Murray-Boyles are <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/10\/2025-nba-mock-draft-3-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">projected to be lottery picks<\/a> in the upcoming draft.<\/p>\n<p>Oweh, 22, doesn\u2019t have Johnson\u2019s youth. Nor is he the natural shooter that the 2025 SEC Rookie of the Year is. He isn\u2019t as well-rounded as Murray-Boyles. However, he has a more NBA-ready body than the former and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4ddHoAaU9n0?si=qFCNWAVOolfPUU0M\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a more projectable game<\/a> than the latter. Active and athletic with nice size at 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Oweh could be a 3-and-D wing at the next level. Due to his physical tools and anticipation, he can be an effective slasher and cutter as well.<\/p>\n<p>Like every player, he needs to continue refining his game. For example, until Oweh becomes a better ball-handler and shooter, his one-on-one offense will likely be inconsistent. Nevertheless, the role he\u2019s going to play is one of the most important in the league. If he\u2019s efficient in it, he\u2019ll be an instant floor-raiser.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, Oweh has a legitimate chance to get drafted if he keeps his name in the hat. With that being said, there\u2019s not much more he could do next year to raise his draft stock. Drafts are usually unkind to older prospects, who are often selected in the second round.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Robert Goddin-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kentucky has had 137 former players reach the NBA. Since 1989, when the league cut the NBA Draft to two rounds, 90 have been selected. From NBA champions like Tayshaun Prince and Antoine Walker to MVP contenders like Dan Issel and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, former Wildcats have weaved themselves into the fabric of history with stupendous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":134659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[556,1608,773,62,3],"tags":[776,98,50082],"class_list":["post-134655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba-draft","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-nba-draft","tag-otega-oweh"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134662,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134655\/revisions\/134662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}